The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-07-19
RATE OF sUBscRIpTIoNs.
OF ADVERTISING.


PoLTTrcs.-The Republicans of the
Ninth Indiana District re-nominated
Speaker Colfax for Congress by an al
most unanimous vote. Mr.. Colfax sent
the convention a long letter containing
his views upon the present political
questions, in order that his position
might be fully understood by his con-
stituents. He states the great question
of the coming political contest to be,
(which shall govern in the councils
Of the nation, Loyalty or Disloyalty ?"
He justifies the proposed reconstruc-
ton amendment, the ratification of
which Is asked for by Congress, on the
ground that after the close of the war
President Johnson required the ratitf-
cation of an namendment, changing the
whole system of labor at the South and
destroying what the Southern peo-
pie regarded as vested rights of
property. If the President was
right in demanding the ratification
of one amendment, surely, argues
Mr.. Colfax, Congress cannot be wrong
In requiring the adoption of another
amendment to prevent the rebel States
from welding increased power in Con-
gress hereafter, in consequence of the
war, which, very much against their
will, made the slaves of the South free
men. This amendment Vas supported
by every man elected as Union mem,
Der of Congress, and upon it the Union
party Of the nation have planted them
selves. Mr.. Colfax places himself with
the party and, vindicates its Justice,
wisdom and necessity, and says he is
willing to stand or fall politically upon
it. He disclaims all charges of oppres-
sion or injustice in the treatment of the
South by the Congressional majority,
expresses full confidence in the final
decision Of the matter by the intelli-
gent people of the land, and thus states
the terms proposed by Congress and
the contrast between the reconstruction
policy ofto-day and that of the leaders
of our first revolntion:- L- tA4b1
Congress only asks that representa-
tion, north and south, shall be based
on those eligible to participation in po-
litical power; that the civil rights of
NIL persons, native born or naturalizad
shall be maintained !; the national debt
and the pension list preserved invio-
late; the rebel debt repudiated; and
exclusion from Office of those who
having once taken and broken an oath
of fidelity to the nation could not be
trusted in the faithful fulfllment here
after of another similar obligation.
Contrast this with the course of our
fathers towards those who, during the
Revolutionary war, refused to fight for
the independence of the colonies. The
tories of that day insisted that their
allegiance and loyalty were due to the
king, and that they should not be COM
PEELED to transfer them. But the stern
patriots, who founded our government
would tolerate no such argument. De-
term1ned to create a pure national SEN
timent, they made toryism odious in
every possible way. They admitted
none of them to seats in the Congress
OF the nation against which they
warred. They allowed no floral pro-
cesstons to the graves of the tory dead,
nor the use of such pretexts for treas
enable speeches of eulogy on their lost
cause. They suffered no tory papers
to exist and scatter their malignant
poison over the land. They disfran-
chised and expatriated them. Such
was the reconstruction policy of our
fathers. Strongly in contrast with this
as Is the reconstruction policy of Cou-
gress, so, mild and forgiving of the
blackest of crimes, not tor revenge but
for defense, not for punishment but for
Justice, our democratic opponents have
arrayed themselves against it, and the
people are to decide the issue. If you
would take on board as a crew to work
your ship those who had just been strfv-
ing to scuttle and destroy il, then it
might be believed that the American
people would throw open the doors of
their Congress and intrust appropria-
tiOns for pensions and the public debt,
and Legislation for all matters of pa
tional concern, to those who sought to
whelm the nation in common ruin,
would shatter the republic and rebuild
their confederacy.