The Sun.
London, England, 1866-06-26 00:00:00

Report of the Reconstruction Committee.

The New York Tribune considers that the great
question of the present year is reconstruction. To
secure Reconstruction on the basis of justice and
freedom is the task which the party which con-
quered in the campaigns of 1860 and 1864 has now
to perform. The report begins with adverting
briefly to the course the committee found it neces-
sary to adopt. They had been directed by a resolu-
tion of Congress to inquire into the condition of the
Confederate States, and report whether they were
entitled to representation in Congress. The former
of these points admitted of no dispute. The South

was in a state of utter exhaustion. Congress hav-
ing failed to provide for the contingency, the duty
of the President was obvious. He had no power
except to execute the laws of the land and to esta-
blish, as far as he could, a system of government.
All his acts were those of a military commander, but
no authority was given him by the law over the
subject of reconstruction. On the meeting of Con-
gress in December, the President officially an-
nounced the organization of local governments, and
urged the readmission of the late rebel States.
With regard to this recommendation, Congress
must either have acted blindly upon the opinion of
the President, or proceeded to collect for itself the
necessary information. The latter course was
chosen. Its first duty was to call upon the Presi-
dent for the information in his possession as to
what had been done. The information, which was
not communicated until six weeks after the Com-
mittee had been in actual session, appeared to the
Republican members of the committee incomplete-
and unsatisfactory. Under these circumstances it
appeared that but one course remained—viz., to
investigate thoroughly and carefully the state of
feeling among the people of the Southern States,
and hence to infer whether it was safe to readmit
them to Congress. To obtain this information the
Committee had recourse to the examination of wit-
nesses whose position had given them the best
means of forming an accurate judgment. The re-
sults of this examination have been heretofore pub-
lished. The report of the Committee next pro-
ceeds to examine the claims of the South for
readmission to Congress. All discussion of the
question whether the recovered States are out of or
within the Union is waived, and the report assumes
as beyond dispute that the people of the Rebel
States had in fact withdrawn from the. Union and
made themselves subjects of another Government.
The Government of the United States had un-
doubtedly a right to exact indemnity for the in-
juries done, and security against their recurrence
in the future ; otherwise the Government would be
powerless for its own protection. The Government
had equally the duty to protect those in the South
who had remained true and loyal. The Com-
mittee was unable to find in the information ob-
tained any satisfactory proof that it was safe to re-
admit any of the seceded States to their former
position in Congress, except, perhaps, the State of
Tennessee. With the evidenee before them it is
the opinion of the Committee that the Rebel States
were, at the close of the war, disorganised com-
munities ; that Congress cannot be expected to re-
cognise as valid the election of men from such com-
munities; and that before their admission to a par-
ticipation in the Government Congress must pro-
vide such constitutional or other guarantees as will
tend to secure the civil rights of all citizens of the
Republic, a just. equality of representation, pro-
tection against claims founded in rebellion and
crime, and, at least, a temporary restriction of the
right of suffrage to men of undoubted loyalty.
The Committee, therefore, reaches the conclusion
that the so-called Canfederate States are not at
present entitled to representation in the Congress
of the United States ; that before allowing such
representation, adequate security for future peace
and safety should be required ; that this can only
be found such changes of the organic law as shall
determine the civilrights and privileges of all citi-
zens in all parts of the Republic, shall place re"
presentation on an equitable basis, shall fix a stigma
upon
netreaspeople against
of rebellion, and for manumitted slaves, together
claimson,
faonrdaperoexteicvtasthese linoyealurred
in
support
with an express grant in Congress to enforce these
for amending the Constitu on,
the sameinto effect. The
provisions. To this end theyti offaerudatjwooinsevt resolutionrabng
designed to carry
specific recommendations submitted to Congress
mutual concession, after a long
careful comparison of conflicting opinions, and
were the result of
the
ed
member of the Committeeuemblicecapt.
final report has received the signature of every
placerßle Peiurlitbbli si!ajvineetrYhea bl
and Blow, who were
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Republican
conspicuous The
Whatever exceptions may be taken to one or another
part, the whole will commend itself to the friends
of the Union as a conclusive and admirable sum-
mary of the measures which the majority of the
party regard as indispensable for securing the last-
ing restoration of the Union and the triumph of
the principles of Justice and Freedom.

THE LEEDS BANKRUPTCY SC AND A LS.—The trial
of the indictment against Mr. Welsh with regard to the
Leeds bankruptcy scandals in reference to Lord Westbury
is appointed to take place on Monday next at the Court of
Queen's Bench, Guildhall.

FATAL INUNDATION IN A. COAL FIT.—On Satin-
day morning two men named Clegg, father and son,
who had been engaged during the preceding night in the
Ruff bank pit, near Rochdale, did not ascend the shaft at
the expiration of their term of labour. Fears for their
safety were aroused, and on an inspection of the pit being
made it was found that it had been inundated by tha rush
of a quantity of water from an adjacent old mine. Thirteen
men were set to work to clear away the mud and the rail,
which had been torn up by the flood of water, and drifted
towards the Tunshill colliery. Shortly after one o'clock
the body of the boy was found about 250 yards from where
he and his father had been working, but up to a late hour
in the evening the other body was not recovered.

O NEW OXFORD STREET, IS THE
v DEPARTMENT for OVERCOATS, DRESS and
FROCK COATS, and READY MADE CLOTHING
of every description,
At E. MOSES Jr SON'S.