Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1866-05-07
o ~TRANsACT1oNs.
l1LroRrIp BI 7. oBRrrS. STOCK BROKER. GOLD Hill
San FRANCISCO, May II ?. N.
Results Of tho Great Controversy.

It 10 impossible to conceive . more hu-
initiating position than that in which the
Radical press finds itself at this juncture.
Since the report Of the Reconstruction
Committee, it has been forced to turn
around and advocate the very PROPOSE
tons which it has been for three months
denouncing with the greatest rancor. We
make here no empty assertion, but n
which we can sustain by arguments which
cannot be successfully refuted. Looking
back over the late exciting controversy.
we find
lst-That the President was charged
with having gone over to treason, and cast
his lot with traitors, because he refused
to ordain negro suffrage in the South.
The Reconstruction Committee admits,
(frst,) by the fact Of having proposed to
amend the Constitution of the United
States so as to compel negro suffrage, that
the only way in which that object could
be secured was by an alteration in the or
ganic law, and, as a consequence, that the
President could not have acted in any
other manner, consistently with his oath
Of Office; and (second,) by the abandon
ment Of that proposition that though
there is a method by which that change
could be effected, and that method only
constitutional modification, it is not expe-
dent to resort to il. We have here the
Radical endorsement both Of the legal po-
sition and the policy Of the President In
this matter.
2d-Tha. the President had abandoned
the Union party, because he vetoed the
Civil Rights bill.
The Reconstruction Committee has re-
ported in favor Of embodying the pnnci-
Piles Of the Civil Rights bill in the Consti.
tuition. II there is authority in the Con-
s.itution for the passage Of the Civil Rights
bill by Congress, there can be necessity
for putting the thing itself into that instru-
ment. The President is, therefore, fully
justified by the Reconstruction Committee
for having taken the step which raised
such a storm q short time ago. The I'M
constitutionality Of the Civil Rights bill i,
admitted by the proposition to incorporate
its principles In the organic law.
3d-That the President was guilty OF
usurpation in establishing State Govern
ments in the South.
This, indeed, may be REGARDED as the
foundation Of the whole controversy. The
President started out with the declaration
that the attempt Of JEFF. Davis to carry
eleven States out Of the Union had proved
q failure, and that, as q consequence, no
State had been destroyed by the war. The
Radicals, adopting the theory Of Thad.
Stevens, proclaimed that the States lately
in revolt had committed suicide BY that
revolt, and constituted simply conquered
territory, which it was the exclusive right
of Congress to organize in whatever way
it pleased. Of course, with such conflict
ing opinions a collision was only a ques-
ton Of time. When it came, the Radicals
boastingly announced that their arst work
would be to upset the State Governments
which had been erected by the President ;
but instead Of that, what have they done ?
They now propose to submit to the action
Of those very State Governments q change
in the organic law Of the nation. II these
Governments are not legal Governments
how can they exercise such an important
function A question, too, here arises Of
considerable significance, and n which
it will be difficult for the Radical press to
solve. The Reconstruction Committee
proposes to permit the States lately in re-
volt to participate in an action which is
the highest and most important that can
be performed by q sovereign State, to wit:
an amendment Of the organic law Of the
nation, and at the same time refuses to al
low them to take part in the passage Of
laws which are necessarily ephemeral in
character, for the next Congress can undo
all that this Congress has done. This
contradiction we leave to the Radical
press to explain, without further remark,
and will content ourselves with q simple
summing up Of results
l. The Radicals have abandoned com.
pulsory negro suffrage.
2. They have acknowledged the cor
rectness Of the veto Of the Civil Rights
Bill.
3. They have abandoned one.half Of the
theory Of State Suicides. F. Alta.