The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1866-11-20

The Herald uses the following language to-
the constitutional amendment:
The whole object of the constitutional
amendment is to secure permanent peace and
| harmony. A certain class of politicians may
desire to use this question to perpetuate their
power, but the mass of the people only wish,
as they have declared in the elections to
place the country beyond the chance of future
| trouble.
We denounce, therefore, the hostile and
impolitic language of the old rebel press and
| leaders, being full of misunderstanding
to the South more than to the North, and we
call upon the Southern people to repudiate
| such dangerous guides and agitators. The
constitutional amendment offers the best
| terms the South will be able to get and it
ought to be accepted frankly and promptly.
That will bring speedy restoration. Rests
| lance will be useless, and, probably would
be ruinous. The South has to depend not
upon its assumed rights, but upon the mag
nanimity of the North. By taking the
ded; by following that of the old, stupid
sectional leaders who brought ON the rebell-
ion, its fate may be disastrous one"
The verdancy of the Herald, in supposing
that these old leaders WILL in any event, &C
cept the amendment, is amusing. The South
e7n people are powerless. They are as thor
oughly in the meshes of these old "guides
and agitators" as they were during the re-
bellion. The Herald wonders how this can
be- We will inform it. These old "guides
and traitors" have complete possession of all
the Southern State governments. They have
the Railroads, the Banks, with few excep-
tions-the telegraph lines-nearly all the
newspapers-nearly all the leading business
houses, and good supply of money from
Northern Copperhead merchants with which
to buy cotton. They make political capital
out of the negro, out of their tournaments
and even out of the Confederate dead, who
ought to be allowed to rest in peace and
honor. They shape and control society,"
They carry their Southern, sectional politics
into business and into every ramifcation of
society. No Northern man is tolerated who
does not defer to them, and no Southern man
is considered decent or respectable who was
not " a good Confederate" and who does not
religiously hold that in the late conflict the
South was right and the United States wrong.
Does the Herald see it now? There is no
ground for hoping that the proposed amend
ment will be adopted. The old Southern
leaders will never accept it, because it ex-
ciudes them from Office and many of the
Union men are becoming careless in relation
to it. The latter want something better
which will, indeed, " make treason
odious and loyalty respectable" This amend
nent would not do this, for the following |
,eason: As soon as it is forced on the South,
hee same old leaders will retire themselves,
'ut they will bring forward other persons
nix secessionists-who have never taken the |
a tn, and they will be elected to all the of
ce $, on two accounts; first, because of their
ev otion to :" the Confederacy," and secondly,
sca use Unionists banned by the amend
ent and relieved by Congress, will be re-
.rded- as the favorites of the Radicals, and
erefo re not entitled tn the confidence of I
true outhern men," It seems to us thatth
deral government, by its delay in reorgan-
ing the Sc States and placing them on a
oroughl y loyal basis, has ratified for and
IN the e. iephant, and does not know what
do with it. The Southern States, as Mr..