The Ebensburg Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1865-1871, 1866-05-17

ed until the forces are arranged for its
execution.
am speaking now only of the dangers
that will beset the Republic by the allow
ance OF representation unfriendly to its
prosperity and even its existence in such
dlspIoportionate numbers. But we should
not forget that this act is also recoeni-
tion as republican in form of constitutions
we have never seen (except that of Ten
nessee), and all, except those of Lincoln
origin, under rebel supremacy. The
white Unionists who have been looking
through i've dreary years of persecution,
iynching. and confscation to this as their
hour of deliverance, will find themselves
betrayed into the hands of their old,
unhumbled, uurelenting tormeutors. 1t
also consigns the freedmen to the tyranny
OF old masters, not now as heretofore
bribed to humanity by moneyed interest
in the preservation of their chattel estates.
twenty-five per ceut., says an honorable
| gentleman who presents his back often
sively to the North as he makes his low
obesiance South, twenty-five per cent
have already perished. The wish no
doubt was father to the thought with the
masters In whose interest the declaration
is made.
These, then, are my premises. 1 will
repeat them:
l. There are only about five million
disloyal population in the country.
2. This population when fully restored
to the Union, the Constitution and laws
remaining unamended, will hold more
than one-third of its representative power
and the supreme control of at least thir-
teen States.
3. They will be interested to use that
power for the division of the Union; and
failing in that, for the repudiation of its
military and financial obligations.
Nov, what is to be done If these
States are denied representation, it vio-
lates the fundamental principle of repub-
lican government. If allowed double
and hostile representation, the Union
itself must be destroyed or preserved at
the expense of another war
Three remedies are proposed:
1. DisfrancEise some portion of the
rebels.
Z. Allow all the rebels to vote, but
neutrallze their disunion sentiments by
entranchising the blacks in these States.
3. Equalize representation by taking as
its basis either the number of voters or
the population, minus the disfranchised
classes; so that these States shall have no
more representation in proportion to their
represented people than the old free States
have.
Either proposition would require an
amendment to the Constitution, to be
accepted by the rebel States as a condi-
| tion-pre9edent to their restoration. 1t is
also proposed to couple with either prop
osition second amendment, prohibiting
the assumption of rebel debts and claims
either by States or the United States.
The third proposition has commended
itself to much the largest number of
Union members, aud the amendments to
that effect have already passed this House
by more than a two-thirds vote. This,
then, so far as this House is concerned, is
the congressional plan of reconstruction.
All We ask of the rebel leaders who are
wrongly charging US with having no pol
icy at all, but designing to exclude them
tor an indefinite period, is little time to
put In form of fundamental law these
pledges of future peace. For FIVE years
they have been out upon plague-infected
seas. Can they not tarry at quaran tine
FOR single session
Stripped of all disgu:ses, herein lies
the main disagreement. Shall these States
be recognized at once in their present
temper, without guarantees of any kind
and with twofold representation It
is not whether they shall be represented
at all to that we all agree. There may
be little question of time; difference
of few weeks or few months, and that
Is all. Shall they be represented twice
over, once In their own names and once
in the name of the negroes Shall they
come IN upon representative basis that
clothes white man Of the South with
almost as much again political power as
Northern man controls That gives two
white voters in South Carolina as much
voice in the selection of President and in
the legislation of this House as five voters
in Pennsylvania possess That practi.
cally gives to one-seventh of your popula-
ton, disloyal at that, more than one-third
of your power? That, sir, is the great
question before this House and the Amer
ican public. 1t is an effort on the part
OF the Opposition to carry into the poll
tics OF the country the old problem by
which sixteen is made the majority of
forty-nine. In England it is called the
system of "rotten boroughs" 1t has long
been the subject of political strife between
the free and slave-labor counties of Mary-
land, Virginia and Tennessee And when
it is everywhere else abandoned as a per-
nicious and anti-republican theory Of
representation, We are asked to make it
a u