Forney on the message.
The President himself, in full view of his accountability to the people, declares that the work of restoration is complete, so far as he could control it, and that the people of the
South are ready to obey the obligations and penalties they have incurred, and are prepared to show their sincerity by their works.
The testimony of
Lieutenant-General Grant in support of this important declaration is characteristically frank, explicit and truthful.
We certainly ask no better witnesses.
They are not alone competent to speak, but abundantly worthy of belief.
And this is impressively true in view of the fact that nothing, either in the message or the accompanying report, looks to a surrender of principle as understood by the friends of the
Government and laid down in the platform of the National Union party, or attempts to postpone or to evade the great duty of defending, protecting and befriending the freedmen of the
South.
The whole exhibit is manly, straight forward, and full.
That it has been criticised is to be expected in these days of novel complications and novel remedies; but that any statesman should believe that it does not come up to the full measure of patriotic expectation is almost incomprehensible.
We hail it as the monument from which to date the restoration of the conquered States to a vindicated Union, and the true historical beginning of a Republic without a slave.--
Washington Chronicle.
Mr. Forney, like
Mr. Greeley, tries to reconcile the message and the
Republican platform.
The very earnestness with which they try to prove that the
President has done nothing to displease the Republicans is sufficient evidence that,
Cuffee being in the case, he has literally made "the wool fly."
