The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-01-25


Hon. EDGAR CowAN.-Certain journals in
various parts of the State have taken occasion,
in their discussion relative to the United
States Senatorship, which will be vacant In
1867, to make some reflections on the conduct
Of the present occupant of the Senatorial
chair, the Hon. EDGAR CowAN. While It is
not our purpose to defend all Of the actions of
Mr.. CowAN during his term of office, yet at
the same time we must give him praise for the
honest, manly, and conscientious course pur-
sued by him while at Washington. He has
not been very traF table in party harness, and
has several times merited the rebukes of
those who hold that caucus action is omnipo-
tent; but to those who admire a sincere and
honest legislator, Senator whose own con-
scientious opinions have formed his conduct,
and who has never been swerved from his
path of duty, the course Of the Senator from
the Keystone State has received the warmest
admiration. He is a man after President
JoHNsoNs own heart, one who follows the
line of policy marked out by his own, and not
by the sentiments of others. While, therefore,
as a party man he has not been a paragon of
obedience, yet, as a conscientious legislator
he commands our respect. We bear this tribute
to his excellence because his honor has been
impugned by certain opposition journals, as
well as by number of our New York radi-
cal contemporaries. Let each man have his
due, but because man breaks certain party
restrictions do not deprive him of the credit of
a conscientious course OF action.
THE RECENT and only report of the Com
mittee on Reconstruction, which was made on
Monday, is an amendment to the Constitu-
ton providing that
Representative and direct taxes shall be ap-
portioned among the several States which may
be included within this Union, according to
the whole number of persons In each State, eX
cluding Indians not taxed: provided, that when
ever the elective franchise shall be denied or
abridged in any State on account of color, all
persons OF such race or color shall be excluded
from :he basis Of representation"
The design of this amendment is to compel
the Southern States to ADMIT their negro pOpu-
lation to the ballot-box, under the penalty of
losing large portion of their representatives
The arguments in favor of such an action we
gave at length in this journal last week. The
principal reason why It's passage is the most
legal and thorough way of reaching a fraud
from which Congress is debarred by the Const-
tuition, may be briefly summed up. 1t leaves the
question entirely to the States. 1t legalizes
representation. 1t sustains the doctrine OF
taxation being apportioned to representation,
and holds forth an inducement to the States
to extend to the blacks the right of suffrage.
OF its passage by Congress there can be but
little DOUBT while it is not at all probable that
the States will refuse to adopt it. 1t is a
simple act of justice, not to the blacks, for
the privilege of suffrage as right they can
not claim, but to the Northern mechanic,
whose vote has heretofore been of but halt
the value Of that of a Southern dirt-eater.
THE HOME OF HENRY CLAY.-Ashland,
the home of the "Great Paciflcator," has
passed out of the hands of the descendants
and will hereafter belong to the State of Ken
lucky. as the site of an Agricul tural School
During the Rebellion the heirs of HENRY
CLAY disgraced the memory of their sire, by
an active sympathy with the very treason
that the father spent his life in battling. The
old homestead, one of the finest estates in
Kentucky, should be public property, as il
was the scene of the domestic felicity, and the
repository of the bones, OF one of the greatest
men our country has produced If his elo
quent voice could have been heard before the
first gun was fred at Sumter, we believe that
our great carnage would have been avoided