Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1864-06-16
RECONSTRUCTION"

hECONSI hUCIION."
Those of our readers tho cherish a sufficient re-
spect for our opinions to remember the views Of
public policy We announce from time to time on
the emergence of new questions, will perhaps re-
call the position we took in regard to the elaborate
plan propose d by the President, in his last aDnual
message, for the restoration and Reconstruction"
of the insurrectiorary States Without closing
our eyes to the theoretical anomalies of that pIan
stated that we should for practical reasons, decline
to enter into any discussion of lis merits, which,
whatever they might be, we should leave to be
discovered by the people of the insurgent States,
to whom the plan was particularly addressed, and
in whose interest it purported to be conceived and
promulgated We added, at the same time, that
if these people should be inclined to adopt it as a
provisional /" rayng point" for the establishment
of more regular system of State Government
which should place them on an equality of rights,
and bind them to an equality of du les with their
sister States, we were not disposed to raise techn
cal objections against it, lest we might seem will
ing to defeat its bene6cent purpose. If the peo-
pie concerned should reject it, We wished it to be
seen that the plan bad failed for other than
because of the opposition brought to bear upon it
by discussions arising outside of the sphere to
which it applies.
When announcing these views under the date
of last December 18th, only few days after the
promulgation of the Presidents plan, we wrote as
follows:
1--WE have very definite and decided views as to the
nature and effect th. last proclamation Of the Pedent
but not haste to foresta the progress of the
events which shal justly confute them If the Presi
dent had assumed prmulge it any thing than
tentative expedent might not have thought it proper
to PRACTISE this prudent reserve But, il is, prefer
to judge Of the plan by its fruits"
The "plan" has now been sufficiently long be-
fore the country, and has been sufficiently sub
iected to the test of experience, to enable us to
pronounce on its merits judged by the fruits it has
borne. And hence it was that in the early part Of
the present month, and with particular reference to
the illustrations afforded by the example of Lou
isisna, Arkansas, and Florida, we felt it just
to avow the opinion, after the precedent set by the
recent course of events in those States, that it
might be advisable for our civil and military au-
thorities to look little more closely to the sta
biity and breadth of the foundations on which
they build, before they proceed to reconstruct
the fabric of the Seeded States. A "one-tenth
vote" has proved to be narrow and uncertain
base.
In confirmation of these views we take pleasure
in citing the subjoined remarks of Mr.. CoLLAMER,
of Vermont, delivered in the Senate on the 9th
instant while the bill regulating commercial inter-
~o,,-., xr;tb tho Statao ,ndar
discussion in that body. he said:
wish il to be born in mind that as understand IT,
all attempts to undertake 10 say that particular section
of q state whole State If you please when onetauth
of is inhabitants declare themselves to be yaI,
claimed from state Of nsurrecton practically impos
sibie; tie thing is failure need not 90 the
perimrnt been made under that What has been
done Florida You take possession Of two three
towns invite the people to take the oath Of agance and
then in few weeks you compelled to leave there and
turn those people whom yop have thus induced to
take oath OF allegiance to the mercy Of their enemies il
they have any you abandon them to the enemy 1t has
been done in Fords twice already It has been done in
part Of North Carolina and tb has been done to
some rrt,nt in Iexas How many II those good people
who have been practsed upon have actually lost
lives by it do not know but thuk large numbers The
tuth n that to reclaim any State part of State to
allegiance to this country, and establish entire gov
ernment OYER it according the genius of institutions
with propar local legislation and United States leQisation
is thing ipracie,be until bs hoe insmr, ,ectiop all ITS
nitarv po,oer put don eoery phere The army OF the
rebels has huut-d ut OF Tennessee but Is down oa
the borders Of Georgia. fifty or one hundred miles of the
10 gong on; onc-ba the people OF Tennessee are
looking To that rebel army with hope of its RETURN and
the OF them looking il with fear OF It's re urn
How Any State be expected to be reclaimed mean
quietly satisfactorily, and safely In that wBI IL never
be done The truth is that the military force of this
nsavreep bo subdued every where before you can
reclaim and return to their allegiance people any where
Nothing more than this need be said to point
tho theoretical ncongruity and the practical futity
Of these premature efforts to reconstruct" the in
their people, who may have taken certain oaths,
framed and prescribed in this city, as the test OF
an I" allegiance" equally unknown to the Constitu-
ton aud laws Of the United States, and to the Const
tuition and laws Of the several States,