The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-02-06
Pronunciation Of Congress.

energy and decision which the state of our cur,
rency, finances, and taxes imperativey requires.
Whatever is 10 be done with regard to these |
should have been promptly done, so that indus |
try and business might have adjusted themselves !
TO the policy OF the Government, instead of
being exposed TO shipwrock through nOn.con-
formity. Men are buying, hiring, renting for
the year before us; and any great change here
after made at this session win bear hardly on
thousands. Yet changes must be made. We
must get back to solvency forthwith; for an
unsound currency is always o grave peril and
may at any moment evoke whirlwind OF com
mercial disaster. There is no safety but in get
ting back to currency at par with specie at the
earliest moment. How long it will take TO
reach this end is question; it may take years,
as some say. or months only, as we think; bat
there should be no delay in initiating vigorous,
determined efforts to get back TO hard-pan so
soon as may be. Unavoidable insolvency Is
misfortune only; calculated persistent, pur-
posed insolvency, is at once blunder, perI
and crime.
regard TO the currency, but tor It's earnest endea
voTs to render the freedom OF four millions just
released from lifelong bondage substantial and
abiding-not for its disregard of the public laith
but for its devotion thereto. For years, the
champions OF slavery have been warning us that
the liberation OF the slaves would result in their
extermination-th they would be far worse OF
in freedom than in bondage-that they would be
ground to powder under the heel OF 'the superior
race,n ii they should ever be deprivss OF the pro-
lection afforded them by the interest and atec-
tion of their masters. And there are many lactS
occurring at the South which prove these admo-
nitions not wholly idle. Leave the blacks of the
South to such protection as the ruling caste Is
disposed to accord them, and as is evinced IN
the burning of their schoUlhouses, in the legis-
Iative denial OF their right to testify in courts,
and in conspiracies refuse them theprivllege OF
buying of renting lands, and they may very pos
sibly be brought to regret that they were ever
guided ''out OF the house OF bondage"
Mr.. 1rumbull's two bls-to enlarge the pow
ers OF the Freedmen's Bureau, and TO protect all
the American people in their natural civil
rigbts-are VIGOROUSLY demanded by and
adapted to our existing state of facts. II the
laws and usages OF the Southern States were
Just and equal, they would be superiuous.
They are needed simply because at the South
black man, solely because he IS black, is denied
the common rights of human beings-is treated
as having no rights that whites are bound ID
respect. The laws of the South, and still more
the dominant opinion and spirit of the South,
treat the blacks as brutes rather than men. All
this will pass away; but, meantime, good many
of the humber race will be starved or lashsd TO
death, unless Congress shall protect them. This,
and nothing more, is what Mr.. Trumbulrs bills
aim to do--what they seem admirably calculated
to do; and Congress is not merely justified in
passing them-it could not fail TO do so without
gross and cruel violation OF public faith.
Now, look again at the Constitutional Amend
ment, which has passed the House, and which
we trust will soon pass the Senate, and see what
it provldes:- ..... .ft...f..
Article -. Representatives shall be appoTtioned
among the several States which may be included
within the Union according to their respective num-
bers counting the whole number Of persons IN each
state, excluding Indians not taxed: provided, that
whenever the elective franchise shall be denied or
abridged in any State, on account OF race or CO or,
all persons of such race co or shall be excluded
from the basis OF representation"
What is nrOng in this article? What Is
harsh, proscriptiye, or oppressive? South Caro-
lima sees fit to say, Negroes have no right to
form portion OF our body polite; we will not
educate their children; nor seek to qualify them
for benefcent exercise of the right of suffrage;
nor let them vote" Every well, then," says
Congress, your blacks shall count at your own
estimate of their capacities in making up your
basis OF representation in Congress; and so with
those OF every State" If this is not far ard
equal, what could be? Is it not monstrous to
insist that they shall have no voice in public
affairs, yet that those who stihe that voice. and
insist that it is unfit to be heard, shall enjoy
double power on their account-tour millions OF
blacks atiording the basis whereon blacks are to
be Kept dumb and fettered eveImore?
II there ever was a proposition truly con-
serVatIVe, we claim that character for this
amendment. 1t leaves the right OF suffrage to
be regulated by the States; but it supplies them
with the strongest motives for regulating 1t
wisely, Justly, humanely. 1t puts the rights Of
every race or caste under the guardianship OF
torce as potent and pervasive as gravltation.
1t can be denounced and abused; but who has
seen an attempt to prove II unfair or unjust
And yet the daily press OF this city almost
unanim ously assails Congress as though it were
gathering of lunatcs or 6ends, and compares
the leading members with those demagogueJ
whose names are blackened with the eXecration
of history. Our sham neutrals are all at the
head OF the hunt. vieng with the Daily Netos
In the fercer of their d,atribes. Never before
was Congress go vllliged; and hardly ever was
one which had so little deserved it. l..J
The impulse TO these senseless inVectiyes Is
largely supplied by our importing interest,
which sees no prospect of breaking down the
protective features OF our Tariff unless the
UnlOnst party can be overwhelmed by an in
PRODUCTION OF the ex.Rebels into Congr sss in the
greatest possible force, joined with Copperhead
revival at the North which shall bring the atfil-
ated factions into power. Then the Tariff must
be Tecast to suit the interests of foreign rivalry
TO our mines and factories and heaps OF money
coined by the importers prior to the grand
smash certain TO follow. But the coalition hai
not yet triumphed.i t...1 ... .N.
Affairs In the SOuth-The Adjustment o.
Matters between Employers and the En-
plOyed.
From the Times.
To justify their continued warfare upon tn
South, the radicals find it necessary to allege tn
existence of a hostile unmauageable spiri
among the people lately in rebellion, and 9
disposition to bear unjustly and even cruell
upon the oolored population. Both allegation
are essential to the radical programme. Let
be once admitted that throughout the South
siucere acceptance of Federal authority prevails
and that genuine determination exists to wor
well under the altered circumstances of the wal
and the pains and penalties which the agitatol
nrOnOap WOuld not admit of dafenaa from thei