The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1866-07-21
The PhiIadeIphia Convention.

The Philadelphia Convention.
It is to be regretted that certain persons
in the so-called Southern States are taking
such an active part in appointing delegates
to the Philadelphia Convention. In all the
States south of this, the leading movers in
this business, which is designed to aid in
restoring the Union, are such as have not
yet acquired the confidence of either the
President or any considerable portion of the
Northern people. In this State, while we
see now and then the name of an acceptable
person in the proceedings of the public
meetings, yet the great body of the actors
are OF different stamp. The Union is not
likely to be restored by those public men in
this region who were most conspicuous in
efforts to destroy it, Unpardoned rebels
will mar every thing they touch in connec-
ton with the proposed Convention. Gentle.
men who left the national Congress to en-
gage in the rebellion, and who pressed war
and devastation to the last moment, against
the earnest circumstances of peace men and
Union men, will find no favor even with the
President in their efforts to forward and
promote the Philadelphia Convention.
Some of the resolutions that we see in the
public prints, adopted at meetings recently
held, appear to be appropriate and to have
been prudently drawn but denunciations
of "our oppressors," and illusions to the
exploded theory of States rights, are calcu-
lated to do more harm than good Our peo-
pie should be careful not to fall into the
cha yuIi lad TO- LOT
In 1860, the staple talk was that the govern
ment must be broken up, so as to be recon-
structed on better basis that the black
Republicans" were the enemiCs of the poy-
eminent, and ought to be put down; and
that the sovereign panacea for all our ills
and the only way to save the government
was through State rights and State action.
Well, that was tried, and the result is before
the world. The same spirit which was
evinced then is cropping out now against
9 the radicals" The radicals, we are told,
are "our oppressors are the enemies of
the government, and we must save the gov
eminent by putting them down. If we could
not save the government when we were
part of it, by putting down the black Re
publicans," how are we to save it now, when
we are not part of it, by putting down
" the radicals 2" Events have shown that
we were not the best friends of the govern
ment in 1861, and it is not probable that we
shall be regarded by the great body of the
American people as its best friends now.
As a specimen of the temper with which
Georgia is preparing to take part in the
Philadelphia Convention, we copy the fol-
lowing, italics, small capitals, and capitals,
as it appears in that paper, from the Atlanta
Mtelliyencer:
'Time is short, and action should be
prompt on the part of all who would sustain
PRESIDENT JOHNSON in the war waged
against him by the Radical party of the North
and West. We kaow the purposes of that
party, and we knoao to what WOE it would
doom our people Negro equality. socially
and politically; disfranchisement, cOn1scatiOn,
BLOOD; have been their
avowed purposes. God save the South from
such rule
This is the same old cry of 1860. No good
can come oft. Those who utter this cry are
not friends to the President. He is no friend
to them. They are mistaken in their man.
The Richmond Enquirer, more sagacious
than the bulk of the secession press of Vir-
ginia, sees cat in the meal tub. 1t fears the
Convention will be too loyal a body
to subserve its purposes. That paper says:
eve have no need to go further than Mr..
Stewards letter of the 18th instant, which we
publish to-day. He says that the admission
of loyal men" as the " representatives ofthe
loyal people, of the South, will be the COM
pletion of the restoration of the Union. We
are not left to CON lecture as to what is meant
by loyal representatives. Mr.. Seward
himself explained it only few days before
In his Tammany letter. he said Il desire
that the two houses of Congress will apply
the Constitutional test, acih all the Improve
.nents oflegislation upon it, and thus admit
those States and representatives who are
loyal, and reject only those against whom the
crime of disloyalty shall be established."-
This means that Mr.. Seward sustains and
approves the IestOath, and considers it as
drawing the line between the "loyaF'-who
,an take it,-and the disloyaf-who can
not.
In short there is no prominent actor in the
movement, Of any party, who
has admitted it as apurpose to give the South
my thing better than Test Oath Representa-
ion Not one What said eUen Mr.. Hend-
ticks, the Democratic Senator from Indiana,
n debate on Friday last In answer to Mr.
he said /:
Sc 1t may suit the Senator's purpose on the
lustings, but it will hardly suit his purpose
here to say that I, or any who are with me
n opinion, are now advocating the admis-
ion to seats in this body or the House of
of persons directly connected
with the Rebellion. The Senate knows very
veil that there now stands upon the statute
book of the United States, and upon the
ules of the Senate, a provision requiring ev-
,ry person who takes seat in the Senate to
axe q most solemn 0dth
Mr.. TRUMBULL-Is the Senator from Indi-
ma in favor of that law and that rule?
Mr. HENDRICKS said his votes would best
express his views on that question. He had
lot asked to repeal the laao Does the Senator
rom Illinois consent to its repeal
Mr. TRUMBULL-Certain not. Will the
Senator from Indiana help me to keep it in
orce ?
Mr. HENDRICKS replied that while the law
emained. although he might have doubts as
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