The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1866-10-11

Rarey, died suddenly in New York on last
Thursday a afternoon. He was bachelor,
thirty-eight years of age.
from Dr. DEEMS paper, the N. Y. Wacthman.
THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT.
The country must be reconstructed. Every
interest of the present and the future de
mands this. The man who would captious-
ly or from any sinister reason-as of ambition,
pride of opinion. malice, or greed or gain, or
any other selfish ground-set himself in OPP
position to any practicable measure suggest
ed by friend or foe, and involving no humil-
iation to any section of the country, and in
vading no guarantee of the Constitution, is a
man who whatever may be his intellectual
ability. is untitled by passion to be safe
and friendly adviser to any portion of our
people.
To accomplish this supreme act of peace
the President of the United States has one
policy and the Congress has another. The
high position of the Chief Executive, his
ability and long political experience, his ma
tivity in the South, and his selection by the
North, entitle him his views and plans to the
profound respect of all the people. The Con-
| gress, the supreme legislature of this cOnfed-
| Grafton of commemorative, a coordinate
branch of the general government, and the
only acknowledged aw-making power of the
1
| full attention of every citizen. Now, it has
come to pass that the President has one pol
! icy of reconstruction and the Congress an
other and our public misfortune is that the
chief legislative and the chief executive
branches of our government are SO far apart,
and are separated by chasm which unfor
tunately has been daily widened and deep
t ened by passion, that there appears to be no
probability that they will ever be able to
agree upon policy which shall be practical
! BILE and Just.
For our own part we are free to say that
we regard both President and Congress as
worthy of consideration quite subordinately
to the good of the country and that we can
have no partisan feeling against either. We
are for the country-the whole country. We
have freely expressed any disapprobation we
have felt for the conduct of either of the po-
| litical beligerents. But now the question of
the common veal is upon as, and We must
shortly have some decision OF this controver-
| sy, or have the country flung back into the
vortex ofwar and revolution.
This morning we endeavor to put far from
us all influence ofprejudice and all sway of
passion, and sit down to the study of the
situation as calmly as we may and as serious
ly as the solemn issues demand
A Southerner by birth, education, interest,
and an undying love for the people who are
nearest and dearest to our hearts, a love
which we have demonstrated by the sacriti-
ces We have shared with our stricken compa-
triots, we believe, an American whose coun-
try now is this whole wide land, that what
ever viii promote the prosperity of the South
will advance the interests of every part of
the United States. 1t is no sectional aues-
ton, then, which we PROFOUND, when we sol
EMMY ask, What Is best TOR the South mnder
ee1Sting circumstances !?
To that question We propose to strive to
find an answer.
If President Johnson's policy were practi-
cable, that would probably still be best for
the South, and would most certainly have
been best if adopted promptly and at first
But is it practicable +? We say nothing now
as to what we think mistakes upon the part
of the President in the beginning. For, if
his theory be correct, as he believed it, all his
movements in the erection of provisional
governments were incorrect. But this line
of remark we shall not pursue at present, and
only mention it to show what embarrass-
ments he created in advance for the policy
which he subsequently inaugurated. Zsit |
inapraetica6le ? That is the question.
The people of the South are to remember
that they are the conquered. The victors
have the situation. The South must seek to
find what terms she can obtain. She is not
in a position to dictate nay, she is hardly
in position to make demand of rights
But, overpowered and bitterly disappointed, |
if she can calmly and wisely study the per-
picking problem in the case, she may reach |
solution not incompatible with the dignity |
conferred upon her by her splendid but I'M
successful battles for constitutional liberty |
in the late unhappy war, in which we hon |
estly believe she was far more sinned against |
than SHINING.
Now, if the Southern States, for the tenn
porary qualification of feeling of partisan
ship, or of that freedom which they enjoyed,
shall place themselves in position which |
shall exclude them from all the benefits of
the government, that will obviously be I'M
wise But if, ON the other hand, they make
concessions that are humiliating and uncon-
the present gain will be vastly
overbalanced by the future loss This is the
trying position of the South, and demands
wisdom, calmness and fortitude.
There seems to be no hope for the Presi-
dents policy Congress will probably be in
dorsed by the North and strengthened. A
week or two ago we gave a statement of the
Presidents views and their logical consequent
ces in the broadest and bOldest language we
could. They involve denial of the legitima-
cy of the present Congress. Can the President
in practice 60 to this length, seeing that he
has so repeatedly acknowledged its legiti-
mate existence by addressing his messages
to the body and signing the bills it has pass
edo Suppose he should have a collision
with Congress, would the South gain there
by? The whole question would be thrown
again into the uncertain motions of war;
Shall the Southern States adopt tile cOnstitu-
tuti0ndI amendment This is the most i'm
portant question of the day-a question in
whose solution every citizen of the South
will have an interest. That it may be care
fully studied We reproduce it:
JOINT RESOLUTION PROPOSING AN AMEND
AIENT TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNI
TED STATES.
Be it enacted By the Senate and House Of
of the United States of As,ze,i-