The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1866-06-06
MIR, Howard,s Amendment.

Mr.. Howard's Amendment.
The Senate, on Thursday last, considered
Mr.. Towards amendment, and refused to
amend it. The probability is it passed the
Senate yesterday, and will be concurred in
by the House.
No paper in the South has been warmer
or more steady advocate of the Presidents
plan than this journal. The gist of this plan
is this: That the insurgent States are still
States, entitled to representation and to the
light to determine for themselves the ques-
ton of suffrage; and that as such their rep
resentatives shall be admitted when they
present themselves chosen by loyal people,
and in an Enthusiastically" loyal garb. The
President completed his work, and it was
then for the Congress to say whether the
representatives chosen should be admitted.
The Congress hesitates to admit them. The
President does not say that the Congress
should admit unpardoned rebels.n or per-
sons who cannot take the test oath and the
States. for the most part, refuse to elect
members who can take this oath, and not
only this, but many who are at the head Of
affairs in these States go further, and ridi-
Guile and denounce this oath. Congress at
length adopts plan which recognizes the
States as States, which provides that repre-
sentation shall be based on voters, thus
leaving the question of suffrage to the States,
as the President does; and which further
provides that certain otfeshOlders in the
States. who were conspicuous and active in
the rebellion, shall be excluded. not from the
ny tito vote, but from the privilege of hold
ing oiEce unless two-thirds of the Congress
ss~H grant them that privilege. Such is the
sum and substance of the two plans, with
the exception that the President deprecates,
as we do, any further amendments to the
Constitution until the recently insurgent
States are represented in Congress.
We repeat our preference for, and our de-
votion to the Presidents plan; but, if that
plan cannot be carried out as an entirety, we
would accept Mr. Towards plan as the next
best we can get. If we GO further we shall
fare worse. So far as otaee-holding is con-
cerned, that does not amount to much any
way. The great point is to restore the State
to the Union, without regard to office holders
or any thing else of that character We
have no fears that the Congress would not
deal in the most liberal spirit with the truly
loyal mea of the Southern States. 1t would
remove the pressure from the true men
of the South as rapidly as might be expe-
dient or safe. Surely, surely the great mass
of the people would not suffer by the exclu-
sion for time of certain classes from office!
The truth is, such gentlemen as Graham,
stephens, Bragg, the Ransoms, Hoke, Fere-
bee, Winston, Eaton, Turner, Coleman Kerr,
Mclean, Biggs, Vance, and Others who might
be named, ought not to expect Office at a
time Like this 1t is highly immodest, to say
the least, in Gov. Graham and Mr.. Stephens,
with their ultra latter-day war record, to ex-
pect to step out of the darkness of Con-
federate despotism into the full efful-
gence of the national glory, to sit side by
side with loyal Senators, with an efrontery,
perhaps, equal to that with which they Sec
onded Mr.. Davis in his wicked, wretched,
pernicious, cruel and most calamitous course.
Nor ought the loyal men at home to be
afflicted at this time by such men in Office.
Il For they affiict thy heritage, o Lord.n-
Psal. Kew Let them stand aside for a season
at least, while those who honestly labered
and suffered to save the country from their
ruinous counsels are permitted to step for
ward and perform the great work of restora-
ton. This is demanded not only by the
respect which these gentlemen owe to them
selves, but by justice, consistency, and sound
policy. Our State has been eminent for her
honesty and modesty. Never, before the
virus OF secession was let into their veins, did
any OF her public men exhibit such want of
nodesty, and such prurient, ill-timed, per
sistent desire for place.
The Sentinel is still rebellious. 1t calls us
submissionist because we are ready to take
Mr.. Towards plan, if we can do no better
1t talks about its rights" Its rights y
are in the keeping of the conqueror. 1t does
not become US, as Senator Call says, to die
tate to the government. "our part is that of
silence and hope" We rant the best terms
a'e can get, but me are FIR the Union " at all
hazards and to the last extremity" So far
from being ashamed Of this position, as many
among US arc, we are proud of it. By