Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1864-01-07
THE PRESIDENTS PLAN.

Bulletin that movements for reconstruction in
accordance with the Presidents late proclamation
Will be commenced at once. The proclamation an
nounces that whenever in any State which has
been In condition of insurrection, number of
persons numbering not less than one-tenth Of the
number OF votes cast at the Presidential election of
the year 1860, having taken the prescribed oath
and being qualified voters at the time of secession,
shall re-estabsh State Government, such govern
ment shall be recognised as the true government
OF the State, and defended by the military power
Of the United States in 1860 the population of
Tennessee was 1,lOs,SOO, and the total vote for
President 1883. Hence IA, 53S of these voters
have it in their power to reconstruct the State
of Tennessee The Bulletin asks Can any one
doubt that it will be done2 East Tennessee can
do the business itself"
1t is in commenting on the proposed practical
execution of the Presidents plan under these cir
cumstances in the State of Tennessee that the Bos
ton Commonwealth, radical anti-slavery paper,
remarks as follows:
These figures iust ate the thoroughly anti-repub
undemocratic character of the Presidents proposition
Fourteen thousand voters have the power to establish a
State Government for million of people; viz ma
orty Of this TENTH 1865 voters settle the whole question
whether 1T shall be slave State free State and what
is equally important ths insignificant fraction determines
who shall govern the State hereafter They have the
to prevent every coored from voting and ia the pre-
sent state of public opinion in all the slave States then
oM preuent IL; and then, tenth of the white voters
to form the government for nnetentbs Besides be-
ing such buresque upon popular sovereignty, the thing
Is impossible The world never yet saw one-tenh of
population establish government nneenths unless
this onetenth already directed the machinery of an
ganzed government and had the control of an army In
this case the nneenths have the army and the habit of
governing and that nneenths implacably hostile to
the new State Government it the Federal
Government. Indeed, unmeasurably more hostile; for
they regard with tar ntenser hatred the who
fused to join the common who the rst to
desert it, than they do the Federal Government which has
at least shown the ability to whip them The citizens of
Norfolk Portsmouth, and vicinity who have taken the oath
OF allegiance declare to Gen Butler with entire unan
nifty that they prefer thousand times live under his
military rule than under Governor Perponts bogus State
government Such will be the universal feeling if these
States should De reconstructed on the onetenth theory
Immediately upon the PRONUNCIATION of the Pre-
sidents plan we expressed the hope that his pc
culiar political friends and supporters would give
to it . better reception than they awarded to the
plan of emancipation with compensation to loyal
owners, which latter we were among the first
to spouse and the last to abandon. 1t soon, how
ever, became apparent that that portion of his po-
itical friends who subordinate every other politi
cal consideration to their own peculiar views Of
policy in the matter Of slavery did not intend to
prove their "loyalty" in any other way than by
embarrassing as far as possible the practical ac-
Oeptance of the Presidents amnesty. We sup
pose it is well understood by our readers that
zcsiots Of this class have license to oppose the
Government in any way they may think proper,
and to do SO not only with impunity from military
arrest, but with frightening claim to the char
acter Of patriotic citizens, which rises in dignity
and beauty according to the intensity and viru.
lence of their assaults on the Administration.
The Boston Commonwealth opposes the Pres-
dents plan Of reconstruction" not only on
grounds of FORM but for going to its nature
and substance. That paper says;
"Nether Charles H. nor George III were 40 insane a.
to invite rebels back and to invest them with the
political power to overthrow the throne which they had
just established And here the difference between an
amnesty under monarchical Government, without con-
ferng the right to vote upon the pardoned and President
ncolns amnesty, which gives to every man who takes
the oath the right to vote and thus to one tenth the ro
TO organize State Government for The rey purpose Of
Pedung the act TOR phich they haze been pardoned
The difference s Heaven-wide. Under manarcbcal
Government an amnesty merely RENTS the penalty il
gives the pardDned simply the right to the protection Of
the Government long he peaceabe and loyal uo-
der the Presidents proclamation it endows him with the
right of suffrage, which carries the right to organize an
other rebellion with all the forms of law Ia his favor II
can never be safe TO eDfranchse these rebels until they
have been governed by pooer outside of themselves Long
enough 10 make The rehabilitation of slaperu impossible
How long that will be the loyal people of the North are
the best judges, and that Judgment be egtimatey ex
pressed only through their representatives 10 Congress-
We do not propose to offer any comment on
these "loyal" objections, ("loya" because inspir-
ed BY ant-slavery ideas, except merely to ,ignaze
the "plsntiful lack" of logic which runs through
oil the discourse Of any species of fanatcism, whe-
Their it be fanaticism for or against slavery. The
Commonwealth makes objecti, to the Presidents
plan on the alleged ground of its {" antirepublcan
and undemocratic character in investing one
tenth of the people with power to institute gov
eminent over. the remaining nne-tenths But when
it comes TO propose its substitu for the Presidents
plan we find that the point Of its objection is not
to be found in disregard Of the majority princi
pie in our Government but in the fact that the
President is willing under any circumstances
and with whatever restrictions to allow even one
tenth of the people in Tennessee the privilege
Of governing themselves. 1t therefore suggests.
as being more Republican" and democratic.
according to its notions Of "repubicanism" and
a. L., Al Ill Al. m,