The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1866-04-13
Congress on Reeonstructlon.

WAsHINGToS, April 6, 1866.
Congress is at last being awakened to
sense Of the extreme impatience Of the
| country on the subject Of reconstruction.
/ Even the Radicals begin TO admit that il is
! full time something were done looking def
! nitely to the restoration of the lately sece-
/ ded States 10 their rights as governing part
ners in the Union. All agree that there has
| been discussion" enOugn-spesking ad Il
| bitu1l and essay reading Ga HGuse1l1a, and
now iu the fifth month Of the session how
much nearer are our Senators and Repre-
/ sentatives to 8 conclusion as to what ought
/ to be done or what can be done, than they
/ were in December last2 II is admitted by
all, and can be denied by none, that at some
/ time or smother the lately seeded States
must be restored to their rights and privi-
! leges in the Government, but as TO the 1ehen
and ho10, opinions differ az widely as ever.
The conduct Of the Thirty ninth Congress
50 far n treating this subject very strongly
reminds one OF a lawyer who was employed
once TO defend a prisoner for horse stealing.
He called on his client in jail and spent q
long time IN examining him as 10 his guilt
or innocence. The prisoner asserverated
his entire innocence, and the lawyer began
10 wonder how an innocent man could be
put in jail. Damn it," said the accused
horse thief, "that ain't the question. I'm
in row, and the question is how to get out,
not how | got in" Reverse the terms, and
the condition Of the Southern States and
the duty of Congress is well illustrated.
The question is not how they got out, but
how they can come in.
The only plan Of reconstruction from
which success can be hoped is one which
shall be devoid Of party animosity, section
al hatred, or desire TO take advantage of
the helpless condition Of the Southern peo-
pie to force upon them social or political
theories, born Of the abnormal condition of
the country during the past five years,
The advocates OF extreme measures may
say that the North has right as the con-
quering parts 10 exact what conditions
they please from the vanquished. Why
not go farther, and exercise the right guar
anteed to them by the u ages of ancient
warfare to put every Southern man to
death2 What the Moth has right to do
under the laws Of war is one thing; what it
would be expedient TO do in view of the
fact that the South must, sooner or later,
form a very large fraction of the Union,
and that the nation to be permanently one
in fact, must be one IN feeling, Is another
thing.
1t vill be difficult for any reasonable man
to see wherein the great Radical panacea
of negro suffrage promises indemnity for
the past or security for the future, even ad-
mitting the right of Congress to force upon
the Southern people condition so obnox-
ious 10 them. Granting the truth of all
that is said about the intense devotion Of
the blacks in the South to the Northern
cause in the late war, the proposition is still
far from being maintained as 10 security for
the future. IL was to the interest OF the
blacks to be loyal to q Government that
promised them freedom, rather than to ad-
here 10 a cause whose success insured their
perpetual slavery. But this inducement
will not exist. N future contingencies. TIE
blacks are now free, and the leading states
men Of the South would not advise their
Ie-eHslayement, were it practicable.
That the negro race will be invested
twenty years hence with political power in
this country is at least probable, but to be
done peacesb.y it must be done through
some other means than an act of Congress
passed in a body from which eleven States
ere excluded, for the special purpose of
enactlng such legislation. No one disputed
the right Of Congress to propose an amend
ment TO the Constitution prohibiting dis
tinctions in political rights on account of
color, but il must be submitted 10 the vol
untary action Of the States for ratification,
and while there might be justice and wis
dom in ratiiying it when thus submitted,
there would be neither in adopting it Rs q
coudition precedent TO readmissiOn on the
part of the Southern States. 1t is reiorms-
lion that must be effected otherwise than by
the coerciye power of the Committee OF
Fifteen. What is desired at the hands Of
the Reconstruction Committee next to its
dissolution ss a usurpation, a some feasible
plan presenting conditions 10 the South
upon which the eleven States can be admit
ted without humiliating their people, by
asking compliance IN demands which would
be spurned in every Northern State. 1t is
thought By q great many that President
Johnson's policy is "plan' enough for the
purpose, but Congress wants the honor Of
submitting a "plan," aud lei it have it.
Only let il be submitted speedily. That's
all.-C0r. C5H. Com.