The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-05-02


| that question. His exceptions OF leading
! Rebels IN his amnesty proclamation, and his in.
! strucuons to his provisional governors in regard
10 the debts OF the Rebellion, are tnterwoven in
! this Congressional plan. His views, too, of the
exclusive authority OF the States over the suf-
iIage question are accepted; and, above all, the
status OF the late insurgent States, as defined in
his annual message, is recognized as correct, to
jwit-that the Rebellion impaired their functions
as States, but did not destroy them. OF course
this decision of the Joint committee involves the
rejection Of the Stevens and Sumner theory
| that the States wrested from the nsurgent
government OF JED. Davis by iorce of arms are
III the condition of unorgauized territories CON
quered from foreign power.
From the teachings OF common sense, the
successful working oil President Johnson's
policy, and the pressure of public opinion, this
radical Congress has been constrained to reject
the Jacobin absurdities OF Stevens, and TO re-
cognlZe the wisdom and validity Of the views
and measures OF reconstruction adopted by the
Administration. So far, then, we have a capitu-
lation OF the radicals to the Executive After
five months OF exhausting researches and labor
this Joint committee OF Congress find that they
can DO nothing better than follow in the wake
OF Andrew johnson, as the only hope OF attain
ing their ultimate designs. Here, however, we
reach the point of departure
The President holds that loyal members elected
from the excluded States, already recon
uuCted, ought TO be admitted into Congress-;
but Congress pleads the necessity Of further
stCITl'Ies for the future for the national debt
aGd the rights OF the Southern blacks. The ad-
dItlon OF twenty-five Southern Senators and
eighty Representatives to Congress from States
warm from the late Rebellion may give those
men the Lower, with the aid of Northern Cop
pClheads, to ruin the country. This is the plea
for an indefinite term OF Southern probation,
and hence II is proposed, in the shape of Con-
sututional amendment, that "unt1 the 4th OF
July, 1870, all persons who voluntarily adhered
to the late in.u1reciion, giving 1t aid and COM
fort shall be excluded from the right to vote tor
members oil Congress and Presidential electors"
and that negroes shall be counted for repre-.
sentation in the ratio of the number admitted to
the right of suffrage
Here we get at the milk in the cocoanut In
the course of the late Rel elton, excepting q few
resoute Union men here and there, the whole
" hite population OF the revolving States was inn
plicated in ii. Such, then, is 10 be their exclu-
sion from our Federal elections till 1870. Then,
again. their black population is to be counted
according to the suffrage granted them by the
States concerned. This strikes off one-halt the
members OF Congress to Whlch the excluded
States would otherwise be entitled. The amend
ment mbracine these terms is to be ratified Oy
tree-iourths of the Legislatures OF all the States
ana the Southern States arc to shape their local
laws to meet 1t, and then they may come into
Congress, ii their members elect are duly quail
fed ia oTber respects.
Now, let us assume that this scheme will pass
by twO-thirds of the present Congress. and that.
whether ratified or not, iC serves the purpose of
securing to the party in power the next Presi-
dent and the Congress elected with hm, what
NV "HN' theh' III all proOaDlllGy' on some
pretense or other, the excluded States will still
he kept ont, until reduced to the condition of
Ireland under ENGLAND, or Poland under Rus
STA. The dlslranchsement OF whole people, TO
begin with, inevitably leads to their indefinite
exclusion from political power. This Congress
sional scheme oil reconstruction, therefore, looks
to revolution IN the Government, beginning
with the exercise OF despotic powers over the
South, but where is it to end? "Treason is
crime, and traitors ought to be punished" but
we cannot outlaw the people of eleven States OF
the Union without endal gering the liberties of
the other twenty-five. Let us watch and see
how this question is treated in Congress- for
there ar IN it the elementsof revolution.