Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1866-01-04

perpetual ascendency to the party of th
Umon and so as to render our republican
Government firm and stable forever. Tn,
first Of those amendments is to change tn,
basis OF representation among the Statci
from Federal numbers to actual voters
Now all the colored freemen in the slave
States, and three-fifths Of the slaves are
represented, though none of them hav,
votes. The States have nineteen represent
atlvcS OF cOlOred slaves If the slaves arc
now free then they can add, for the other
two-iiths, thirteen more, making the slave
representation thirty-two | suppose the
free blacks in those States will give al
least five more, making the representation
OF non-voting people of color about thirty.
seven. The whole number Of representa-.
tives now from the slave States is seventy
Add the other two-ffths and it will be nine
ty-three
If the amendment prevails, and those
States withhold the right of suffrage from
persons of color, it will deduct about thirty.
seven, leaving them but forty-fve. With
the basis unchanged, eighty-three Southern
members, with the Democrats that will, in
the best times, be elected from the North,
will always give them majority in Con
gress and in the electoral college. They
will, at the very first election, take posses.
sion Of the White House and the halls of
Congress. | need not depict the ruin that
would follow. ASSUMPTION of the rebel
debt or reputation of the Federal debt
would be sure to follow The oppression
OF the freedmen the reamendment of their
State constitutions, and the re-estabIishment
OF slavery would be the inevitable result
That they would scorn and disregard their
present constitutions forced upon them in
the midst OF martial law, would be both
natural and just. No one who has anv re-
gard for freedom Ofelcctions can look upon
those governments, forced upon them in
durcss, with any favor If they should
grant the right of suffrage to persons of
color think their would always be Union
white men enough in the South, aided bv
the blacks, to divide the representation, and
thus continue the Republican ascendencv.
If they should refuse to thus alter their
election laws, it would reduce the represen-
tatives of the late slave States to about As,
and render them powercss for evil.
1t is PLAIN that this amendment must be
consummatcd before the defunct States are
admitted to be capable of State action. or
it never can be.
The proposed amendment to allow Con-
gress to lay duty on exports IS precisely
III the same situation. It's Importance can
not well be oversighted. 1t is very obvi-
GUS that for many years the South will not
pay much under our internal revenue laws
The only article on which we can raise any
considerable amount is cotton 1t will be
rrro iarr Ixr IL
pound export duty it would be furnished
cheaper to foreign markets than they could
obtain it from any other part of the world
The late war has shown that. Twomillion
bales exported, at five hundred pounds to
the bale, would yield 100000 900. This
seems to be the chiefrcvenue we shall ever
derive from the South. Besides. it would
be protection to that amount to our do
mestic manufactures Other proposed am
endments-to make all laws uniform: to
prohibit the assumption of the rebel debt
arc OF vital Importance, and the only.
thing that can prevent the combined forces
OF Coppcrheads and sccessiOnists from leg
islating against the interests of the Union
whenever they may obtain an accidental
majority.
But this is not all that we ought to do
before these invcterate rebels are invited
to participate in our legislation. We have
turned, or about to turn, loose four million
slaves without hut to shelter them or a
cent in their pockets. The Internal laws of
slavery have prevented them from acquir-
ing an education, understanding the com
mon laws of contract, or of managing the
ordinary business of life This Congress
is bound to provide for them until they can
take care Of themselves If we do not
furnish them with homesteads, and hedge
them around with protective laws if we
leave them to the Legislation of their late
masters, we had better left them in bond
age. Their condition would be worse than
that of our prisoners at Andersonvile If
we fail in this great duty, when we have
the power, we shall deserve and receive
the eXeraation of history and of all future
ages.
Two things are of vital Importance
l. So to establish principle that none
Of the rebel States shall be counted in any
OF the amendments of the Constitution un-
til they are duly admitted into the family
Of States by the aw-making power of their
conqueror. For more than six months the
amendment of the Constitution aboishing
slavery has been ratified by the Legsa-
lures of three-fourths of the States that
acted on its passage by Congress, and
which had Legislatures or which were
States capable of acting, or required to
act on the question.
take no account Of the aggregation of
white-washed rebels, who without any le-
gal authority have assembled in the caD-
tails Of the late rebel States and simulated
legislative bodies. Nor do | regard with
any respect the cunning byplay into which
they deluded the Secretary OF State by fire.
quent telegraphic announcements that
South Carolina has adopted the amend
ment :" alabama has adopted the amend
ment, being the twenty-seventh State &c.
This was intended to delude the people aud
accustom Congress to hear repeated the
names of these extinct States as if they
were alive, when, in truth, they have how
no more existence than the revoted cities
of Latium, two.thirds of whose people were
colonzed and their property contiscated and
their right Of citizenship withdrawn by CON
quering and avenging Rome.
1t is equally important to the stability Of
this Republic that it should now be solemn
ly decided what power can revive, recrcate,
and rcinstate these provinces into the fam
iIV Of States and jnyoS+ tbor, a..