The national Republican., 1866-12-03

THE work BEFORE CONGRESS.
rt The Congress, which meets this day at the
Capitol, is invested with grand privileges
and charged with grave responsibilities.
Their opportunities for doing good or work
ing evil to the nation are such as fall to the
lot Of but few Congresses. The legislation
for thirty-six States is devolved upon the
Representatives Of twenty.six States, under
circumstances which increase their added re-
ssponsibilities an hundred fold. Had there
been no rebellion, no revolution, no civil
war; had the Representatives Of ten States
obtained ''leave Of absence" at time when
everything was working well with oil the
States, the additional labor Of legislation
might have been assumed by the twenty.six
with reasonable prospect Of discharging
their increased duties to the satisfaction Of
the whole country. But in this crisis the
extraordinary legislation is required to be
done in regard to the affairs Of States disor-
ganized by civil war, presenting questions
growing more difficult Of adjudication with
each hour Of delay. Whether local interests,
or blind, headlong partisanship, or petty
ambition to force individual schemes upon
the country shall actuate o majority Of this
Congress, or whether selfshness shall disap-
pear in the broad light Of patriotic states
manship, and desire to sacrifice individual
interests and to forego individual opinions
for the public good shall prevail, are ques-
tions Of greaterl moment in this session Of
Congress than at almost any former period
in our history.
The golden opportunity Of restoration
upon Mr.. LNooLS's plan having been thrown
away at the outset, we have drifted farther
and farther from his ideas of reconstruction.
The South is practically Poland under our
rule, and it is proposed by certain theorists
who are affiliated with the party holding an
all-powerful majority, to apply stringently
their cherished plans for the remedy Of ex-
listing evils The people Of the North were
made to believe that they were still fighting
against the rebellion at the polls in the late
elections, and they cast their ballots, as they
supposed, to give it finishing blow. They
were surrounded with the relics Of the past
conhict-the tattered banners carried home
from the battle-felds were displayed in their
public places, the crutches Of the manned
survivors Of the conflict sounded hollow on
the pavements, awakening echoes from the
tombs Of slain heroes, in their own house.
holds were the vacant places Of their strong
ones struck down in the war, their wives and
daughters were clothed in mourning and
when their politicians told them, "the rebel.
lion is not yet put down-it is raising its
ugly front again-you are in danger from it
in the Congress Of the nation" why the peo.
pie swept the country in mighty wave for
the radicals. The copperhead Democracy
too assumed the attitude best calculated tc
confirm the view taken by the radicals and
thus made their triumph with the people easy
and complete.
On this strong wave of radicalism has
been borne into the halls of our national
legislature the boldest and rashest Constitr-
tion tnkers and manufacturers of utopian
schemes OF government ever elected, we sup.
pose, in this nation. Men who are far wiser
in their own estimation than the trainers Of
this Government or any other, have obtained
places in our national councils and are eager
to try their hands on the governmental ma
chinery. Men of the same ideas, who were
chosen previously, have been stimulated by
the result of the late elections to make new
VOWS Of vengeance against the South and
against The President, who has dared to
disagree with them. Humiliation, not res
toration, is their object, and they belong to
that class Of political partisans who do not
scruple to fight against any and every plan
Of adjustment that is acceptable to the op-
position, and who are ready to abandon their
own schemes whenever their political oppo-
nents have accepted them. If they propose
universal suffrage and universal amnesty,
and are surprised by indications that the
South will accept it, then they straightway
condemn it; and with this clan Of radicals
there is no surer method of defeating any
measure they propose than to get it accepted
by the South and advocated by the Democ-
racy at the North. Now the country can
not afford to have its legislation controlled
by such motives. Partisan hatred, narrow
prejudices that count everything bad merely
because it is assented to by political antago-
'ho'o' ohouiu hu'o ho PiuCe III Our congress-
ional halls in this crisis.
We believe the people will hold their rep
resentatives accountable for some practicable
plan of speedy restoration They have armed
Congress with irresistible power so far as a
majority is concerned, for the purpose of en-.
abling them to execute some plan by which
the estates will be allowed to resume their
relations in the Confederacy, and they will
not be pleased to see the work retarded by
the fantastic tricks Of impractcable theorists
or selEsuficient selfseekers. The people will
have some reflections forced upon them dur.
ing the coming winter in manner they have
not been accustomed to for several years past
The reactionary results Of speculation and
overtrading are beginning to be felt in the
land. Manufacturing and other business was
tided over" the elections, but now the mills
are curtailing to quarter and half time
Trade is depressed, and men out of employ-