Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1866-03-20
Disfranchisement of the South.

In the House of Representatives, Mr.. Shell
labarger of Ohio, offered resolution, which
was agreed to, directing the Judiciary Com
the constitutionality and propriety of providing
by law that no person who is disloyal to the
Government of the United States, and who cas-
voluntarily engaged in rebellion against such
Government, shall be entitled .n exercise the
right of an elector in any Safe or to hold Office
under such Government during such disloyalty;
also, by law, for persons who have so engaged
in such rebellion being admitted to exercise
such elective franchise on proof of loyalty to the
Government
This resolution, says the N. Y. Neacs is in
the spirit of many others that have preceded it,
aiming to legislate legitimate authority out of
the hands of the President, and to render the
Southern people dependent upon the will ofthe
Radicals in Congress for the exercise of their
rights as American citizens. 1t is about time
that the question should be determined wheth-
er faction having numerical supremacy in the
National Legislature can dictate at their caprice
what shall be the political status of States and
individuals, that were born to Republiaanism
| and inherited the inalienable rights Of freemen
1t selt-government is privilege to be accorded
or to be withheld at the pleasure of majority
In Congress, there is nothing definite nor GER
tain in our political system. Let it be estab-
llshed that Congress has the power to take
away the elective franchise from those who fail
to adopt the doctrines of the dominant party
and the worst form of despotism or anarchy
takes the place OF our boosted Republicanism
We admit that those who engaged in armed
hostility to the Federal Government may be
bought to trial before the tribunals empowered
by the Constitution to pronounce upon such Of
fences; and if proven guilty, there may in the
strict letter of the law, be some kind of barba-
rous and sanguinary justice ia making them pay
the forfeit as written in the statutes But no
law, no sentiment expressed or intimated in the
Constitution, no doctrine acknowledged in our
form Of government gives to Congress an au-
thority to snatch the elective franchise from the
hands of an American citizen.
1t Is time that the word "disloyal," that is so
often used in these Radical resolutions, should
be dropped from the parliamentary vocabulary
1t has no present application to any class ofour
people unless it be to the demagogues who are
continually mounting it to carry their point
against their Southern countrymen. But the
surest way to compel the Radicals to accept the
fact Of Southern loyalty is for the President
to proclaim general amnesty His right to
do SO, under the Constitution, cannot be ques-
toned, and the present moment is most oppor-
tune for exercise Of such an act Of clemency.-
1t will, of ITSELF restore the Southern people to
all their civil attributes, and will silence the
revolutionary crew who are necessarily prating
of disloyalty in the very face of abundant test-
mony Of complete submission to the Federal au-
thority. That is the simplest way to settle the
issue, and we appeal to the Executive to lose
no time in his application Of so sovereign a
remedy.