The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1866-05-16
The Reconstruction Report.

|
foreseen and intended by its projectors
It hangs fire in the Cabinet, and almost
every member Of the dominant party, who
had not the good fortune to be on the
Committee of Fifteen, considers himself
bound to offer an amendment to it. The
most ultra of the Radicals are disappoint-
ed that universal suffrage was not provided
for, while some actually profess to be con-
sentative enough to admit that it's provis-
ions are already too burdensome upon the
Southern people.
All these things 60 to show that the
Report of the, Reconstruction Committee
is accomplishing its objects and that those
objects will be fully accomplished whether
it shall be adopted or rejected. The main
object is to keep the Southern States from
voting in the next Presidential election,
and thus to retain the power in the hands
Of the Radical party.
Though the Report is called a plan for
reconstruction, it is really a plan to prevent
reconstruction, as is obvious to any one
who will observe its provisions. 1t lays
down certain regulations to be accepted by
the Southern States as a condition prece.
dent to their admission, thus leaving them
free to say whether they will be admitted
or not j; but it takes care to impose such
conditions as it is we'll known will be re-
jected with scom and indignation. The
clause which abolishes the mixed basis Of
representation, unless negro suffrage should
be coupled with it, will of course be reject
ed by the people of the South, because
they can see no reason why the negroes
should not be counted now that they are
free as well as when they were slaves
And as for the exclusion from the right of
suffrage Of those who participated in the
late war, until after 1870, the abolitionists
must believe the Southern people to be a
set Of idiots, if they expect them to accept
reconstruction on any such conditions as
that. What care the Southern people for
representation in Congress if they are not
to have the privilege Of e!ecting their own
representatives If no one who partici-
pated in the war can be q member of Con-
gress, or vote for one, is any one stupid
enough to believe that these men, who
have control Of the State Governments,
will permit an election to be held for the
benefit of the towards who staid at home,
or of the jayhawkers who deprecated upon
the lives and property of the Southern peo-
|ple? Itwould be beautiful plan OREGON
struction indeed which should place the
power of the Southern States in the hands
of a contemplate minority, which would
ever be ready tools in the hands of the
Radical party! Itwould be better for the
South if she should remain "unrecon-
structed" until doomsday and that is just
what the Radicals hope will be the case.
But for fear that the Southern people
might be fools enough to accept the plan,
in their anxiety to get reconstructed, and
thus vote at the next Presidential election,
the committee placed that beyond possibil.
ity by providing that no one who partici-
pated in the war should vote until after
1870. If, therefore, the plan should be ac-
cepted, the vote Of the Southern States
would still be excluded from the Presiden-
tial election in 1868. So, no matter how
we view the Report, it is patent to all that
its object was not to reconstruct the
South, but to prevent her from voting at
the Presidential election in 1868.
We think the Radicals have slightly
overdone their job. Every outrage they
commit is but one more step towards bring.
ing upon them the excavation Of the Con.
sentative men Of the country. The people
Of the North are getting their eyes opened
to their real designs and are preparing to
hurl them from power at the approaching
elections. We observe that the Demo
Gratis and johnson Republicans have
fused on common candidate for Congress
in opposition to the infamous George w
Julian, of Indiana. We believe that the
same thing will be done in every district Of
the North, and that Radicalism in the next
Congress will be as scarce and as power
less as Conservatism in the present one
1t is among our blessings that Fanaticisu
always carries in its very organization the
means of its own destruction.
------nssH1sss------