Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1866-06-14
Mr.. LATHAM's VIEWS.

On Tuesday the 29th May, when the bill re-
ported from the Reconstruction Committee to
provide for the restoration of States in insur-
rection to their full political rights" was under
consideration in the House, Mr. AsHLY of Ohio.
Radical in favor of negrosuffrage, saida howl
had gone up against the report of the commit
tee all over the country. He admitted that he
yielded the point of negro suffrage, simply be-
cause he couldn't get it.
Mr. LATHAM, of west Virginia, opposed the
report of the Committee on Reconstruction
He argued that the bill proposed was useless,
as i. disqualified no one who was not already
disqualified by existing laws-that the COM
mittee had not done what they were appointed
to do. He said, among other forcible remarks:
There are two principlesinvolved in the pro-
visions of this bill which desire to notice.
First, that the approval of three fourths
OF the States now represented IN Congress Is
sufficient toratify the constitutional amendment.
And second, that the ratification of the amend
ment recited in the bill shall he condition pre-
cedent to the rightoffepresentation in the States
now unrepresentcdi in Congress. These princi-
piles are necessarily based upon the presump-
tion that these are not now States of the Ameri-
can Union. If this presumption be true, ASK
gentlemen trhen and by tchdt act they ceased to
be States? Was it by the act of rebellion p
That, admit, was the design Of the rebellion,
but it failed in its purposes. Was it by the
formal act or ordinance of secession? To state
this nrnnoSitiOn is To answer IL )"
Mr.. Latham then combatted the idea that the
recognition of helligerent rights by the law Of
nations severed the correction.
There is much force in the concluding para
graph of his speech somewhat in ridicue OF
the sixmonth's laborof reconstruction COM
mittec, and depicting the power of tho ring
master tStcvens) over his obedient India rub
Der men, He says
IF the State governments, organized under
the auspices of the President, are to be accept
cd as legitimate, and which is necessarily to be
inferred from the action Of the committee, be-
cause they do not after six months inveStiga-
ton, propose any change,-then let us say so,
and let the country so understand it. If they
are not to be accepted as legitimate, then let
the committee recommend what changes shall
pe made and how, aiu ye!IuIU .:iN In done
A stroke of his pen and a crack Of ms ichip by
the honorable gentleman from Pennsylvania,
the chairman of the committee, are all that
would be needed.
If practical power is in the hands of those
who should not be its custodians, let us wreSt
from them If disloyalty to the United States
is made honorable and loyalty made odious, let
us reverse the order of things, and let us meet
the issue fairly, and do it without any indirec-
tion, that the country and the world may know
what we intend, and why we intend it. five
have to appeal to the law of necessity to accom-
plish our purposes, let us do it, If those pnr-
poses are legitimate, are necessary for our pre-
sent peace and future security and happiness,
the country and the world will approve and
Justify it. I need not tell you, sir, that it is
time Congress had practical policy before the
country. The eyes Of the world are on us, and
the historian pauses with ink-dipped pen
What shall he write-that the virtue, intelii-
gence, and patriotism of the American people
have triumphed, or that great people, power
full in war, united by disaster have failed in the
hour of triumph, have proved themselves in
capable of securing the blessings and reaping
the fruits of victory! Heaven save my coun-
try ~