The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1866-06-30

sion 81 fiisloyaiio or disqualified members into
the House OF Senate, it is ia the power of
each branch to provide by refusing such atl-
mission, Each by the constitution is made
.fhe judgeof the election. returns and quail
fications of its own members. Ne other de-
partment can interfere with it. Its decision
concludes all others. The only corrective,
when error is committed, is to befound in
the responsibility of the members to the peo-
pie. But it is believed by the undersigned
to be the clear duty of each house respec-
lively to admit to seats any Senator or Rep
-resentative who has been elected according
to the constitutional laws of the State, and
who is able and willing to subscribe to the
oath required by constitutional law.
1t is conceded that sit would undoubtedly
be competent for Congress to waive all for
malities and to admit those Confederate
States at once, trusting that time and expe-
rience would set all things right" 1t is not
therefore, owing, to a want of constitutional
power that it is not done. 1t is not because
snch States are not States with republican
forms of government. The exclusion must
therefore rest on considerations of safety or
of expediency alone The first, that of
safety, we have already considered, and, as
we think, proved it to be without foundation.
Is there any ground for the latter expedi-
ency? We think not. On the contrary, in
our Judgment their admission is called for by
clude territorial area of $50, 900 square miles,
an area larger than that of five of the leading
nations of Europe. They have a coast line
of three thousand miles, with an internal
water line including the Mississippi, ofabout
thirty thousand miles, Their agricul-
tural products in 1850 were about $500 00O,-
900 invalue, and their population 1864, $50.
Their staple productions are of immense and
growing Importance and are almost peculiar
to that region. That the North is deeply
interested in having such country and
people restored to all the rights and privi-
leges the constitution affords, no sane man,
not blinded by mere party considerations, or
not victim of disordering prejudice, can for
moment doubt. Such a restoration is also
necessary to the peace of the country 1t is
not only important but vital to the potential
wealth which that portion of our country is
capable of. 1t cannot otherwise be fully de-
vcloped. Every hour of illegal political re-
straint every hour the possession of the rights
the constitution gave is denied, is not only
in political but material sense, of great
injury to the North well as to the South.
The Southern planter works for his Northern
brethren as well as for himself His labors
heretofore Injured as much, if not more, to
their advantage to his. While harmony
in the past between the sections gave to the
whole prosperity, power and a renown
of which every citizen had reason to be proud,
the restoration of such harmony will i'm
measurably increase them all. Can it, will
it, be restored as long as the South is kept
in political and dishonoring bondage? And
can it not, will it not be restored by an OPP
posite policy9 By admitting her to all the
rights of the constitution, and by dealing
with her citizens equals and as brothers,
not as interiors and enemies. Such course
as this will, we are certain, be seen to bind
them heart and soul to the Union, and inspire
them with confidence in its government by
making them feel that all enmity is forgotten,
and that justice is being done to them. The
result of such policy, we believe, will at
once make us in very truth one people, as
happy, as prosperous and as powerful as ever
existed at any period of time while its op-
posite will keep us divided, injrriously affect
the particular and general welfare of citizen
and government, and if long persisted in can
but result in danger to the nation. In the
words of an eminent British statesman, now
no more, "a free constitution and large ex-
clusion from its benefits canont subsist to-
gether; the constitution will destroy them,
or they will destroy the constitution" 1t is
hoped that, needing the warning, we shall
guard against the peril by removing its
cause.
The undersigned have not thought it neces-
saryy to examine into the legality of the
measures adopted, either by the late or the
present President, for the restoration of the
Southern States. 1t is sufficient for their
purpose to say that if those of President
johnson are not justified by the constitution,
the same may at least be said of those of his
predecessor. We deem such an examination
to be unnecessary, however it might result,
the people of the several States who posses
sed, as we have before said, the exclusive
right to decide for themselves what constitu-
ton they should adopt have adopted those
constitutions under which they respectively
live. The motives of neither, however, whe-
ther the measures are legal or not legal are
liable to censure. The sole object of each
was to effect complete and early union of
all the States; to make the general government
as it did at first, embrace all the States; to
extend its authority and secure its privileges
and blessings to all alike. The purity of mo-
tive of President johnson in this particular,
as was to have been expected is admitted by
the majority of the committee to be beyond
doubt, so that, whatever may have been the
unconstitutionality of his course and its ten
dency to enlarge the executive power, they do
not for moment impute to him any such
design, but cheefully concede to him the
most patriotic motives" And we cannot for
bear to say, in conclusion, that he sins against
light and closes his eyes to the course of the
President during the rebellion who ventures
to impeach his patriotism. Surrounded by
insurrectionists, he stood firm. His life was
almost constantly in peril, and he chung to
Union, and discharged all the obligations it
imposed upon him even the closer because of
the peril and now that he has escaped un-
harmed, and by the confidence of the people
has had devolved upon him the executive
functions of the government, to charge him
with disoyalty is either folly or a crime
folly in the fool who believes it, crime in the
man of sense Gf any such there beg who as
serts it. s7E
SENArE-REVERDY JOHNSON, of Md.
uor,v,, HENRY order, of XIV. %
ANDREW J ROGERS, N. J.
.---.-.5 - .
q NEGRO Riot IN CHARLES ToN.-The Char
lesion Neacs of the 25th, gives an account of
negro riot which occurred in Charleston last
Gu do ;al, IL