The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-11-12
The Rejection Of the Constitutional
Amendment.

The Rejection Of the COnstItutlonaI
Amendment.
ErOm tie Tribune.
Thus far. there has been no important move
ment in anyof the Rebel States IN favor of the
Constitutional amendment, unless we except
the attempt to elect General Dockery, in North
Carolina, as a representative of its principles.
There Is certainly an earnest and intelligent
party in the South which approves it, and iu-
cludes not only loyalists, but the more mode
rate of the late Rebels. Yet this minority is
powerless. In North Carolina, Governor Worth
was elected by majority of over twenty thou
sand on platform which repudated the amend.
ment; in South Carolina, Governor Orr advises its
rejection; in Mississippi, Governor Humphreys
has taken the same ground; in Georgia, Cover
nor Jenkins in his message, described it as
degradation the South could not endure, and
the Legislature will certainly reject it; in Texas
it has been formally rejected by vote OF 20 10 D.
Thus five OF the ten States have IN eHect re-
FUSED TO accept the terms offered, auu the tome
oil the press in the others leaves hLtle room 10
doubt oil their rejection by all. Encouraged Dy
the President, and mised by the PROMISES OF
the Northern Democratsy the HeDels auect 10
consider as GishoneIable an offer which at the
end OF the war they would have been too happy
10 accept. MIR Johnson has drawn them up in
battle array, and their allies in the Rebellion
stand with them as of old. The South still pre-
sents united front to the North, and Is as ready
to fight now as 1t was in lS6l-more ready, per
haps, having more trust In It's weapons. With
the President willing to do its bidding it is pre-
pared to meet the issue with Congress, and
trusts as it did through the war, that by long
stubbornness it will tire out the North, and
compel it TO submit.
The commercial interests of the free States. it
believes, VIII finally compel an adjustment
upon any conditions; Northern merchants may
like principle but they love money; the North
xuNl. VII N Il hat El,nC
In this faith, the Re6el States are prepared to
stay out of the Union until they can re.enter
upon their own terms. They look back upon
the Rebellion with open regret for its failure,
and deny that il was wrong; they Indignantly
plead not guilty to the charge of treason, and
spurn the suggestion that any penalty attaches
to their acts. Haughty and scornful they claim
absolute equality with the loyal States, a4d
challenge them to the contest Who shall Won
der at their pride? Astounding IN ITSELF il has
ceased TO seem so, for the South has had every
announcement and Temptation to assume this
domlneerlng attitude. Not q Rebel has been
convicted of treason, and even JEFF. Davis is
likely to be liberated without irial. BY a usurDa-
ton OF the President, the Rebels were allowed
to organize state governments, and suddenly.
TO their great astonishment found themselves
the masters OF every Union man in the South.
Ihe civil Rights bill passed by CONGRESS,
thanks to the President is almost dead letter,
and Rebel Judges declare 1t unconstitutional.
The Freedmen's Bureau is unable TO protect the
freedmen, and in nearly every Southern State
the new labor laws Iestabllsh sertdom in the
stead of slavery. Union men were massacred
in New Orleans, and the President justified the
act, and has refused TO punish the assassins.
The Southern States we're not only tempted, but
were almost forced to resist the VIII of the
loyal nation. The Rebel leaders pushed them,
the Copperheads coaxed them, and the PTes-
dent dragged them into the support OF his
policy, and into defiance OF the representa-
tives OF the people in the Congress OF the United
States.
This was the situation up 10 November 6.
How far the Union triumph will change South
ern policy 1t is too early to Judge; but it is
safe to assume that the amendment will not be
adopted. The opposition has gone too far. But
the North will not receGe from its demand for
sufficient guarantees; the amendment may be-
come part of the Constitution without the
ratification of the Rebel States, and therefore,
the South may be shrewd enough to disarm
coercion by making an offer of ITS own. The
third section of the amendment receives rhe
bitteTest opposition in the South, as it dis
qualified many OF It's most influential leaders;
and they will not consent to ratify an article
which iorbids them to hold civil or military
Office. We believe that these leaders sincerely
prefer universal suffrage with universal amnesty
to the amendment, and trust that when they
toresee, as they now must, the necessity of
choice, they will freely make it.
We cannot expect it at once, out if the North
is true, and ii in the South there is honesty and
courage enough to look the situation IN the
face, It must come in the end. Impartial suf-
trage will render the conditions OF the third
section unnecessary; it wIll solve all the Ques
tions in dispute; it Will sausfy the free States,
without imposing solitary penalty for rebel
lion. II would be the highest wisdom for the
Rebel States to make this offer; iC would be
more than shrewdness, II would be statesman.
ship. They know now that the North is re-
solved, and Will remain resolved. Either the
amendment or the concession, which
makes the amendment superhous, is demanded,
and the offer OF impartial suffrage by the South,
answered with universal amnesty BY the North,
would be the trst honest compromise in fifty
years. strife; it would be the union OF the two
sections upon principle which would make
future compromise unnecessary.