New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-10-04
Another word to the sonth.

7
casoned by the war, has inraising the standard Of
| her legislation. By single act she has made all
the children of her soil, whatever their color,
equal before the law. The civil rights act is no
| longer necessary in that State; the local laws
| hencef0rth will protect the freedman.
For our part, as our readers already know, we
have always trusted in the reforming influence of
| free institutions. Give the blacks their liberty.
| we have said, and you introduce an element off
change which, gradually and constantly active,
| will at no distant day secure to them both civil
and political rights. It is the wedge put into the
mountain, which, by its own vast weight, will in
the end cleave its way to the bottom. South Car
ona has taken an early opportunity of ilIustrat-
ing this truth, so far as the civil rights of the ne
gro are concerned, and we earnestly hope that the
other States lately in rebellion will dismiss with
I equal readiness the prejudices which obstruct an
act of simple justice, and follow her noble eX-
ample.
Butthere is another step which the States lately
in revolt should take, more Immediately impor-
tant both to their own welfare and that OF the
Union-a step certain at once to disarm the
jealousy which now keeps them from any share
to say, we think that we have fully earned right
| to the sober and earnest attention of Southern
| men. In the desire we have expressed to see them
represented in Congress; in the plea which we
| have SO often made for recognising them as parts
of our great Union, and entitled to voice in
| framing the laws under which they are to lye in
| the circumstances which we have made against
continuing year after year to treat them as subJu-
/ "
| have incurred obloquy and misrepresentation to
degree Of which they can hardly form an idea.
We have claim, therefore, to be regarded as
speaking without hostility or prejudice, and as
giving them counsels which deserve to be con-
! sidered and carefully weighed before rejecting
them.
We say, then, that it is the part Of prudence,
the dictate of a wise forecast and an enlightened
craftsmanship that the late slave States should,
without delay, adopt the amendments to the Con
stitution proposed by Congress.
1t has been said, we know, tnat by adopting
4 these amendments the States which attempted to
secede will abjectly submit to an arbitrary condi.
ton and stand degraded in the eyes of the world
and their own. Let us brush away that fgment.
II there were anything unjust in the operation of
the amendments, there would be some ground for
the objection made--but the thuth is, there is no
faint Of injustice in the amendments, nor are they
demanded as a condition OF the return OF the
States to their proper place in the federal govern
ment. Congress has not said: Accept these
amendments and we will admit your representa-
tYes to the federal legislature. On the contrary,
it has proposed them to all the States-to New
York, to Connecticut to the Western States, in
which negro suffrage is unpopular; it has simply
4 asked the whole sisterhood of States to sanction
certain changes in the organic law Of the Union,
without the promise OF any other advantage than
the satisfaction of having improved its provisions
Then as to its justice--there is nothing more
manifestly just than that if the colored race are
not allowed to vote, the same principle should be
applied which forbids State to make the Indian
in Congress. The aboriginal tribes dwelling in
this and other States do not take part in our cleo
tons and accordingly the federal Constitution ex-
pressly excludes them from the population upon
which representatives are apportioned. The rea-
son is clear: the members OF Congress elected by
the white race are in no sense representatives Of
the Indian tribes, In like manner the representa-
tives of South Carolina and Georgia. elected by
whites only. cannot be considered as the repre-
sentatives of the colored in those States and
while this is so, the people Of color should be eX
cluded in the enumeration OF inhabitants, accord
ing to which the number of representatives is ap-
portioned. The justice of the other amendments
we fully showed the other day.
r Now, inasmuch as the amendments proposed
: are Just, and inasmuch as they are not accom-
panied with any threato Of DISTINGUISHING the South
ern States if they not adopted, we do not see
what degradation is implied in adopting them.
The disgrace, if it falls anywhere, will fail upon
f those who refuse to do what is clearly just.
2 All must see that if the representatives of the
Southern States are admitted into Congress as the
Constitution now stands, these States will berepre-
scented by larger number Of members than they
a would send under any equitable apportionment
and this with many is the motive for keeping them
out of Congress at present. There is real greY-
ance at the bottom OF this reluctance to admit
> them, and shall we say that it will degrade the
South to consent that this grievance shall be re-
, moved? On the contrary, is it not the fair and
manly course to remove the occasion of complaint
at once?
It's often said by the politicians of the South
. and by others from that quarter, that having been
beaten ia the war against the Union, they accept
the situation to which they have been reduced
and are ready faithfully TO conform themselves tc
+ it. Let US say to them that the adoption of the
s proposed amendments is one important part Of
that situation. They will be adopted eventually
and inevitably-at least that most essential one
Il which relates to the apportionment of represent
atves in Congress, whether the late slave States
!, ratify them or not. Every new State which comes
into the Union Jealous of its own fair share in the
privilege of legislation, will adopt it at once:
Carve new State out OF the, northern part OF
Texas, and the State will not allow the southern
part, with voting population less than their own,
to outnumber them in its representatives. The
vast Northwest, with all its brood Of embryo
. States, only waits to be filled up with popula-
ton already beginning to overrun its waste places
i and its united voice will be given for the amend
ments Of the Constitution. 1t is the policy of the
Il States, therefore, which number a large cOlOred
!. population, gracefully and speedily to conform
d themselves to a necessity which they can by
no means escape-in other words, to accept il
sincerity all the results of their failure in the late
| revolt.
Although Congress has not made the adoption
T. of these amendments the basis Of any plan of re
constructing the Union, yet themoment they are
adopted the people will demand that it be made
so. They are sometimes falsely called q plan O
), reconstruction, although Congress refused tt
l. couple their adoption with promise that the rep
resentatives of the Southern States should there
upon be admitted to their seats But let tbs
% South give that undeniable and irresistible evi
5SON
arise from adopting these amendments, and thu
g. people will force Congress to open its doors tt
r. the representatives of the South.
ID There are those in Congress and out of Con
ct gress who would be glad to seize upon any pre-
he text for continuing to govern the Southern States
IS as they are governed now. But they are not
d, majority, either in Congress or out Of it, TIL
ID adoption of the amendments by the Souther
ID States would sweep them away as by food
a, Those Of them who now aspire to lead in the dc
9, alterations of Congress would be compelle
re- either to unite their voices with the popular de
a. mand, or wholly lose the influence they so pas
d. sonately coyet. A few would be bitterly disaI
n. pointed; the many would rejoice; the distrust
~ the South, which is now so prevalent and SO il
rR tense in the States which remained faithful to tn
Id Union, would give way, and the Southern State
NO which cheerfuly gave it their sanction would lin
to the fact recorded in history to their honor
nd ave must in the meantime frankly state our col
T. viction that the adoption of these amendments
ie the Constitution would ere long be followed
! a granting the right of suffrage to the black rae
If there be any to whom this shall seem sutfciel
,e. reason for refusing their assent TO the PROPOSE
changes. let them remember that no resistance
theirs can prevent them from being made, al
cir that whatever may be their aversion to Negro So
err frage, more than three-fourt of the States W
no refuse to let the colored race be counted in Il
,F,