crying "Crucify them, crucify them!" "Hang them, hang them!" because we would not raiso a parricidal hand against the government of our choice, and to which we were born, and to which there was neither moral nor legal right to sever us from, where then were these champions of the great principles of public law? Where these defenders of the rights of the people, and of the doctrine that all government depends upon the consent of the governed? When I was ignominiously thrown into a negro jail, and brought to trial before a military commission by Jefferson Davis, where were then these "Scribes and Pharisees” who now cry out so lustily against a military commission for him who was the constitutional commander-in-chief of the armies in rebellion, and who did not hesitate to use such military commissions for strictly private citizens? What privileges and immunities are guaranteed to this great offender that are not equally secured to every American citizen? Out upon all such hypocrisy. I have heard it thunder before to-day, and I expect to hear it thunder again, and am not to be deterred from the performance of a public duty by such selfish tricksters and hucksters in political trade.

Will it not surprise those who have said so many harsh things of mo, in parallel columns with their lavish expendituro of toadyism to Mr. Johnson, to find that upon this question of alienage our opinions are precisely alike; that they "run upon all-fours," as is commonly said, and that in his policy (for I take it for granted he does not mean to back down from any pledge he has formally and voluntarily made to the country) he goes far beyond any position I have taken, or am likely to take, especially in regard to the division and sale of the large plantations into small farms, and their distribution here? But I hope these gentlemen, before they commit themselves any farther against my policy, will inwardly digest the policy of Mr. Johnson, and deal fairly with both..

Here is an extract from the speech of Mr. Johnson, made on his nomination for Vice-president in 1864. I must, however, say that when I wrote my axioms I had never seen this speech, and did not know that I was indorsed by such distinguished authority. Here is what Mr. Johnson says:

"But in calling a convention to restore the state, who shall restore and re-establish it? Shall the man who gave his influence and his means to destroy the government? Is he to participate in the great work of reorganization? Shall he who brought this misery upon the state be permitted to control its destinies? If this be so, then all this precious blood of our brave soldiers and officers so freely poured out will have been

wantonly spilled. All the glorious victories won by our noble armies will go for naught, and all the battle-fields which have been sown with dead heroes during the rebellion will have been made memorable in vain.

"Why all this carnage and devastation? It was that treason might be put down and traitors punished. Therefore I say that traitors should take a back seat in the work of restoration. If there be but five thousand men in Tennessee loyal to the Constitution, loyal to freedom, loyal to justice, these true and faithful men should control the work of reorganization and reformation absolutely. I say that the traitor has ceased to be a citizen, and, in joining the rebellion, has become a public enemy. He forfeited his right to vote with loyal men when he renounced his citizenship and sought to destroy our government. We say to the most honest and industrious foreigner who comes from England or Germany to dwell among us, and to add to the wealth of the country, 'Before you can be a citizen you must stay here five years.' If we are so cautious about foreigners, who voluntarily renounce their homes to live with us, what should we say to the traitor, who, although born and reared among us, has raised a parricidal hand against the government which always protected him? My judgment is that he should be subjected to a severe ordeal before he is restored to citizenship. A fellow who takes the oath merely to save his property, and denies the validity of the oath, is a perjured man, and not to be trusted. Before these repenting rebels can be trusted, let them bring forth the fruits of repentance. He who helped to make all these widows and orphans, who draped the streets of Nashville in mourning, should suffer for his great crime.

"Treason must be made odious, and the traitors must be punished and impoverished, their great plantations must be seized, and divided into small farms, and sold to honest, industrious men. The day for protecting the lands and negroes of these authors of rebellion is past. It is high time it was. I have been most deeply pained at some things which have come under my observation. We get men in command who, under the influence of flattery, fawning, and caressing, grant protection to the rich traitor, while the poor Union man stands out in the cold, often unable to get a receipt or a voucher for his losses."

These were Mr. Johnson's original, honest views, voluntarily expressed; while the instincts of self-preservation, as well as the preservation of the best interests of the nation, forced this policy upon me at the moment I was exerting my utmost efforts to serve those who were the first to repudiate and denounce me, and all who thought as I thought.

Now, then, here we are, Mr. Johnson as the chief, and I as a subordinate helping him to carry out his own policy. Is it not in violation of every principle of law and justice, to reward the principal and punish the agent?

Finally. The Union men of Frederick County have called a convention of all Union men, to be held in Alexandria on the 17th of May. Of course, I suppose it is meant of all unconditional Union men now and all the time, for with them alone must commence this work of reconstruction; for although there are a great number of truly loyal men now who took the amnesty oath honestly and in good faith, yet there are also a very large number who regard it as a Custom-house oath, taken under compulsion and dictation, as one of the reconstructed and elected candidates for Congress declared during the canvass he did, and there will be no ready means of discrimination between the two; therefore, to make the convention effective, it must necessarily be limited in the start to those to whom no objection can be made.

With this limitation, we can have a most imposing convention if we had the means of giving general notice through the state of the purpose. Many, therefore, will be kept away for want of knowledge of the intention, many by poverty, and many more yet by a want of backbone to meet what they hold to be public opinion; but as I am about to leave the state for a while, I will beg leave now to suggest that the day fixed for the meeting is, in my opinion, too early for a successful issue, and would therefore suggest a postponement until some time after the middle of June; but let it be when or where it may, if within the reach of possibility, I will make one of the number. Respectfully, JOIN M. BOTTS.

MR. BOTTS'S PLAN OF RECONSTRUCTION.

The plan of reconstruction as reported by the Joint Committee, and which was in part adopted in the House by such an overwhelming majority, was liable, I thought, to so many grave objections, and calculated to do so much more harm than good, that I took the liberty of offering a plan of my own, based essentially on the axioms I had previously presented, and invited the attention of Congress to it by the card that follows.

The great objects at which I aimed were, first, to place the state governments in the hands of those loyal men who alone are entitled to hold them, and thereby insure loyalty a foothold every where; second, to close the breach as nearly as possible between the President and Congress; third, to relieve the country of that accursed incubus of selfish, corrupt,

and abandoned politicians of both the old parties that have always been found ready to sacrifice the country to help themselves, but never to sacrifice themselves to help the country, not so much for their punishment, as for the peace, harmony, security, and welfare of the country-although I know the loss of political power is to them the severest infliction that could be imposed, next to the loss of life; for, as to property, few of the most rabid have any thing to loso. If the masses should in the end bo treated unkindly, lot them thank these leadors for it, and then thank themselves for supporting, instead of rebuking them for their folly and bold defiance.

"Astor House, May 12, 1866.

"To the Members of the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States: "GENTLEMEN,-I feel that if any one in private life has a right, without presumption, to address the loyal representative men of this nation upon a subject we are all alike interested in, that I might venture to do so without offense, and without rendering myself obnoxious to the charge of vanity.

"I have no personal favors to ask at the hands of any one. I have no 'axe to grind.' I am a candidate or applicant for no office. I desire no preferment. I belong to no political organization. I am entirely free to throw the weight of any little influence I may be able to command in favor of such men and such measures as my judgment my approve, and against such as that judgment may condemn. I can therefore afford to be honest, to be truthful, independent, and patriotic, and I may be excused for saying that I occupy a stand-point I think free from all prejudice and passion, which are too apt to have their influence, and to control the action of those who are surrounded by a constantly overheated political atmosphere. But while I belong to no political organization, my sympathics, affinitics, and co-operation arc, as they always have beon, entirely with the unconditional Union men of the country.

"May I therefore be permitted to ask your calm and deliberate attention to the views presented below. The difficulty of seeing and conversing with each member in private is my reason for adopting this public mode of communication.

"Twelve years ago I addressed myself, as now, from this house to Congress against the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, the bitter fruits of which we are now all tasting. I hope this will not pass unheeded, as did my urgent entreatics then. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, "JOHN M. Borts."

R

Objections to the Report of the Reconstruction Committee.

1st. It makes no provision for the relief of the Union white men of the South, but leaves them and the state governments in the hands of the unreconstructed rebels for the next four years, who will improve the opportunity to educate the people without restraint to a more embittered spirit of disaffection and disloyalty to the government of the United States, and in four years we shall hardly have a loyal man left in the South; selfpreservation will drive them into the ranks of the other party, and the Southern States will constitute an element of weakness rather than of strength to the government.

2d. The disfranchisement proposed is made to depend upon the grade of office held, instead of the grade of offense committed, and is limited to the higher classes of officers, civil and military, the latter including all over the rank of colonel, leaving all the guerrilla chiefs and their subordinate officers, to say nothing of privates—all of whom would have been generals if they could, many of whom too committed the greatest atrocities of the war-free hereafter to participate in the councils of the nation. It also leaves those who voted in convention for ordinances of secessionwhich was a declaration of war against the United States, and in the absence of which there would have been no rebellion-likewise free. It imposes no disqualification upon those mischievous politicians who for thirty years have been stirring up disaffection and rebellion among the people. Nor does it in any degree affect the sympathizers with and co-operators in the rebellion in the Northern States, who are, if possible, more guilty and more obnoxious than those in the South.

3d. The bill proposed can not receive the President's sanction, nor is the Constitutional Amendment at all likely to receive the approval of the necessary number of state Legislatures.

4th. It is extremely improbable that any Southern state will adopt the conditions prescribed, and four years hence we shall be as far from reconstruction as we are now.

I suggest, therefore, that all these difficulties may be remedied by a simple legislative enactment, which might probably receive the President's assent, and, if not, might be carried by a two-thirds vote of both houses. I propose, then, in substitution for the report of the committee, that it shall be declared by law,

That no person hereafter shall be capable of holding any office, legislative, executive, or judicial, in the Federal or state governments, for ten