Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1865-08-10
9radfortl 9rporter.
Towanda, Thursday, August 10, 1865.
RECONsTRUCTIoN.

Time will teach the government and the
people what is needed AS yet, neither
hardly knows how much or how little is to
be done to restore these States to their
places in the Union but above all things
it bchovcs us to be cautious in placing full
political power into the hands of our late
enemies. They are in the condition of con-
| quered rebels. Their only submission is
such as military power has forced on them,
and is it to be supposed that the notions
which prompted this undertaking have un-
dergone any changes? They express them
selves badly whipped, but they are as en-
phatic il declaring that they were right :;
and will they not, in making their political
organizations for the future, carry this prill-
cipal of right, for which they staked all,
with them, in the hope of succeeding with
it iii some other way, at some other time
They will be the strangest people the world
has yet produced, if they, all at once, aban-
don the ideas to which they were schooled
which they cherished, and for which they
fought so Justify, and risked every thing
And what is the great eading conviction
of these southern people Why, that sla-
very is right, that it is necessary to their
social comfort, that it is essential to their
individual prosperity, and that their polit-
ical organizations cannot be perfect with
out it. They believe this now, as much as
they did before the war, and it will infiu-
ence their action in time to come, as it has
in the past. There can be no doubt Of this
And indications Of this kind are manifest
ing themselves throughout all the rebel
States. In Louisiana the validity of the
ratification Of the Constitutional Amend
lnents, is called i'll question: as It's in Tenn
of President Lincoln is regarded by many
as of no binding force In Tennessee law
has already been passed imposing disabil-
tiles upon colored people, and the opposi-
ton there to the State franch Sc law, all
point to the prevailing sentiment which has
been ever uppermost i'll the slave States.
The Cincinnati Gazette of a recent date,
published a letter written in Nashville,
which contains the following:
l was conversing with one of these gentlemen
yesterday a resident of Maury county, and an in
huental citizen there. asked him if he was will
ing to tell me frankly what he thought of the fu-
| ture of slavery III Tennessee?
Certainly, herepied ''Ihave no concealment
to make upon that or any other public question.
Do you believe there is any possible prospect
for It's restoration IN this State?" | inquired.
That" said he, lis still an open question.
consider it no more settled that shall not again
have slavery i'll Tennessee than it is whether the
institution shall be abolished in kentucky"
is there any considerable number of the peo-
pie who would favor such a restoration %
A large majority would, # an cee 03o,ced to e.
press tlcMSeceS
Would yOuE
.Unquestionably would"
But rs your Amended Constitution forever pro-
hihits it, why is not the question setted?"
why" said he, even legal Constitution is
not tinality and of course you aware that
many Of us regard the March amendment to the
Constitution of Tennessee as utterly illegal and
void. Were 1t not for the presence OF military
force, the matter would have been brought this
before the Courts and doubt not their decision
would have confirmed our opinion
- But, said |, 'even if the courts should decide
as you say, would it not be impossible to restore
the institution, account of the resistance which
the blacks would everywhere make of it,
- Of course, he replied, ''we could not rein
state our authority immediately over the whole of
them-perhaps not over one-half of them. But
there are many sections of the State where the
blacks are not aware that slavery has been abol-
ishcd at all. Some of these sections are in West
Tennessee, where the colored population is most
numerous. In other quarters there are many fam
lies which the blacks have never attempted to
leave, and where the quiet resumption of the mas
/ ters authority would be at once acquesced in
Gradually all resistance would cease, and the col
ored people, IN many cases dlsguSted with then
new-found freedom, different from what they
had anticipated, would voluntarily return to bon
dage, accept as destiny what they could easily
be pursuaded was unavoidable. IVhdtH required n
great army to destrOH easily be restored by H,
pcopLe ,rhc, that army is ren0ored"
| Evidences of this kind are multiplying in
every quarter, and our chief objection to the
Presidents reconstruction measures arise
: from this. We cannot see how these ef.
forts to restore slavery are to be success
fully countcractcd under his plan. For
every measure which he projects will be
resisted on the ground that the President
has no right to interfere with the local af
fairs Of the States. Under Beverly Johns.
toms rendering every rebel can take the
prescribed oath of fidelity to the Constitu
ton The rankest rebels, and those who
give tone and character to southern so.
ciety, will be the foremost to take it in or
der that they may vote, and have influence
in The reorganization of their respective
States and all the common, and plain peo-
pIc will follow their lead. There will be no
" incorrigible rebels to resist, for By the
oath all ,rU be loyal. So that it comes to
this, that the rebels themselves, under the
Proclamations Of the President are author
lied to organize their State governments,
and they will be nothing more, and nothing
less than the rebel governments which we
have been fighting for four years to over
throw, only that they will not be in armed
hostility,
Whereas, if the people of these States
were told to exercise their inherent rights
of sclEgovernment, which is regulated by
existing laws, and call State governments
into being in their usual mode, thus giving
vitality to their statutes, and civil protec-
tion to their citizens, the federal authorities