Daily Richmond Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1865-1869, 1866-04-16
The Test Oath.

What avails repentance when il is treated IN
the same manner as continuance in sin p
What avsils loyalty if dealt with as disloyalty
mote contentment and loyalty among the
popular masses by recognizing and encour-
aging them. This is the secret Of President
JoHNsON's popularity in the South. We feel
that he trusts us, and that he appreciates our
professions and pledges at their real value.
Nothing, we believe, would do more to at
tach the Southern people to the Government
than the repeal or relaxation of the test
oath. To say that men shall neither vote nor
hold Office because they once took part in
movements which they had been educated to
believe were legitimate, and could not pro
perly be pronounced and dealt with as reOel-
lion, and which, we venture to say, three
fourths of our Presidents have so regarded, Is
to keep upon them the brand Of traitors after
they have resolved in good faith to render
obedience and support to the Government. 1t
has been shown, time and again, and every
BODY knows that there was marked difference
between the movement Of secession and Ordi-
nary revolution, between the assertion Of State
sovereignty and treason. More than two
thirds Of the whole South, and half the
North, maintained the doctrine Of State So
yereigty and the right Of secession. Wheni
ls6O-'6l it was proposed to resort to it, tle
Southern people did not retire to dark cavernS
to discuss it as a thing forbidden and sinful
They discussed it in the open light Of day.
Their sentiments and purposes were proclaimed
in the National Capital, on the floor Of the
House of Representatives, in the Senate cham
Der, in the hearing of the Supreme Court, and
in the presence of the Executive head Of the
nation. They only proclaimed the faith in
which they had been educated, and really felt
that they were but exercising constitu-
tional right. Treason does not thus go
about its unholy work. Conscious Of its
criminality, its plots are conducted in secrecy.
We say, therefore, that Government should
discriminate between the two cases, and not
punish the former as it would the latter. Is
pecially should this discrimination be made
since those who participated in secession now
accept in good faith, and with unexampled
unanimity, the conclusion evolved from the
logic of war-that secession is not a right of the
States Fair dealing, magnanimity and COM
mon sense demand that such men should be
placed upon an honorable footing, so that they
may be useful to themselves and to their cOun-
try, and so also that they may be encouraged
by seeing that their fellOw-cOuntrymen rather
regard them as having committed a fatal error
than a degrading crime.
The continuance, under such circumstances,
of the test oath, cannot result in any possible
good; it will certainly be productive of harm.
1t will not keep men, who mediate mischief,
out of office, for there are none in the South
who mediate such mischief. II will not keep
out secessionists, for. there are none who main
tain that doctrine. 1t will not keep out pro-
slavery men, for all have renowned, by oath,
property in the negro forever. The repeal Of
that oath will be attended with many good re-
suits II will make us feel that the unpleaS-
ant memories of the past have been buried; it
will give US the evidence that our SIN
cerity is trusted it will cause us to feel
that not alone in name but in sympa-
thy, in participation in privileges, and in
rights, we are part and parcel Of the United
States. 1t will bring into requisition, and con-
tribute to the Government, the talent, learning
and energy of the South. In word, the re-
peal Of the test oath would be the ObliteratiOn OF
sectional enmity and the restoration of all the
intellectual, moral and political forces of the
country.