Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1866-12-11
RESOLVING STATES INTO TERRI
TORIES.

Pennsylvania, offered the following res0-
luton in the House Of Representatives
On the 4th instant
Resolved, That the Committee on Ter
ritories be instructed to inquire into the
sxpediency of reporting a bill providing
Territorial governments for the several
districts Of country formerly occupied by
the once existing States Of Virginia North |
South Carolina, Georgia, Florida,
Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas,
and Texas, and giving 20 all adult male in
habitants born within the limits Of the /
United States, OF duly naturalized and not |
participants in the late rebellion, full equal
political rights in such Territorial govern
ments."
This resolution was adopted by the
very decided vote Of lO7 to 81. All who |
voted for the adoption of the resolution
belong to the Radical party. Eight Re-
publcans and twenty-nine Democrats !
voted against it.
1t will be noticed with what studied
effort this resolution treats the Southern
States not as States but as districts of
country formerly occupied by the once
existing States which are named This
is, we believe, the first formal declaration
by the House Of Representatives OF the
State suicide doctrine Of Wendell Phil
lips and Charles sumner. Its an eyiN
dence of toe pro lress we are making that
had such a resolution been offered three
or four years ago, it would undoubtedly
have secured the expulsion of the man
who had the temerity to boldly recognize
the doctrine Of the secessionists We
have the proof Of this in n resolution
offered in the House Of Representatives
on the 1th of December, 1862, by Thad-
Stevens, in which it was declared shat
this Union must be and remain one and
indivisible forever, and that if any
person in the employment Of the United
States, in either the legislative or ex-
ecutive branch, should propose to make
peace, or should accept or advise the ac-
eeptanee Of any such proposition on any
other basis than the integrity and entire
unity of the United States and their ter
ritories as they existed at the time OF the
rebellion, he will be guilty Of high
crime" Only four years have elapsed,
and this same Thad Stevens now stulti-
fies himself by voting for the resolution
Of Mr.. Broomall which declares that the
Southern States no longer exist as states
Mr. Stevens resolution clearly shows that
any member who would have offered
such resolution in the thirty-seventh
Congress, or even in the first session of
tire thirty-eighth Congress, he would have
been expelled as traitor. Now the
thing can De done with IMMUNITY. This
shows wonderful progress in four years.
The spirit of Mr. Bro email resolution is
directly opposed to the whole policy OF
Mr.. Lincoln's administration, and to the
theory upon which the war was fought.
Throughout the contest it was asserted
that the war was waged simply to assert
the supremacy Of the constitution and the
Union, and It is a conceded fact that the
war could not have been carried on upon
any other idea than the entirety Of the
Union. The first wish Of Mr. Lincoln
heart, apparently, was to restore the
Union as it existed at the time of his first
election, after providing for the abolition
of slavery. 1t is even asserted that in
insisting upon the latter condition in the
last year of the war, he was at issue with
a majority of the people Of the North, who
would have been well content to have Sc
cured the Union, leaving the question OF
slavery to be settled at a future time. 1t is
further asserted that his celebrated note
"To whom it May Concern, and delivered
to the Confederate agents at Niagara
Falls, through Horace Greeley, in June
1864, did not satisfy the North bessuse il
made the abolition of slavery a condition
Of peace on the basis Of the Union. The
New York Times probably expressed the
public sentiment of the day, in stating
that Mr. Lincoln had no authority to re-
quire any such stipulation He found
none in the constitution, and his oath Of
Office, it said, bound him to accept the &C
knowledgment Of the supremacy of the
fundamental law by the South as the viz
tual REIMBURSEMENT of the rebellion We
thus see how wonderfully matters have
changed since the day when it was con-
sidered doubtful whether the Southern
States could be conquered
The object Of Mr. Broomalrs resolu
ton is plainly indicated in the concluding
sentence 1t is to disfraRchise the great
body, perhaps nine-tcnts, oGthe Southern
people, and place the political powei
Of tho South in the hands Of the ne
groes. This is done in the hope thai
the negroes will 80 vote as to give the con-
troll Of affairs to the Radical party. BY
the adoption of the policy Swallowed forth
in this resolution, the Radicals would be
enabled to elect their candidate for Presi
dent in 1868, and then they would be vii
ling 10 admit the States organized mainly
by negro votes in the South This is the
boldest attempt that has yet been made
to dissolve the Union and to hand over
that portion which the Conlederates, ac-
cording to the result Of the war, failed tc
get out of the Union, to the control of the
negro population of the South II isthus
that the House Of Representatives, by q
vote of lO1 70 81, has dee AIRED that the
Coniederates gained the principle for
which they fought that they did not sue.
coed in establishing andmaintaining theft
government simply because they were
overpowered by superior numbers, buI
shat they did succeed in destroying the
unity Of the States. After all the ex.
penditure of blood and treasure for the
preservation of the Union, the nation and
the world now learn that "the war 70
save the life Of the nation was a farce.
This, then, is the solution Of the Radical
plan Of reconstruction-the Southern
States have committed suicide, and must
be handed over to the negroes for terri~