The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-04-30
wAsH1NaToN, April q.
HnuSE

The House met to-day for general de-
bate on the Presidents annual message
Mr.. Scofield, of Pa, addressed the
House on the subject of reconstruction
The premises which he assumed were
that the disloyM population of the
South would not exceed five millions
that this population was so distributed
that If the late seeded States were adj
mitted with conditions they would be
able to elect 90 Senators and 81 Repre-
sentatives, thus permitting one-seventh
of the whole population of the United
States to control more than one-third oil
its legislative power and that this con-
troll would be used for the destruction
of the Government. He argued that
the seeded States came back to the
Union only by coercion; that it was a
forced bridal; that the original cause OF
secession, hatred of the North and its
anti-slavery majorities, was made
stronger now than In 1861. They did
not even profess themselves to be in
men from the North prevaricated for
them. If they could they would revive
| the Confederacy at once and they would
use their power to provoke war with
Great Britain or France, hoping thereby
to secure their own independence. For
this state of things three remedies have
been proposed. First, to disfranchise
the leading rebels; second, to neutralize
their votes by enfranchising the blacks,
and third, to make the population, mi
nus the DISTINGUISHED class, or the num-
Der of voters thei basis of representa-
ton. He advocated the third PROPOSE
ton, claiming that 1t was che republic
can plan of reconstruction. The delay
in reconstruction he attributed to the
opposition of the democrats. They
| fought against all reconstruction that
did not allow the return of their long
mourned friends, more numerous and
more malevolent than before, but there
was no need OF great haste. The rebels
had been for full four years out upon
plague infected seas and could they not
now tarry at quarantine for a single
session.
The Presidents policy as exhibited
in his correspondence with his Provis-
ional Governors was not inconsistent
| with this plan. His breath was even
the law of the land. In these States
the Democrats were pursuing him with
unrelenting friendship, and if they
finally seduced him, his friends could
rejoice that the past is at least secure.
The Presidents patriotic thoughts OF
the last five years would still live, al
though only to reprove him. The prop
ositi0n to admit loyal representatives
from the South, he (Scoheld) regard,
ed II as snare Just as SemmeS had
hung out the Union flag as a decoy to
unarmed merchant vessels, replacing
it with the pirates emblem when he
had secured his victim. Mr.. Scotield
replied at length to the leading objec-
tions made to the republican plan of
reconstruction, contrasting 1t with the
policy advocated by the opposition. If
the latter were to succeed the conteder-
ates would have so votes in next cleo
torIl college, and would need only n
more to elect "a President. OF these
they claimed thirty-one from semi-cOn-
federate States, and expected the DEM
ocrats oil New York, New Jersey and
Connecticut to make up the remaining
forty-siX. The Government would then
be run entirely in the interests of the
rebels, and then would be realized what
the opposition in different phraseology
constantly asserted was the object of
war, namely, to compel the rebels to be-
come the rulers of the nation.
Mr.. Highly was next to speak, refer
ring to the appointments of the Joint
Committee on Reconstruction, and to
its action in reporting some Constitu-
tional amendment and a large mass of
testimony. He said he proposed now
to direct his attention to the report
made by that committee on the 9th of
March last, and the joint resolution
then reported for the admission of the
State of Tennessee. He must not be
considered captious if he differed with
fifreen of the wisest men in Congress
in regard to some matters introduced
in that report Two things were to be
observed in the joint resolution report
ed by that coASnittee, one was that the
committee Endorsed the new constitu-
ton of Tennessee as Republican in form
and the other was the declaration that
the only means by which the State could
have any representation in Congress
was to be through the law making the
power of the United States Constitu-
ton and not the State of Tennessee pre-
scribe who should be entitled to the
elective franchise, and itwould be found
that the word white was used in almost
every section. The elective franchise
was limited to the white loyal citizens
of the State, those who had been enga-
ged in the rebellion being disfranchised.
The colored population of the State was
more than one-fourth of the whole pop
ulation. he held, however, that the
civil rights bill, giving civil rights to
colored people gave them also political
rights. There would be nothing effect
ed by giving them their civil rights un-
less they possessed the political power
to protect those rights. If these people
were citizens of the United States who
did the power belong to take away the
elective franchise from them? But
citizens had right to vote, and that
there was no power under the Govern
ment to deprive them of that right. But
this Joint resolution would only permit
very small portion of the white pop
ulatiOn of Tennessee to vote, but would
exclude the colored population altogeth-
or. There was no element of Republic
canism in it.
Mr.. Harding discussed the question
of reconstruction from the opposite
point 0f view; he said there had been
two rebellions in the country, one al
the North and one at the South; al
though differing widely on some points
together. They have been warning tC
overthrow the constitution and dissolve
the Union. The rebellion in the South
was ended; the people had abandoned
and repudiated secession; they returned
to their allegiance, and yielded ODE.
dience to the constitution and laws, aud
anxiously desired the restoration OF
the Union. But the Northern rebellion
was still rampant and defiant, and
there was no hope for the restoration Of
the Union until that rebellion was also
subdued, or was at least reduced 70
comfortable minority. The country
had gone through four years of terrible
war 10 keep eleven States from going
out of the Union. and-now 1t had gone
through four months and was threat
ened with four years of Congressional
and political war to keep these eleven
States out and prevent q restoration OF
the Union. There could be no such
thing as reconstructing the Union I'M
less it had been broken up and dis
solved. The basis and central idea
therefore of the Northern revolutionary
| movement called reconstruction was
disunion. It rested on the assumption
that the Union be dissolved, and had
no other foundation or support. The
war waged by the Southern insurgents
| to take the States out of the Union was
| n failure. The war on the part of the