The New York herald., 1865-05-31
President yohnsVn's Plan OF Recopssr~e-
ton In Ra,d EeIicI.


sqme date prescribing certain rules and regu-
ations for the reorganization of the State of
North Carolina, bring out his policy of recon
struotion into very clear and bold relief IL
looms up as sharply defined as Lighthouse on
4 tall promontory between the spectator and
he dawning light of day.
First shaking off the dust and ashes of the
rebellion, President johnson plants himself
upon the laws of Congress and the proclama-
tons of President Lincoln, according to which
slavery is absolutely abolished in all the
States, except Delaware and Kentucky, where
it has been spared and remains under State
authority still unsettled. In the late rehellious
States the people, in returning to their alle-
glance to the Union, must first agroc, under
oath, to recognize the abolition of slavery, in
order that the authority of the general govern
ment may be restored, "and that peace order
and freedom may be established" Under this
oath the benefits of an amnesty, including their
political rights and rights Of property, except
ing slave property, are restored to the masses
Of the late rebellious States, soldiers and civil
lians. Under fourteen different specifications,
however, numerous parties, embracing rebel
soldiers above the rank Of colonel, sailors
above the grade of lieutenants, governors,
Jurors, diplomats, emissaries abroad, members
OF Congress, &c. are excluded from the bene-
fits Of this amnesty, except in individual cases,
which the President, in his discretion, may
consider proper subjects for pardon.
mn Ill
the amnesty "all persons who have voluntarily
participated in said rebellion the estimated
value of whose taxable property is over
twenty thousand dollars;;' which simply means
that the late slaveholding aristocracy Of the
South--the prime leaders, movers and mana
gers Of the rebellion-shall be held subject to
rigid accountability, even to the extremity of
conflscation, and that meantime they are not to
participate in this work of reconstruction.
They have had their day. As hitherto the
ruling, domineering, imperious and rebellious
slave and land-holding oligarchy of the South,
they are shorn of their strength and set aside,
and the "poor white trash," heretofore COM
PEELED to walk behind them and do their bid
ding, are made masters Of the situation AS
one Of the Southern "poor whites" Pre-
sident Johnson, who has fought successfully
the slave Oligarchy Of Tennessee for thirty
years, and who has done his full share in
their final overthrow, knows exactly what he is
doing in this thirteenth specification. He
knows, from his long and eventful experience
in the South, that the work of ga republican
form of government" which the federal con-
stitutsn requires the general government to
guarantee to each State" cannot safely be put
into the hands of men who, with their bloody
dogmas of State sovereignty, have just
from the most ferocious and san
culinary rebellion in the history of mankind.
So much for the new amnesty proclamation.
II is the necessary introduction to the procla-
nation providing for the reorganization OF
North Carolina, which is the programme for all
the other rebclliOus States. And what is this
programme! 1t is very simple one, resting
upon the constitution of the United States.
First, President johnson recognizes the obliga-
ton of guaranteeing to each State republi-
can form Of government" and that this duty is
required of him in North Carolina, the late law
less rebellion having deprived that State of all
civil government This is all right; what next
As the first step to the end proposed, the Presi-
dent appoints w. W. Holden a faithful, tried
and trusty loyal North Carolina man, as Pro-
visional Governor, whose duty il shall be to
provide for State convention Of loyal men to
frame new Stnte constitution, in order that
the State may be restored to law and order
and its proper relations as a member Of tho
Union. Tlis is good; but who are to elect the
members OF this new organic convention? There
is no difficulty here at ali to Andy Johnson,
guided as he is by the chart of the federal con-
sitution, "the supreme law of the land"
He holds fast to the constitutional ideas.
plain as daylight, that North Carolina has
never been out Of the Union since she first
came into it-that her ordinance of secession
and all the proceedings Of her local authorities
under it, and under the spurious rebel establish
ment Of The so-called Confederate States, being
lawless usurpaiions, are null and void. The
legal functions Of the State have been simply
dormant since her net OF secession of 1861.
The President, therefore, takes the State "a she
was in her legal authority just before her so
called ordinance of secession, and he takes her
laws then existing in reference to her voters as
his guide in the limitations of he elective fran
chsc in her rcconstuction, subject however, to
the restrictions Of his amnesty proclamation,
made necessary by the rebellion.
This is Grn ground to stand upon; but, under
this arrangement, the cmar rcipated blacks do
not participate in the right of Suffrage. The
State convention to be called. OF "the Legis-
lature thai may be thereafter assembled" is
left to prescribe tho future qualifications
Of electors, and who shall hold Office, &C.;
but the President hHs TO take mp the
State as he finds IT, Looking even 20 the
Baltimore platform, lie is bourd TO this course,
for he was nominated for The Vice Presidency
before the State with which he was identified
:Tcnnessec) was reconstructed as a member OF