Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1866-11-01
NUMBER %.


States found the insurgent States thorough
ly revolutlonized and disorganized, with no
State governments which could be recog-
nized without recognizing the validity Of
treason, and without the power or right to
take even the initial steps for State reorg
anization. They were practically out of
the Union as States their State govern
ments had lapsed their population was
composed of rebels and public enemies, by
| the decision of the Supreme Court Under
such circumstances, how the Commander
in,Chief, under Congress, of the forces of
the United States, could recreate these de-
funct States, and make it mandatory on
| Congress to receive their delegates, has al
| ways appeared to us one of those mysteries
| OF unreason which require faculties either
| above or below humanity to accept In
| addition to this fundamental objection, there
was the further one that almost all of the
| delegates were rebels presidentially par
doned into "loyal men," were elected with
the idea of forcing Congress to repeal the
test-oath, and were incapaciated to be leg
islators even if they had been sent from
loyal States. The few who were loyal men
in the sense that they had not served the
rebel government were still palpably cleo
ted by constituents who had and the char
acter of the constituency is as legitimate a
subject of congressional inquiry as the
character of the representative.
1t not being true, then, that the twenty
two thousand loyal voters who placed MIR.
Johnson In office, and whom he betrayed,
have no means by their representatives in
Congress to exert a controlling power III
the reconstruction of the rebel communities,
the question comes up as to the conditions
which Congress has imposed. 1t always
appeared to us that the true measure of
conciliation, of security, of mercy, of justice,
was one which would combine the princi-
pie of universal amnesty, or an amnesty
nearly universal, with that of universal, or
at least of impartial suffrage In regard
to amnesty, the amendment to the Consti-
tuition which Congress has passed disqual-
fies no rebels from voting, and only disqual-
iies them from holding Office when they
have happened to add perjury to treason
In regard to suffrage, it makes it for the
political interest of the South to be Just to
it's colored citizens, by basing representa-
tion on voters, and not on population, and
thus places the indulgence of class preju-
dices and hatreds under the penalty OF a
corresponding loss of a political power in
the Electoral College and the national
House of Representatives. If the rebel
States should be restored without this
amendment becoming part Of the Con- IT,
tuition, then the recent slave States will
have thirty Presidential Electors and thirty
members of the House Of Representatives
in virtue of a population they disfranchise,
and the vote OF rebel white in South Car
olina will carry with it more than double
the power Of loyal white in Massachu-
sets or Ohio. The only ground on which
this disparity can be defended is, that as
zone Southerner is more than match for
two Yankees" he has an inherent, contin-
uous, unconditional right to have this supe-
riority recognized at the ballot-box In
deed, the injustice of this is so monstrOus
that the johnson orators find it more con-
venient to decry all conditions of represen-
tation than to meet the incontroyertible
reasons for eXacting the condition which
bases representation on voters. Not to
make it part of the Constitution would be,
in Mr. Shellabargers vivid illustration, to
allow that Lees vote should have double
the elective power of Grants Scenes dou-
bic that of Farragut's BOotRS-did he tiUe |
double that of LincOln's has Uictin :"
1t is also to be considered that these thir-
ty votes would in all future sessions of Con-
gress decide the fate of the most important
measures. In 1862 the Republicans, as
Congress is now constituted, only had
ma jority of twenty votes. In alliance with |
the Northern Democratic party, the South, |
with these thirty votes, might repeal the |
civil rights bill, the principle of which is |
embodied in the proposed amendment 1t
might assume the rebel debt, which is repu- |
dated in that amendment 1t might even
repudate the Federal debt, which is affirm |
ed in that amendment. We are so accus-
toned to look at the rebel debt as dead be-
yond the power of resurrection as to for
get that it amounts, with the valuation of
the emancipated slaves, to some four thou
sand millions of dollars. If the South and
it's Northern Democratic allies should come
into power, there lis strong probability that
measure would be brought in to assume
at least portion Of this debt-say two
thousand millions. The Southern members
would be nearly unit for assumption, and
the Northern Democratic members would
certainly be exposed to the most frightful
temptation that legislators ever had to re-
sist. Suppose if were necessary to buy fif-
ty members at million of dollars piece,
that sum would only be two and half per
cent of the whole. Suppose it were neces-
sary to give them ten millions piece, even
that would only be deduction of twenty
five per cent. from claim worthless with
out their votes. The bribery might be con-
Quoted in such way as to elude discovery,
if not suspicion, and the measure would GER
tainly be trumpeted all over the North as
the grandest of all acts of statesmanlike
Cancellation" binding the south to the
Union in indissoluble bonds of interest
| The amendment renders the conversion of
! the rebel debt into the most enormous of all
corruption funds All impossibility.
But the character and necessity of the
amendment are too well understood to need
explanation, enforcement or defence. If it
or some more stringent one be not adopted
the loyal people will be tricked out of the
fruits of the war they have waged at the
expense of such unexampled sacrifices of
treasure and blood 1t never will be adop-
7 ted unless it be practically made condi-
tion of the restoration of the rebel States :;
and for the unconditional restoration of
those States the President, through his most
trusted supporters, has indicated his inten-