The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1866-09-20

The Constitutional Amendment-HOn. James
Brooks and Hos. Thaddeus Stevens ON the
Same Piatform.
OF an obscure journal made up Of second hand
Materials sort Of shoddy newspaper-has
come out with fippant little stump speech
against the constitutional amendment now be-
fore the States for their ratification. He does
not like it. Neither does the Hon. Thaddeus
Stevens, nor General B. F. Butler, nor Wendell
Phillips nor any Of the tribe OF radical lead
ers Nor is it the first time or the second in
which Mr.. Brooks and Mr.. Stevens have been
found pulling together. On the District Of Co
lumbia Negro Suffrage bill in the House Of
Representatives, early in the last session,
when the conservative republicans, with the
help Of the democrats, could have defeated
Stevens on the test question, Stevens carried
his point with the aid Of the democratic vote,
including the vote Of Mr.. Brooks Again, to-
wards the close of the session, when this con-
stitutional amendment as first reported was be-
fore the House, the democrats came to the
rescue of Stevens and enabled him to carry his
The test question was upon the third section
Of the amendment as originally reported. dis
franchising till the 4th of July, 1867, every
man guilty Of voluntarily giving aid and COM
fort to the rebellion. This was the ultimatum
of Stevens. The most ferocious of all his vio-
lent speeches was his terrible closing speech
against any surrender of this condition. It
was to him the pith and substance of the
amendment, and this plan of Congress, he pro-
tested, would be surrender to the rebels If
shorn of this sweeping Acknowledgement A
republican member desired to make q motion
to strike out this third section; but Stevens in
terposed the previous question, which, il
adopted, cuts off all motions to amend and
brings the House at once to the main question.
With the aid of the democrats the conservative
republicans could have voted down the pre-
vious question; but sufficient number of the
democrats preferred to support the motion Of
Stevens, and thus they carried his plan through
Brooks in these proceedings, but the votes Of
his fellow democrats who voted for the pre-
vious question and his lodging are enough to
fix his position. This sweeping disfranchse-
ment of the Stevens plan was stricken out in
the Senate, where the amendment was put into
its present shape; but the country owes
nothing to Mr.. Brooks for the modification.
The amendment as it now stands is not his
plan, nor is it the plan Of Mr.. Stevens. Both
these men, we take it, dislike this amendment
because 1t does not suit the factious purposes
of either to bring this business to speedy and
decisive settlement.
Against the warnings Of Stevens and the flip
pant objections Of Brooks we urge upon the
politicians and white people Of the Southern
States the adoption of this constitutional amend
ment. The public mind Of the North is not in
the mood for a repetition of the supercilious,
imperious and insolent demands Of such South
ern 6re-eaters and revolutiOnists as defeated
the great object of the Border State Peace Con-
vention of 1861. We have had enough Of the
folly of domineering Southern fre-eaters and
enough Of the fanaticism of Northern radicals,
and we want peace, and we can get it in the re-
storation of the Union on the basis of this peace
ultimatum Of the republican conservatives of
Congress- We feel entirely justified in admon-
ishing the Southern States that delay Is danger
GUS to them that if they reject these condi-
tons Of Congress they will be far more likely
to get something much worse instead Of any
thing better that State government, accord
ing to the Supreme Court, il recognized by
Congress, Is the State that If not recognized
by Congress, there Is no appeal but to the next
Congress, and that in such an appeal there is
no living chance Of anything better than this
amendment for the excluded States.
It is the victorious party in a war that do
tatss the treaty Of peace and as the terms of
restoration and peace offered to the South by
Congress propose nothing Of confscation, no
enforcement of negro suffrage, no vengeance,
no exclusions from federal Offices that cannot
be remedied, no acknowledgements, but only
those securities deemed necessary for the safety
Of the national treasury, the liberty Of the
blacks and the future peace Of the Union, we
would appeal to the excluded Southern States
to come into the general government as fast a.
possible on these generous terms offered
through Congress by the victorious North. We
urge this course because IL is abundantly mani
fest that nothing less will satisfy the great
dominant Union war party and Congressional
peace party Of the North.
An Important Movement Among the Liberals
Of England and ireland.
A large and very influential number of magis-
A-~s Al usr,r - =.