Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1866-10-06

power I'd cohtroVene TINS most righteous and
necessary provision.
,yecond.-While the States claim and cxor.
else the power of denying the elective fran
chise to part of their people. the weight
of each State in the Union shall be measured
by, and be based upon, its cnfranchised pom
ulation. If any State shall choose, for no
crime, to deny political rights to any race or
caste, it must no longer count that race or
caste as basis of political power in the
Union. -.
7hird.-He who has once held Office on
the strength of his solemn oath to support
the Federal Constitution, and has, neverthe-
less, forsworn himself and reasonably plot
ted to subvert that Constitution, shall hence
forth hold no political office till Congress,
! by a two-thirds vote, shall remove or modify
the disability.
Fourth.-The national debt shall be in no
wise repudiated nor invalidated, and no debt
incurred in support of the rebellion shall
ever be assumed or paid by any State, nor
shall payment be made for the loss or eman-
cipation of any slave.
! FJM.--Congress shall have power to en-
force these guarantees by appropriate legis-
lation.
Such, fellow citizens, are the conditions of
Reconstruction proposed by Congress and
already accepted by the loyal Legislature of
Tennessee. Are they harsh or degrading Z
! Do you discern therein disposition to tram
| pie on the PROSTATE or push an advantage to
the uttermost Do they embody aught of
vengeance or any confscation but that of
slaveryl We solicit your candid and impair
tial judgment What is intended by the
third section is simply to give loyalty a fair
| start in the reconstructed States. Under
the johnson policy the rebels monopolize
power and place. Even in communities
where they are decidedly outnumbered their
Generals are Governors and members of Con-
gress; their Colonels and Majors fill the
Legislatures, and oficiate as Sheriffs. Not
only are the steadfastly loyal prescribed, but
even stay home rebels have little chance
| in competing with those who fought to sub
| vert the Union. When this rebel monopoly
Of office shall have beer broken up and 10y
atty to the Union shall have become general
and hearty, Congress may remove the disa-
bility, and will doubtless make haste to do
so.
We do not perceive that the justice or ft-
ness of the fourth section, prescribing that
the Union public debt shall be promptly
met, but that of the rebel confederacy never,
is seriously contested. There remains, then,
but the second section, which prescribes in
substance that political power in the Union
shall henceforth be based only on that por-
tion OF the people of each State who arc
deemed by its constitution as depositaries of
such power. In other words, State which
chooses to hold part of its population in ig-
norance and vassalage, powerless, uneduca-
ted, unfranchised, shall not count that por-
| tion to balance the educated, intelligent,
| franchised, citizens of other States.
| We do not propose to argue the justice of
this provision. We might as we'll argue the
shape of cube, or the correctness of the
multiplication table. He who does net feel
| that this is simply and mildly jus. would
the dead" to convince him. That there are
those among us who would not have rati-
| fed, sadly demonstrates that the good work
of emancipation is not yet complete. But,
say some, this section is deigned to coerce
| the South into according suffrage to her
blacks Not 50, we reply, but only to notify
her ruling caste that we will no longer bribe
them to keep their blacks in freedom. Man
kind, in history rarely surrenders its privi-
| leges, no matter how oppressive, from ab-
| stract devotion to justice and right, 1t must
have cogent, palpable reasons for so doing.
We say, therefore, to South Carolina, if you
| persistly restrict all power to your three
| hundred thousand whites, we must insist
| that these no longer balance in Congress,
and the choice of President, sever hundred
thousand Northern white freemcn, but only
three hundred thousand. If you keep your
blacks evermore in serfdom, it must not be
! because we tempted you SO to do, and re-
warded You for SO doing.
Fellow citizens of every State, but espe-
cially of those soon to hold elections, we
entreat your earnest and constant heed to
| the grave questions now at issue. If those
who so wantonly plunged the Union into
civil war shall be allowed by you to dictate
| the terms of reconstruction, you Will have
heedlessly sown the bitter seeds of future
| rebel!ions and bloody strife. Already you
are threatened with recognition by the Pres
ident of n sham Congress, made up of the
| faction which recently coalesced a. PEiladel-
phia on platform of Johnsonism a Con-
gress constituted by nullifying and overri-
ding plain law of the land; a Congress
wholly inspired from the White House, and
| appealing to the sword alore for support.
| So glaring an attempt at usurpation would
be even more criminal than absurd. Hap
PLY, the people, by electing an overwhelming
majority of thoroughly loyal representatives
are rendering its initiation impossible.
We cannot close without a most deserved
tribute to the general fidelity wherewith, in
body of the people and even of the Federal
ofiice-holders stand fast by their convictions
and their principles. The boundless patron
age of the Executive, though most unscrup-
uously welded against those to whose votes
he owes it, has corrupted very few, either of
those who shared, or of those who would
gladly share in its enjoyment. Not one of
the twenty-five States which voted to re-
elect Abraham Lincoln, has given its adhe-
sion to the Presidents policy, while New
Jersey, the only free State that voted against
him, has added herself to the number. Our
great war has taught impressively the peril
of injustice, and the lesson has sunk deep
into millions of hearts. The American peo-
pie, chastened by suffering, arc wiser and
nobler than they were, with quicker and
more open ear for every generous suggestion.
The fearful lessons of Memphis and New
Orleans have not been lost on them, as it
proved by the result of the recent elections
in Vermont and Maine We cherish no
shadow Of doubt that Pennsylvania, Ohio,
Indiana and Iowa first, then New York, New
Jersey, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Kan.
sas and Minnesota will do likewise, and that
a true restoration, a genuine and abiding