Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1865-07-18
Concerning the Govcrnmout OF States
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we teCuE 10 tue COuoAoeAoIioA Va Lue
Presidents reconstrucliys policy. Yes
terday q tolerably clear explanation was
given of the plan by which Mr.. Johnson
expects to revive the suspended animation
of the States lately in rebellion, and du-
ring q careful and studious detail Of the
process, we are unable to discover its
paramount wisdom and adaptability for
the purpose in view. 1t will inevitably
place the government Of those common
wealths Immediately in the hands of dis
loyal, subjugated, but not reconciled peo-
pie, who are restrained from continued
acts of hostility and treason only by the
physical power of the Federal Govern
ment. Nothing seems clearer.
Mr.. johnson promises, however, that
the government Of those States will be re-
posed solely IN the hands Of loyal men,
though there be found in the separate
commonwealth barely enough to perform
the functions of the administration. But,
how is that to be done under the opera
tons of State constitutions framed for
another order Of things, and an an oppo-
site political condition? The amnesty
has restored the great body of the rebels
to the rights of suffrage, and in some dis.
tricts they outnumber the loyal inhabit-
ants overwhelmingly. The experience OF
four years of annihilating revolution has
forbidden US to place great reliance on the
"Union sentiment" said tn abound l
the rebel States. 1t was a fruitful theme
for sentimental orators whose tender ma
lures would not permit them to realize the
stern condition of war but that loyal
sentiment was not much discovered in
the progress of III armies, when the rebel
women snuffed at and spat upon the Fed
eral soldiers who guarded their domicils
from the penalties Of war, and supplied
them with the means Of subsistence. The
horrid details O! Libby prison t%ranspiring
at the very sa of Confederate refine
ment and Christianity, together with Fort
Pillow, Andsrsonville, and q hundred
other scenes Of massacre, demonstrate the
sort of Union sentiment" that prevails in
the South and he is indeed the possessor
of unbounded and supernatural faith who
expects that this whitening hatred and
pent-up revenge will cease to exist until
the last Of this generation shall have dis
appeared from the earth. 1t is foolish to
expect an occurrence so improbable and
contrary to experience. Does the she-bear
quickly become the friend OF him who
robbed her of her whelps? And while
those States remain q territory of topling
ruins and childless w~idowhood, the gray
but living embers will glow and sparkle
whenever their latent anger shall be reused
BY the faintest breath of treason. Amer
lean citizens, whether right or wrong, are
never wholly subdued; and if w could
now enter the inner temples Of the South
ern heart, we would find them still hung
with the horrid shapes o fury and revenge.
We do not expect, therefore, that the pres
ent generation Of rebels will ever become
other than secret enemies Of the Union, or
that they will omit any opportunity to
embarrass and thwart the operations OF
the Federal Government. They will sub.
scribe to the amnesty oath as the Mary.
land rebels did under the instruction Of
Reyerdy johnson, and will regard it as
invalid promise extorted by q tyrant, to
be instantly broken whenever treason
shall find a safe opportunity to spring
from its lair, either to overcome the
Federal Union by the civil process Of
election or by the force Of arms. 1t is
clear, then, as MONDAY, that without the
presence of overawing military forces,
being in fact nothing more or less than a
military government, after all, President
johnson will not be able to keep the civil
control of these commonwealth in the
hands of citizens who are loyal to the
Union, and who would not apply the torch
to his capital and the knife to his throat,
But there Is another hearing of this
subject, the full discussion of which is
demanded by political economy, humani-
ty and Justice: If the rebel States are
restored to the Union on the basis pro-
posed by the President, the freedmen will
never be invested with the rights Of full
citizenship without the compulsory pro.
cesses Of war and it must be admitted
that the future condition of four millions
of human beings is q matter which our
Government can not consistently over
look. Having been restored under their
former regulations, slavery alone except
ed, the rebel States will claim that the
Constitution of the United States author
ICES no interference with their regulations
of suffrage. The blow that will enfran-
chise the Southern black man must be
\ struck now, or not at all; for 1t is impro-
bable, nay, impossible, that having been
re-admitted with their despotic Constitu-
ton to the Union, the rebels Of the late
insurgent States will ever consent to a
measure that will strip them of their
power to rule, and place themselves on a
political equality with q people whom
they profess to consider less than men.
The proposition that within the lifetime of
the living generation the slave State
people will voluntarily consent to the en-
reimbursement of their late chattels, is too
absurd to become the subject of serious
discussion. There is too little enlighten-
ment in the late beclouded regions of
slavery to admit of any such sudden evo
luton of humanity and justice; and our
national obligations to a people undone
BY the barbarian of our former institu-
tons and who are nevertheless unani-
mously friendly and faithful to our Gov
eminent, most imperaliyely demand the
exercise of national authority in their be-
half and for their full and complete eman-
cipation. The time when that authority
can be constitutionally operative is before
the reconstruction Of the late slave State
Governments afterward, if it shall be
possible at all, the exercise Of the equal
izing power will be resisted by ten
fold more distractions. In those par
ticular States, the conditions Of war still
exist; never having recognized their re-
bellion as a legal belligerency, there has
been and will be no formal declaration
of peace, and no treaty will be made with
them. As individuals, every surviving
rebel has forfeited all his rights and his
life, and it is wholly discretionary with
the Government to say whether they shall
be punished to the uttermost, or restored
to citizenship and permitted to resume
control of their several states. And are
these the ones whom President Johnson
would mako c;t;zans of an American State