The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1865-05-18
STROUDSBURG MONROE COUNTY, MAYH 1855.

who, theoretically and at heart, nercl
acere Rebets, and are not to-day. Captain
Williamson, of Arkansas, told me, in 1862
that of his whole company of ninety four
men only two were Secessionists And
there are thousands of bitter Bebels who
nerer held an "agency or an office y
Gen. Buffers plan strikes at men and
misses erI. 1t will often cruelty in the
man the very principle he would have
live. Nor does it make provision against
his Northern BROTHER" who will soon
come South, and by length of residence
be entitled to vote, and who will bring
with him his unsubdued Rebel nature,
his ideas of ultra States rights or Seces-
sion, and slavery.
In treating with him and all, we must
! bear in mind that the eud of the Rebel
lion is not the mere breaking up of the
! physical forces that sustained it, but the
e.rttrpating Of the ideas that made 1t =
This being so, the Government should
say firmly, and with no possibility of
compromise, to those persons who pro-
! pose to reinaugurate civil government in
any State, whether they may be South
efn residents or recent cmigrants from
the North. ''You must take the oath of
allegiance; you must solemrly renounce
Secession and slavery as condition pre-
cedent to your right to cote; and must
Incorporate s@ch remuneration in your Or
ganic law as q condition precedent to
your right to be recognized as a loyal
State Government" Thus these great
antagonisms can be finally and forever
settled under our Government. A poll
cy short of this is no settlement" but
surrender.
These two points secured, there re-
mains third, growing out of the others,
and that is, what is to be done with this
nery deciared man-the negro. That
he is needed at the South, that he is ca
pable of culture and Improvement, is cer-
tain ; and that selfprotection will compel
the South to protect and improve him, is
reasonable to suppose. That all Qyal
mcn should accord to linn tie principle
IF Suffrage and equality before the lar is
becoming widespread conviction, and
will gain strength the more narrowly it is
scrutinizcd. But, as in other cases, how
is this to be reached ? Can it be done,
also, in the work of reorganization
That, [ think, depends npon the status
Of the revolted States.
There are two theories on this question.
One is, that the State Governments were
overthrown, and with them their organic
law and legislation based upon it. And
that being thus overthrown, the authori-
ry of the General Government attached,
and all the rights of the States reverted
And that this being so, the organization
must be de moro
The other theory is that the State
Governments were usurped or occrthro,cn
but their organic lar and legislation based
upon 1t, remained intact That from the
day Of that usurpation or overthrow, the
authority of the General Government at
tached upon the general intendment that
no portion Of its territory could be with
out Government. That while that au-
thority attaches it can only do, aside from
its military acts, whatever the State could
do under its laws, were its powers Of ac-
tion not suspended, and ,oith thas lin'ita-
tioa, that it cannot add to or take from
It's laws that it reaches from the last le-
gislative act performed by the loyal State
Government ovcrthrown to the first legiS-
lativc act done by the loyal State Govern
ment ''set up" In other words, that it
simply connects together the State be-
torc rebellion aud the State restored,
bridges over the gap, so to speak. This
theory l have advocated earnestly for
eighteen mooths.
! Under the first theory we could meet
the difficulty of suffrage at once, by the
power of the General Government to de-
! fine who should be entitled to suffrage,
since it would be impossible TO contra
rene lars rhich had perished. Could we
be satisfied of the correctness Of this
theory the whole question could be
disposed of in the various State organiza
tions.
Under the second theory we would DC
checked by the laws of the State, the al
fairs of which the General Government
is supposed to be administering as far as
it can without Infringement OF the organ
ic and statutory laws supposed to have
survived the overthrow or usurpatlon o
the State Governments, and to be waitln:
to be revived by loyal functionaries. Ii
this view of the case, VIC must trust t
Convention when called to apply the rem
edy in the organic law, or to the people
| after reorganization, to give to the col
ored man the right of suffrage SO fairl
, won and so Justly deserved. This to b
limited, however, to the soldier and
! those uho could read and acrite.
c These are the great questions loomln
!, over the wide spread desolation that SUI
S rounds them, and such seems to me sui
e stantially the way to dispose of them
0 As to suffrage for the colored free maj
o he once had it in the South. 1t was t
. ken from him, not because he was unwo
# thy of it, but because his exercises of
) wondered the slaves around him dlscol