Abbeville press. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1860-1869, 1866-01-19
THE RADICALS AND TIE RE-cONsTRUC

Some interesting admissions TO the terms
| on which tn. radicals willing to re admit
the South are given in the recent messages Of
Governor C'onv, of Maine, and Governor An
| drew, Of Massachusetts, and q late Speech ol
General Schcnck, Of Ohio. The latter in the
course of his speech at Columbus, Ohio. on tho
I'd inst, asserte d that Congress and the p,esi.
dent intended TO stand by each other in de-
manding from the South, the Constitutional
amendment aboli hing slavery, n provision
against the paymeL't of the rebel war debt and
constitutional anne ndment basing represent.
ation on the voting population. The terms OF
| the radical Governors are almost idcntically
| the same, and both express their purpose to
support the President in his p Ian Of re.construc-
tion, but they interpret this policy according
to their principles as guaranteeing civil and
political equality TO the BLACK. The avowed
policy Of the radical party is to abolish all civil
and political determinations which are founde d
solely upon race, and they would ma lie it ap.
pear that in carrying out this policy they are
in unison with the administration. Such is the
spirit Of the resolutions of the late Repu, 1lican
Convention, of New Hampshire, endorsing the
Presidents policy. and such is the claim which
Senator Wilson makes in behalf of the party in
and out of Congress. Snys the Governor ,'f
Maine:
"The restoration of the relations of the re-
volted states to the Union upon any other ba-
ais than that Of limiting the exercise of politi.
cal rights TO the actually loyal population, or
which shall fail to secure the recognition of
the colored race as freemen having equal rights
and obligations with the whites, or on,it, to
provide for their moral and intellectual cu,l-
ture. SO indispensable to the citizen of the free
State, cannot be contemplated except with til @
profoundest alarm. Tile oIjectioa to inusstin5'
tho eoorea man aoith the elective franchise gro,o
ing out of their ignorance Is .o3,e kaving great
force. but applicable alike to Ac ,rhite man of
the same intellectual condition. 70 obviate this
there may be a necessity for postponing their
full invcstture with this right until they, in
common with other ignorant persons shall be
fitted by education or it's exercise. The stim-
ulus this would impart tosthe educational effort
of both races would sbe of incalculable benefit.
In the meantime, asa measure Of security to
the nation, the constitution of the Union silould
rep, essntdtion to the legal nn'nJer Of potcs in
each State, and to define who shah be electors
in the States of President and Vice President
and Representatives to the Congress of the
United States" - ....
Substantially the same is the position of Gov
ernor Andrew:
."The United States ought to require the peo.
pie of those States late in rebellion to reform
their constitutions by frat guaranteeing TO The
people OF color, now in the wards Of the nation,
their civil rights as men and women ou an
equality with the white population by amend
ments irrepealable in terms; second, regulating
the elective franchise according to certain laws
Of universal application, and not by rules mere
ly arbitrary, capricious and personal; third,
annulling the ordinance of secersion; fourth,
disafirmiug the rebel debt; and fifth, to ratify
| the anti slavery amendment of the United
States constitution by their Legislatures, and
| he would have all these questions, save the
fifth (the disposition OF which is regulated BY
the federal constitution) put to the vote of the
people themselves IA
| Such is the policy Of the party. But we of
the South are accustomed to view the Presi.
dents plan of restoration, as making no such