The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-11-03

| he people, ana not in the President or IN hi
secretary OF the Interior.
VIII the Amendment be n Final Settle.
From tie Nation.
In discussing, two weeks ago. the probabl,
result Of the adoption of the amendment by the
| Southern States, we expressed our belief that
whatever the feelings of individual members Of
Congress, or of the more radical members of the
Republican party out of doors might be, the
expectations of the country, and the general
understanding of the matter by the South, were
such that it would be found impossible in
practice TO deny admission to loyal members
from States which had formally complied with
the requirements of Congress. Congress, it is
true, is not bound to anything; but IL would.
nevertheless, dlsappoint majority of those who
are now supporting it, If, after the South had
reely accepted the amendment, it were sud
denly 10 announce that it was still not satisfied,
and tbatlts last word had still to be spoken; and
1t would more than disappoint them if it had no
Deter excuse for not having spoken out it,,
whole mind last session than its own indecison
or tlmldlty, or want of confidence in the
people. In fact, TO announce IN Decem ber next
mat the plan OF reconstruction" which it pro-
duced alter six months labor was after all, no
plon at all, and did not contain things which
the majority consider of vital importance,
would be such piece of fself-stultidcation, that
we feel satisfied no party will urge it.
But supposing the South TO accept the pro
posed terms, and their representatives to lake
their seats on the basis OF reconciliation now
offered, would the struggle then be over? Would
the country be completely paciiedl Would the
fanatics" be silenced? Would the negro
question: be removed from the political arena
These are queries which very few people just
now put 10 Themselves and fewer still take the
trouble TO answer. The sanguine Temperament
created py century OF private and public
prosperity, and which gives buoyancy 10 the
American character that the less fortunate
European, whose greatest and most stirring
traditions are those OF unsuccessful battles with
fortune, can hardly understand, have rendered
us reluctant from the very outset of the strug-
gle with the South TO do more than provide for
each day as 1t came. The founders of the
Republic hoped that slavery would die out:
! thelr sons hoped that it would be shut up by
"lsolhermal lines" and that Providence would
ID some way or other take it in hand; their
erandsons hoped they would extinguish it by
preventing its fmther spread. Then when
would come back; hoped they would not igbt:
hoped, II they did fight, they would not light
more than ninety days. All through the war
eacn Oh our victories was ''crusher." We
Dfoke the backbone OF the Rebellion or
"nlled the Rebels with grief and dlsmayn abont
once month";
Since the peace we have been equally san
gume. we londly belened that Lees surrender
was the end OF all trouble. How many saga
clous men set themselves to believe and to per
suaoe others that Andrew Johnson was raised
up 10 90 the work which had to be done. but
for which MIR. Lincoln would have been un-
htted! And how eagerly we all tried, during
the earlier months OF his administration, to
look upon the good mans silence as proof of
his proiundity and on his queer speeches as
stratagems intended to confound the enemy
There is some danger that this hopeful dispo-
sitlon may now render the amendment snare
and deluslon to great many tender souls.
Ihere are thousands upon thOuss nds who do not
occupy themselves ordinarily very much with
politics. though always ready to do their duty,
who see behind the adoption of the amendment
such a time OF peace and goodwill as this gene
ration, at least has never known. There is to
be grand revival of the dry goods and cheap
carriage business at the South; the negroes are,
somehow or other, to get into their proper
place; the aeitators are all to go home and
raise cabbages or peddle p0pped-corn ON the
trains; and the radical newspapers will have to
oher Tree board and lodging 10 secure sub.
scrlbers. There is to be a general rene wal of
social relations with the South, and there is to
be general hoGlilg and gnashing of teeth
amongst the envious and malignant European
aristocrats.
Nobody who watches the tendency of the
times, however, can help seeing that the arrange
ment made by the amendment, by which the
Southern whites are allowed to deny negroes
political rights as long as they (the whites) are
willing TO have them excluded from the basis of
representation, will really settle very little. 1t
will close that phase OF the contest on which we
entered when the war broke out, in which force
was substituted Tor argument and invectiVe.
The adoption OF the amendment by the South in
good faith, combined with even q moderate
abstinence from violence and rowdylsm, will
doubtless restore the reg ular operation of law
all over the Union, and place the reyolted
States in normal relations with the rest of the
county. But it will not restore harmony be-
tween the two sections. IL will not close the
agitation at the North about the condition of
the southern negroes, that perennial fountain
OF bit erness by which Southerners WERE or
pIoessed to be, SO maddened. 1t will not silence
Wendell Phillips, or even men tenfold more
moderate than Wendell Phillips. 1t will not
put an end to Northern attempts to interfere
with Southern institutions" 1t will not close
that long series OF assaults on the doctrine of
State independence which began with the anti
slavery agitation, and which conservatives pre-
dict will culmlnate before long in the establish
ment of a centralized government
And the reason Is simply this, that ideas of
natural justice and right have so thoroughly
permeated politics In all civilized countries
that no conventional arrangement whether
\ treaty, enactment or constitution, can prevent
men from declaiming against what they consi-
der wrong or unjust whether it concerne them
selves or not. This is one of the most striking
| characteristics OF our age, and all abuses are
slowly going dowO before it. The condition of
| Poland has been OF no sort of material conse.
quence to the rest OF the world for the last CEN
| tury, and yet the talk and opinions of the rest
! of the world about it have made Poland thorn
| in the side of Russia, which, giant as she is,
never gives her moments rest. The Austrian
| dominion in Italy was secured by the most
powerful guarantees that the wit of man can
devise, and yet II has fallen before the opinions
of men whom Austria had never injured, and to
whom her policy in Venice or Lombardy was OF
no sort OF personal consequence. The con-
dition Of The work ing-casses in England is,
conVentonally considered, mo effair OF ours
and yet there is no question that oul
talk about II, and about human rights
generally, and the efforts we are daily making