The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-04-26
The True Issue,


The True Issue,
IT Is allimportant, in question Of such far
reaching consequences as that of''reconstruc-
tion," that the public mind should be held to
the true issue. Putting away side issues and
mere contests OF words, we should, if fpossible,
get at the real gist OF the controversy. What,
then, is the true issue involved in this ques-
tion OF reconstruction? We take it to be
this Has the nation right to impose con-
ditions upon the Rebel communities before
they shall be permitted, as States, to resume
political power in the nation? The Republi-
cans say yes the Democrats say no.
In discussing this question, the fact Of the
Rebellion should be constantly kept in view.
The present status grows directly out of the
Rebellion, and could have arisen in no other
way. 1t is because the Rebel States seeded
from the Union, rebelled against it, made war
upon it, that they find themselves cut OF from
representation, without political power in the
nation. They are merely reaping what they
themselves have soWn. 1t is a harvest Of
their own planting. 1t is not an issue that
has been forced upon lhem, but one of their
abandon the positions they once held in the
Union. No usu rping hand despoiled them of
their power. Nobody droue them out. The
nation was at peace. Prosperity and plenty
smiled at every hearthstone. Equal laws
prevailed. No man-at least no white man
could complain that the Government in any
way wronged or oppressed him. Even the
holo of in tha
hands of the South and its friends. 1t was in
| the face of these circumstances that
the Rebel States seceded-voluntarily and
contemptuously flmgIng away the power they
| had, and calling home tier Senators and
Representatives from the Capital-and COM
menced war upon the nation. That war they
prosecuted with bitter ierocity tor more than
lour years, yielding only when completely
overthrown. If now they fiud it not so easy
to get back into the positions they abandoned
as it was to get out of them, who have they
to blame but themselves? Theirs is not the
! case OF innocent communities wrongfully
despoiled of their just rights and powers; it is
rather that Of grasping and ambitious States,
who find themselves the victims of their own
lust for unlawful dominion.
But it is precisely this fact of the Rebellion
that the Democrats insist upon our ignoring.
They constantly speak of these Rebel COM
munities as though there had never been any
war-as though they had never seeded and
formed their Southern Confederacy. They
| talk about the "TightS" of these States, as
though they had never forfeited them by war
| fba nf
though, by some monstrous stretch Of power,
their Representatives had been driven out o
Congress- In word, they persistently shut
their eyes to the entire series OF momentous
events which go to make up our national his
tory tor the past five years. Although, when
the Rebellion commenced, they maintained
that the States were sovereign and could
secede at pleasure, and that there was no
rightful power in the nation to coerce a state,
they now maintain that these States have
never been out of the Union, are now in it,
and are. therefore, entitled, of right, to all the
powers and privileges of States in the Union.
But if these States were never out of the
Union, then they were in it during the entire
continuance of the war; and if being in the
Union entities State of right to representa-
ton and power in it, then these States were
entitled to such representation and power at
the very period when they were making war
upon it'll This is the doctrine of State rights
pushed to a rather startling extreme. Ac-
cording to it South Carolina, while waging
war against the Union, had as good right
to be represented in Congress as Pennsylva-
MIA had, which was fighting for the Union.
JEFF. DAVIS, according to this Democratic
theory, had as good right to vote for Presi-
dent in 1864 as General GRANT had. The
Rebel greyback, with his gun in his hand
which he had stolen from United States
arsenal, was Of right as much entitled to vote
as the Union soldier perilling life and all ne
held dear to save the Union.
The Republicans, on the other hand, fully
recognize the Rebellion, and the conse-
) queDces it has entailed. They maintain that
State which secedes and wages war against
the natiOn--sStting up for itself or uniting
: with other seeding States--thereby loses all
rights and powers in the Union. 1t s absurd
that a State can be member OF the Union
and yet make war against the Union. They
hold that communities cannot commit the
crimes of traitors, and at the same time re-
tain the priUiEeges of citizens. The Rebe