The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1866-07-24
.n17ss1or or TENNESSEE.

ratification of the Constitutional Amendment |
by the Legislature Of Tennessee, providing
far the admission of the memhers from that
State meets many useful ends. Itshows tha'
the Congress has adopted its policy to perfect
the unity of the country in good faith.
has been charged by Mr.. Johnson's Southern
rebel and Northern Copperhead and wax-6g-
ger supporters, that it was the purpose OF the
radical majority in Congress, TO prevent any
restoration of the Union. This charge Is
met and refuted by the admission Of Tennes'
see. 1t shows that the Congressional plan is
practicable, feasible and safe. Tennessee
leading in loyal action during the war, has
headed the columns of perfected reconstrnc-
ton on safe and enduring basis. While
Moses is making raids upon the loyal SEN
timent of the country, trying to crush out the
Union party, concentrating Southern rebel
sentiment, counting Butternut support, and
playing the apostate for the sake of con-
tinued lease of executive place Con-
gress, the representative of the people, and
of patriotism, is perfecting the unity of the
Republic by insisting upon the performance
of conditions lenient to a late rebellious peo-
pie, vet necessary for the defence of Right,
Liberty and the Union. Had the President
been faithful and backed the people srepresen-
tativel treason would not have became again
rampant, would not have sought to gain po-
litcal control of the government, bnt thank
full TO escape so easily, the Southern people
would have accepted at once the Congression-
al plan, and we would have had in short
time, the machinery of the government in
good working order, rebels submissive to its
authority and willing to do justice to all the
people, black or white.
BREAD-AND-BUTTE CONsERvA-
vATIsM VS.. LOYALTY.
In the address of Stokes, Fowler, HAArL-
TON. and their fellow Unionists to the loyal
people OF the South, in their call for Union
Convention, their words are pitched in key
vastly different from the disguised but patent
Butternutism of the Congressional delegation
Of the reconstructed. The men signing this
call are true Southern loyalsts men who
ness of secession and rebellion. These meet
the wax iggers Northern sympathizers and
unrepentant rebels with earnest words. They
declare the obvious truth, that either the
lovers of constitutional liberty must iule the
nation, or rebels and their sympathizers be
permitted to misrule it." They state the ma.
tional issue in a single interrogatory, "Shall
loyalty or disloyalty have the keeping Of the
destinies of the nation These genuine
Southern Mon men shame the twaddle of
the any Policy" Conservatives, and meet the
impudent assumptions OF the rebel democracy
by their forcible statement of the political
situation. They say:
We have seen this doctrine of State sove
reignty carried out in its practical results I'M,
til all authority in Congress was denied. the
Union temporarily destroyed, the Constitu>
tional rights ofthe citizens of the South near>
" annihilated, and the land desolated by civil
war The time has come when the structure
of the Southern States governments must be
aid on constitutional principles, or the
despotism grown up under an atrpcious
leadership be permitted to remain. We
know of no other plan than that Congress,
under its constitutional power, shall now ex-
ercise its authority to establish the princi-
ipie whereby protection is made CO.
extensive with citizenship. We maintain
that no State, either by its organic law or
legislation, can make transgression on the
rights Of the citizen legitimate. We demand,
and ask you to concur in demanding, pro.
lection to every citizen of the great republic
on the basis of equity before the law ; and fur
Their, that no State government should be re-
cognized as legitimate under the Constitution
in so far as it does not by its organic law
make impartial protection full and complete.
Under the doctrine of State sovereignty, with
rbels in the foreground controlling Southern
legislatures aud embittered by disappoint
ment in their schemes TO destroy the Union,
there will be no safety for the the loyal ele
ment Of the South. Our reliance for pro
lection is nov on Congress and the great
Union party, that has stood and is standing
by he nationality, by the constitutional rights
Of the citizens, and by the benefcent princi
pies of free government.