The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1866-11-24


facility with which it adapts itselfto it. 1t
was az one time firm supporter of the Pres
ident's plan; then it took ground for the
Howard amendment, and urged the Southern
States to adopt it; now it comes forward to
admit that every programme of restoration
has failed, and to urge the prompt reorgani-
cation of the Southern States. The article OF
the Herald of the 21st, from which we give
extracts below, was written after the receipt
in New York of a telegraphic summary OF
Gov. Worth's message, and we have no doubt
the rebellious and defiant tone of that docu
ment, with its proposition to disperse the
free people of color throughout the country,
had influence in shaping the course of the
Herald for the immediate reorganization of
these States.
The Herald of the Goth says:
desperate diseases call for desperate rem
edies, and the case of the unrestored South
is desperate. The late Northern elections
from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, with
an emphasis unparalleled in our political his
tory, have spoken the voice of the North n
favor of the conditions of the pending con-
stitutional amendment. These are the best
terms to the South which the States holding
and controlling the government have to offer.
On the other hand, in response to these Nor
them elections, the unreconstructed South
thern States, through their governors and
legislatures, reject the conditions of the
amendment as so deeply humiliating and de-
grading to Southern honor and so outrage
ously in violation of Southern rights that they
can be treated only with derision, defiance
and contempt.
This condition of things is styled by a
coperhead journal dead lock ;" and it
may turn out to be so if Congress shall de-
termine to recognize the excluded States, as
they stand as rightfully restored to the con-
troll of their local affairs. But Congress is
not committed to this theory, and the recon-
structive work done by the President goes
for nothing till approved by Congress. The
two houses have not yet recognized the end
of the rebellion, and in the prevailing spirit,
opinions, acts and declarations of the State
authorities and leading politicians, from Vir-
ginia to Texas, there IS abundant e0idence that
ouer all that region the rebellion, though dis
armed, still EXISTS, that the oath Of Hanni-
bal Of" eternal hatred to the Romans" is the
oath of the ruling classes of the South against
the I" detested yankees.n The same men who
preached the constitution in their conspira-
cy to destroy the government accept the par
dons of President Johnson only to return to
the old claptrap of their constitutional rights,
and are impudently urging the President to
try coup d'etat for their dehverarcs from
what they call an unconstitutional Con-
gress.
Have we not had enough of this Is not
the fact established that confidence and in
dulgences are thrown away upon the intract-
able rebellious elements of the excluded
States Is it not apparent that if left to
their own discretion in the matter of this
amendment they will only use it to incite
their people to riots, instructions and anar-
chy2 What, then,is the remedy demanded? In
view of the great ends of law and order, the
restoration of the Union, solid and strong,
security and confidence. justice and generos-
ity, we think the time is at hand when Con-
gress should interpose its authority, begin
ming de n0C0 in a plan OF reconstruction,
aohich aoiU be at once comprehensive, Short
sharp and decisice." We want no delenda est
Carth0go-no destruction of Carthage-but
we want no more tinkering or temporfzing
with this Southern difficulty. Under the
which the armed forces of the rebellion were
put down and dispersed its disarmed forces
may he compelled to accept and ratify the
terms of fair, just and generous ultimatum of
The Herald of the 21st says:
THE plan of Congress- endorsed by all the
Northern States, is that embodied in the
pending constitutional amendment. 1t ap-
pears to be, however, in the face of these re-
cent elections, so bitterly repugnant to the
South as to be hopeless of any voluntary rat
ifcation in that quarter during the existing
generation of leading Southern politicians.
The especially obnoxious feature of the a.
to those politicians is the section
which excludes from all federal offices here
after, till absolved by a two-thirols vote of
Congress, a certain class of the Southern lea
1ers identified with the late rebellion. Lead
ers and followers plead that the dishonor of
their own condemnation involved in this con-
lition they must at all hazards reject with
'corn and disgust. This is serious difficult |
y. How is it to he removed?
The duty of solving the problem will de- |
yolve upon Congress. The alternative pre-
'ented is the exclusion of the unrecognized |
States to the end of the present generation, |
,r some notifications of the amendment in |
order to bring them in without further loss |
If time. There must be remedy
or this evil, and for the good of the whole
country it must be applied.
President johnson has said that if there
ire but five thousand good and loyal men in
me of these disabled States they are enough
or its reconstruction. Congress, then, in a
aw providing for certain organic State cleo
ions, and defining. as the President has done
Who shall be voters, with the power and au-
hority given to General Grant to enforce the
aw in these elections, may very readily over
,ome this aforesaid obstruction, of cast and
;olor. Some such legislation, beginning at
he bottom, is evidently demanded for
southern reconstruction. The interests of
he South. the North, the Treasury, and of
he whole Union, demand this legislation
the work of reconstruction, then,
lie novo, Congress in an enabling act, has
My to aceed ont the inpractica6le secesh and
elements of the States concerned and
0 pat General Grant on guard, in order to
make the aoork Of Southern restoration as sim
ne as the rule Of subtraction. The first essen
ial is to accept the self-evident facts that the
Presidents work of reconstruction is an en-
that Congress must begin at the
'cginning, from Virginia to Texas, inasmuch
s the rebellion, from the Potomac to the
sio Grande, though disarmed, still remains
o be subdued."
A. F. AND A. Miriam Lodge, No. 40.
f the Masonic fraternity. has elected the