tralization? The only centralization
which is to be feared, in this case, is the centralization of all the
powers of the government in its executive branch. Is the President to be
supported because he represents the principle of "no taxation without
representation"? The object of Congress is to see to it that there shall
not be a "representation" which, in respect to the national debt, shall
endeavor to abolish "taxation" altogether,--which, in respect to the
freedmen, shall tax permanently a population it misrepresents,--which,
in respect to the balance of political power, shall use the black
freemen as a basis of representation, while it excludes them from having
a voice in the selection of the representatives. Is the President to be
supported because he is determined the defeated South shall not be
oppressed? The purpose of Congress is not to commit, but prevent
oppression; not to oppress the Rebel whites, but to guard from
oppression the loyal blacks; not to refuse full political privileges to
the late armed enemies of the nation, but to avoid the intolerable
ignominy of giving those enemies the power to play the robber and tyrant
over its true and tried friends. Is the President to be supported
because he is magnanimous and merciful? Congress doubts the magnanimity
which sacrifices the innocent in order to propitiate the guilty, and the
mercy which abandons the helpless and weak to the covetousness of the
powerful and strong. Is the President to be supported because he aims to
represent the whole people? Congress may well suspect that he represents
the least patriotic portion, especially when he puts a stigma on all
ardent loyalty by denouncing as equally traitorous the "extremists of
both sections," and thus makes no distinction between the "fanaticism"
which perilled everything in fighting _for_ the government, and the
"fanaticism" which perilled everything in fighting _against_ it. And,
finally, is the President to be supported because he is the champion of
conciliation and peace? Congress believes that his conciliation is the
compromise of vital principles; that his peace is the surrender of human
rights; that his plan but postpones the operation of causes of discord
it fails to eradicate; and that, if the war has taught us nothing else,
it has taught us this,--spreading it out indeed before all eyes in
letters of fire and blood,--that no conciliation is possible which
sacrifices the defenceless, and that no peac