Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1866-11-16
CONGRESS.

George William Curtis makes the
following sensible remark in one of
his able editorials IN a late number Of
Harper's Weekly
1--WE are not of those who suppose that
the elections haYe given Congress carte
blanche authorizing 1t to do whatever
eceentricity or extravaganza may pro-
pose; and we are very sure, from the ex-
perience of the last session, and from
the general tendency Of human nature,
that the policy of Congress will be nei-
ther timid nor rash, but will fairly re-
present the general good sense of the
people, which Is carrying the country
swiftly and safely through its present
pefplexities.
We earnestly hope the last part Of
this statment may be verified, and that
the immense maiorities by which the
people have sustained the reconstruc-
ton policy Of Congress may not be con-
strued into a license for inordinate
protective tariffs aud for unnecessary
proceedings looking to the impeach-
ment of the President Already it is
announced that Mr.. Thaddeus Stevens
has matured "a plan" for appointing
a committee to investigate the con-
duct Of the President and report
whether there is just ground for his
impeachment Now we hope no such
''plan" viii be attempted and that Con-
gress at the coming session viii con-
fine itself to more practical business.
The best part of the last session was
frittered away in buncombe debate on
abstract questions about the relations
of States, and the fruitIess investiga-
tions Of the Reconstruction Committee.
The report of that Committee revealed
nothing material which the people did
not know before, nothing which any
soldier who travelled with our armies
through the South could not have told
them. The best Committees that could
be devised to investigate the condition
of the South were our armies who mar
ched and fought through it from the
mountains to the sea and back again.
The soldiers of those armies could have
told Mr.. Stevens far more about the
true temper of the Southern people and
their fitness for restoration than even
A. H. Stephens or Robert e. Lee.
But what these soldiers knew the coun-
try and Congress knew, for it had be-
come a matter Of history. The labors
of the Reconstruction Committee were
therefore unnecessary, and the Com
mittee itself was only a hindrance and
delay to that practical legislative re-
construction which was so much need
ed in the early part of the session.
The Constitutional Amendment did
not grow out of the report of the
Committee, but was entirely independ-
ent of it, and might as well have been
proposed in the beginning of the ses-
sion as afterwards. Besides, but for
that Committee we believe the differ
ences between the President and Con-
gress never would have arisen, and
the integrity of the Union party never
would have been threatened. It was
therefore from the beginning fraught
with mischief and resulted in no good.
The same would be true of SINH
lar Committee to investigate the con
duct of the President. The'people do
not desire such a measure, nor the ag-
itation that must grow out of it, and
it could have no other effect than to
ALLEVIATE the conservative men of our
| party, to embitter our enemies, and to
arouse their zeal in sustaining the
President who would have become
their martyr.
We hope, therefore, that no such
mischieVous measures will be attempt
ed by Mr.. Stevens or any one else.
The ezigencies of the country are to
be met not by parliamentary fnesse
or coup de main but by sensible, mod
crate, and just legislation. dictated, by
a policy, as Mr.. Curtis truly says,
neither timid nor rash, but repre-
senting the general good sense of the
people" The great Union majorities
are intended to authorize such a policy
and nothing more or less.