The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-11-02

The Next Presidency ana the Southern
From the Herald.
will the ten Southern states excluded from
the pres ent Congress- viz, Virginia, North and
South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama,
Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas be
allowed to vote in the next Presidential cleo
tion ? This is question OF some importance to
those States and to the country at large; but
we think that it may be even now decisively
answered We have no doubt whatever that
the admission of said States into the Presidential
election OF 1858 win depend upon their admis-
sion beforehand into Congress, and that this
admission will depend upon the ratification Of
the pending Constitutional amendment by each
State directly concerned or by the constitutional
three-fourths of all the States required to make
the amendment part OF the supreme law of the
land.
The whole number of the States of the Union
is now thirty-six. Within another year or so
Colorado and Nebraska may be admitted, which
will make the whole number thirty-eight. But
take it at thlrty-siX, the three-fourths required
to consummate q Constitutional amendment
will be twenty-seven, the number upon which
the Secretary Of State officially proclaimed the
amendment abolisbing audEprohibiting slavery
part and parcel of the Federal Constitution. In
addition, therefore, TO the twenty Northern
States, so called, we shall need seven OF the
Southern or late slave States to make this new
amendment part of the Constitution. II we can
get those seven the other nine may be admitted
without q ratification on their part, for the
amendment, as part of the supreme law, will be
equally binding upon all the States. But 10 the
meantime, according to the precedent OF Ten
nessee, any excluded State upon its ratification
of said amendment, will be restored to its full
membership in the Government with its restora-
tion to Congress. In other words, Virginia, for
example, by radlying the amendment comes at
I'M n ~ notcn in fo1-f fla
dency, and the Congress to be elected in the
same campaign; but by holding off she must
await as an "outsider" the full ratification by
threeiourths of all the States.
This is the case plainly stated, and we think
1t Will admit OF no appeal. The amendment
passed by represent or Thrty-ninth Congress
will be sustained and adhered to by the Fortieth
or the next Congress. This is as certain as
anything in the future of human affairs can be.
The next Congress will exercise its Authority
over the question of the admission of the out.
lying States, and according to its action they
will be admitted to participate in or be excluded
from the Presidential election. The constitu-
tional power over this business is vested in
Congress, and as the complexion and decision
OF congress may now be considered as settled
TO the end OF President Johnson's term of Office
Inc simple alternative presented TO the excluded
states Is whether they will accept the terms of
restoration now offered by Congress and the
North, or wait outside in the cold the issue of
the next Presidential election
IN this practical view of the matter one would
think that every consideration of sound policy
and common sense would operate with the
South in favor of the pending amendment. But
the case is in the hands of the excluded States
each for itself to make its choice. Taking it for
granted that the whole twenty of the Northern
States will ratify the amendment New Jersey
having already done so, the question recurs
what seven of the late slave States shall we
count for the ratification? Tennessee is one
already secured; Missouri may be counted as
another and West Virginia another. Delaware
and Marylan ought to come next; but which
are to be the other two? Kentucky may be one
and South Carolina the lnstigator of and leader
in the Rebellion, or Virginia, its main reliance
Will suit exactly to make up the requisite three
fourths. II they can make this sacrifice of their
old notions concerning ''niggers," State rights
and chivalry, the rest of their confederates may
be excused.
What glorious opportunity for genuine
chivalry is here presented Why not seize it?
Sooner or later than the next Presidential cleo
hon, every outlying State will have to come to
II and recognize the terms of this amendment as
the law of the land. Old things are done away
with and all things in our political affairs are
becoming new. The old sectional party or
slavehoding oligarchy OF the South, which
managed the Government from the time of JEFF
ierson to the breakup at Charleston, are de-
molshed; dead and buried The New England
faction of radicals aspires to take its places but
York 70 Illinois, have the reins in their hands,
and this Constitutional amendment is their
work. They, hencetorth, are to be the control
ling geographical element i'll the Government,
and the balance of power against all sectional
extremists, East, West, North, or South. South
ern politicians and statesmen, looking not TO
the dead past, but to the present existing state
fact into their calculations as to what they shall
do for the future.