Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1866-08-30

LenulnS IOr, UleSe IOur mlltlOnS would De
represented in the Congress of the United
States by the very men who began the
: war, and would confer upon them largely
increased power. You will perceive b,
the resolutions of the Copperjohnson COL
ventiOn that no such amendment shall b,
attempted or perfected until all the States
are in the Union and you know that it ii
, main purpose of the President and Mr.
, Seward to bring back the Southern States
as they were before the war, and as they
are now. Take South Carolina to show the
!, scandalous working of this policy. There
are 400, 900 free black men today in thai
State still excluded from all political rights
These black men, according to President
johnson and Mr.. Seward and the Philadel
phia convention, are now to be counted ev
cry one, man for man, in the basis of rep
resentation, precisely as the freedmen Of
Pennsylvania are But the four hundred
thousand blacks Incorporated in the basis
Of South Carolina representation are repre-
sented by two hundred thousand white men
in South Carolina and thus these two
hundred thousand white men are enabled
to elect as many representatives in Con-
gress as six hundred thousand white men
in Pennsylvania ! And what we contend
for is, that if South Carolina ignores her
black population entirely as voters, she
should not count them ON the floor of Con.
gress any more than she should count her
horned cattle Where this system will
eventually leave us a very few words will
explain. If Andrew Johnson can prevent
the adoption by three-fourths Of the States
Of the new article amending the national
- Il. IL,
ed in the representative basis un til 1870,
the present Southern, including the recent
seeded States, will have at least 26 Sena-
tors aud "a Representatives in Congress,
and ll0 votes in the Electoral College.
Supposing the entire population Of the Uni
ted States to be thirty-tive millions Of white
people, the five millions Of white people in
| the South will be Just oneseventh Of the
whole population, and yet they will have
more than one-third ii both houses of Con-
gress, and more than one-third OF the Elec-
toral College and this startling exhibit,
exclusive of the other additions that will
! be made to this Southern column by Cop
perhead Senators, representatives, and
electors from the free States-many mOle
than enough to make up for an exceptional
radical from such Southern Commonwealths
as Missouri, Tennessee, West Virginia, and
possibly Maryland and Delaware. What
is Andrew Johnson contending for now :?
| Not TO pay the national debt nor to reduce
it =; not to economize the public eXpedi-
lures not to do justice to the loyal men of
! the South, nor to pay the brave men Of the
| North the bounties to the living and the
pensions to the dead not to extend our
great internal and international thorough
fares, but to defeat the new amen iment Of
the national Constitution by prostitution
Of his high office This was the sole OBJ
iect of the Philadelphia convention. Now,
if the sophisms of Mr.. RaymOnd's address
and the cunning sentences Of Mr.. Cowan's
resolutions are boiled down, the residuum
will be found to be the defeat of this amend
ment for the purpose of bringing the trai-
tors more than fulI-handed into the nation
al councils They are boasting now that
the South will be a unit against the amend
ment The Cotton States will be consoli-
dated into a new despotsm against the
people that defeated their bloody revolt.
By extending the massacrcs Of New Or
| leans and Memphis, and the massacres OF
Texas and Mississippi, over all this region
the blacks will relapse into new slavery,
and the loyal whites will fee for safety and
succor Maryland is to be overturned. The
returned rebels are being registered in that
State preparatory to voting down the I'm
ion men in the November elections. Ken
lucky within a few days elected an avow-
ed rebel by an immense majority to an I'M
portant State office, after he had explicitly
| taken ground in favor Of the entire rebel
| doctrine Tennessee is still declared to be
in revolutionary condition by the EXecu-
tive, and the action of her recent Leglsla-
ture, ratifying the new amendment, Is pro-
nounced to be illegal by the Presidents
new Attorney General This leaves two
Southern States in which the Union cause
may be said to have any reasonable chance,
viz West Virginia and Missouri. How
long these will hold out against accumua-
ted treachery and power remains to be
seen. You will tell me this is a gloomy
statement. 1t is certainly a frank one.
! You will next ask, what is the remedy ?
! For answer state, the election of all the
! Republican Union candidates for Congress
! in the coming elections, and the assertion
! by yet larger majorities of popular indig-
nation against conspiracy so atrocious in
its prosecution and 50 deplorable i'll its con-
sequences When we reflect upon the re-
turn of these men with power to defeat the
vital amendment of the Constitution, and
after that to attempt new usurpations, are
we not justified in saying that the Ameri-
can people will stand by any party that
keeps out these reckless conspirators until
they consent to the terms laid down by the
last Congress And when they are con
vinced that the people Of the victorious
loyal States are more than ever resolved
to preserve the fruits of a war that cost so
much precious blood and treasure, they
may turn their faces from the perfidious
traitor at the head of the Government, and
accept these generous and equal conditions
1t is therefore for the American people
to decide if they are willing to clothe the
contrivers of the rebellion and the authors
of all our woes with controlling power. II
they should so decide, they will have de.
lberately consented TO their own lasting
degradation.
1t was to force such humiliation of the
loyal people of the United States that the
Philadelphia convention was held, Andrew
Johnson, overjoyed at the obedience Of his
mercenaries telegraphed to his Secretary
of the Interior and Postmaster General Oh
the l4th instant as follows: