Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1866-10-04
Rebel claims and pietations.


We have exposed some of the more egregious
blunders of the Radical Committed lGreeleysl
address, The Richmond Wing points out 9TH
ers Says that address:
The claim Of tie insurgents that they either
have lafter the close of the war and the surren-
der of their armieSl reacqulred or had never
forfeited their constitutional rights in the Union,
Including that of representation in Congress,
stands in pointed antagonism alike to the re-
o,,irements of Congress and to those Of the act
ing President.
The South, says the Fhig, speaking for the
South. has claimed nothing.
Invited by the President to elect represen-
tatives to Congress- they did 81, and the persons
elected went ON to Washington, not to claim
and have a contest over their seats, but to show
their desire to comply with the wishes OF the
executive head of the nation. Had they not
done 50 they would have been reckoned contu-
macicus. They were excluded from their seats
and. instead Of writing protests and raising a
cllmor. they returned quietly to their homes
EreryttiRq that has been claimed for them has
been claimed BIZ Me President andhe Northern
conservatives These claims were not of ''rebel"
origin. The Southern people have maintained
so decorOus a reserve as To appear destitute OF
feeling They hare claimed nothing, asked
nothing, threatened nothing. They have simply
been silent and undemonStrative."
And the Wig might have added that the
claim made, not by the South, but by the Presi-
dent and the Northern Union men, is made
quite as much in the interest of the Norths
plghted faith and bound honor as in the inter
est of the Souths rights or needs is made be-
cause that honor has been pledged to them in
every formal way by all branches of the govern
ment, executive, legislative, and judicial, and
by the head of our armies as well is made be-
cause the supreme law of the land binds us not
more to suppress rebellion (which has been
completely dOnel than TO proportion represen-
tation to taxation in a government which, when
it ceases TO be representative government, be-
comes a despotism.
Again, says the Radical address;
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 heed
leSsly sown the bitter seeds of future rebellion
and strife.
Says the Wing: the South has dictated moth
ing.
"a When and how has the silent, passive South
attempted TO dictate Dictation implies pow
er the South is powerless. 1t has not repre-
sentative in Congress, or in the army, or in the
navy, or in the institutions of learning connect
ed with them, or in the Cabinet, or in any de-
partment or bureau of the government. The
power that excludes them from these positions
is the power that dictates.
The President, acting under his official oath
and responsibilities, as the head of the nation,
and for theinterests of the whole country, pledg-
ed himself to the Southern States that they
should be restored to their places in the Union
with all the rights that the other States enjoy
under the Constitution, if they would ratify the
constitutional amendment, repudiate the Con-
federate war debt, and repeal the ordinance of
secession. They complied with the condition.
Congress assembled and repudiated the action,
and disdainfully disregarded the pledges of the
President. After the South had done all that
was demanded of her, not so much for the lust
for political power as from the desire to mani
fest complying disposition and to mark her
appreciation of the Presidents magnanimity,
Congress declared that the conditions exacted
were unsatisfactory. 1t did not release the
South from what it had done in obedience to
the requirements of the Executive. No. 1t
demanded that it should all stand and be bind
ing, Notwithstanding the failure of the consid
GRAFTON. 1t added other conditions, involved
in what is known as the constitutional amend
ment, upon the ratification of which, by the
several States, Congress mag Tor may not, as it
shall chOOse) admit them to representation
The President feels bound by every obligation
of honor to keep faith with the South and to
redeem his pledges. He protests against the
right of Congress to hinder him in so doing
1t is he and the Northern Conservatives who
claim that the South has been swindled, and
that she is entitled TO representation and to all
the other rights accorded to the States of the
North.
There has been no political selemotiOn on
the part Of the South. She cannot fairly be
charged nth demanding anything, or tcih at
tempting 10 dictate IN any manner The Presi-
dent, who she at first supposed to be her worst
enemy, showed himself unexpectedly to her to
be DESTROYS to compose strife, and to restore the
Constitution and the Union He was then in
| full communion with the dominant party, by
which he had been elected, and we all hoped
that what he did would be acquiesced in by
that party, The aohOle political action of the
South loaS the result Of has suggestions, and
IoaS intended 10 be responsive TO them, and to
shoe sincere desire to obey the federal author
iy."
The protests of the Wing are Just. The
South is not to be blamed. She has demanded
nothing and dictated nothing; and it is devil
ish art which invents demands and dictations,
and foistS them into the mouth of silent, pros
trate, ruined South, whom the magnamity of
victors, if not of Christians, ought long since
to have welcomed to the Capitol with open,
cordial arms-N T. World.
HARpEPsS EEPPV