ers as equals,
but he demands a recognition of their superiority and permanent rule in
the government by a voluntary tender of an eighth of the entire
representative force of the republic. When before were such terms ever
exacted of the conqueror in behalf of the conquered? If the victorious
North had demanded of the vanquished South a surrender of a part of its
representative power in the government, as a penalty for its treason,
that demand would have been sustained upon the principles of justice,
although the proceeding would have been unwise as a measure of public
policy. As it is, the victorious North only demands equality for itself,
while it offers equality to the vanquished South. Was there ever a
policy more just, wise, reasonable, and magnanimous?

Yet the President rejects this policy, deserts the loyal men of the
North by whom he was elected, conspires with the traitors in the loyal
States and the Rebels of the disloyal States for the humiliation, the
degradation, the political enslavement of the loyal people of the
country. And this is the second great conspiracy against liberty,
against equality, against the peace of the country, against the
permanence of the American Union; and of this conspiracy the President
is the leader and the chief. Nor can he defend himself by saying that he
desires to preserve the Constitution as it was, for he himself has been
instrumental in securing an important alteration. "The Constitution as
it was" has passed away, and by the aid of Mr. Johnson.

Nor can he say that he is opposed to exacting conditions precedent; for
he made the ratification of the anti-slavery amendment a condition
precedent to his own recognition of their existence as States clothed
with authority. Thus is he wholly without proper excuse for his
conduct. Nor can he assert that the Rebel States are, and ever have
been, States of the Union, and always and ever entitled to
representation and without conditions; for then is he guilty of
impeachable offences in demanding of them the ratification of the
constitutional amendment, in dictating a policy to the Southern States,
in organizing provisional governments, in inaugurating constitutional
conventions, in depriving officers elected or appointed by authority of
those States of their offices, and, in fine, in assuming to himself
supreme authority over that whole region of country for a long period of
time. Thus his only defence of his present policy contains