New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-05-11
A DIsCoNTENTED REPUBLICAN,.


The reconstruction plan put forward by the So
called Reconstruction Committee is so shamelessly
vioative Of even the ordinary political decencies
that many Of the Republican journals themselves
cannot stomach it. The New York Commercial
Advertiser the Evening Post and the Times, have
| all attacked It with more or less vigor. The OBJ
jections Of the Times especially, are suggestive,
as coming from q very influential organ Of the
Republican party, That paper says that the OBJ
jeot Of the committee is, evidently, to help Con
gress snot to do it, Under the name of recon-
struction it presents plan which is practical
disunion, and which is intended to perpetuate
dsunion. The Times calls this " eircumlocution.n
But it is worse than circumlocution, By that pro-
cess an end may finally be reached in perambu
latory roundabout sort of way but by the
Reconstruction process, reconstruction will
never be achieved at all, because it leads directly
away from the proposed object.
The Times very distinctly says that, in conse-
quence of the failure of the compulsory negro suf
frage scheme, Sumner and his coadjutors have
fallen back on the plan of keeping the Union
divided until after the next Presidential election.
The entertainment to which the country is invited
is, therefore, mere dumbshow and by-play--a
pantomime in which Stevens acts the harlequin,
The fruits which, according to the Times, are the
just prize of the whole people, won by their devo-
ton and galantry-and by these fruits we infer
that the Union is meant-are to be kept out of the
popular mouth for an uncertain and uncomfortable
| length of time; while the radical eonspirators
quietly satiate themselves with power, plumber
and emclument For this the Union is to
| be kept divided and the directory are be
l Nov IL 49, oil ~ fbau,
selves to the Presidency. To effect this object,
eleven States are declared out of the Union, and
| yet these very eleven States are called on to
ratify the proposed constitutional amendments.
Nothing could more conspicuously Illustrate the
| illogical character Of the whole radical pro.
| gramme than this feature. The ratification of a
constitutional amendment-that is to say, partici-
patton III constructing the fundamental la Wis the
highest act Of sovereignty that can be exercised
by State in its relations with the Federal Union.
1t u.s. in fact the crucial test Of State sovereignty
A State which may do this, may a fortiori, per
form any other act under the Constitution, and to
deny to her the right Of representation is not only
/ tyrannical, but grotesquely absurd. However,
the practical consequence of this inconsistency is
precisely nothing; because, in the first place, the
radicals do not care anything for consistency in
| Inc seboAu Placsi bns PROPOSED amendments were
made expressly to be rejected; and in the third
place, the Southern States will surely reject
/ them.
This result is foreseen by the Times, and it is
instructive to see how boldly that paper dis
courses of the probable consequences; ana
doubly instructive to find that, in spite of its de-
nunciatons and its predictions it still claims to be
| genuine organ Of the radical-ridden Republican
party. Speaking of the proposed plan, the Times
says: The election Of the President by divided
Union is monstrously unjust, unwise and imprac-
tieable, and ifperssted in by majorities in Con
gress willslead to disastrous consequences. If, |
from unavoidable causes, the Union should be
kept divided, the people would acquiesce. But
when protraeted disunion is deliberately con.
trived; when measure, with this purpose crop
ping out wildly, is put forth by directory which
has thus far held Congress in its leash, it will not
be endured.n Which are fine words, certainly |
but when does Mr. Raymond propose to make
them good TO judge by his course in Congress
and in his newspaper, he is willing to endure
almost anything rather than be forced to quit the
Republican party.