The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1866-11-13
IF TIE AMENDMENT FAILS.

ratify the Constitutional Amendment, it
may be part of the Constitution by the
first of February, and before Congress has
| been two months in session all the States
may be represented.
There is no doubt that this would be
very welcome consummation to the people.
everywhere; the nation would thus be re-
lieved from struggle which disturbs 1t Sc
riously, and all parts Of it would be at lib
erty to 90 to work and repair damages.
I'll feeling would be alIayed, the bitterness
of prejudice would die out and the south
ern states, particularly, would be enabled
to work out for themselves in peace the
problems which are still before them.
The fruits O. such an event would be
happy for the whole country, and a serious
responsibility rests upon those who. for in
sufficient reasons, through obstinacy, or for
the attainment of mere partisan ends, strive
to prevent or delay an adjustment which
would be beneficial to all sections of the
country and to all classes Of ourpopulation.
The Amendment may be ratified; we
hope it will but the opposition to it may
prevail; and it is orth while to consider
what would be the result should it fail to
pass; should it be rejected by all the south
ern states. 1t is worth while to think of
this, because, though the people desire
settlement, there are not less than three
classes of politicians who are laboring to
prevent such a settlement and to keep the
country in its present disorganized and an
archial condition. These are, first, the
southern leaders-those who drove the
southern states into rebellion, and most of
whom would be disabled from holding of
fee by the adoption of the amendment;
next the democratic-or copperhead-
leaders in the northern states; and finally,
the so-called radical leaders, represented by
the Independent. These three classes, all
energetic and earnestly bent upon their
own designs, are not content with the
amendment, because its adoption and the
consequent admission of all the states to
representation, and completion of the work
of restoration, would fatally check their
plans.
What, then, will be the result if the
Amendment fails? It is plain, in the first
place, that we shall be condemned still
longer to the condition in which the coun-
try, to its very great injury, has been for
now eighteen months-a condition which
we have called anarchial, and which would
be as bad as that of Mexico, were it not
that our people have more patience, and
have not yet fallen into the habit of shoot !
ing each other for political differences.
But this is not all; we could not stand
still where we are. Political parties will
inevitably divide upon an issue of extremes.
We think it may be said that this issue
will be between a party on the one hand
who will demand the admission to Con-
gress, and to all political power, of all the
leaders in the late rebellion, and party On
the other hand who will demand the ut
most severity of punishment for those lead
ers, and universal or impartial suffrage in
all the states, as the only security for the
nation.
That this is the tendency of parties no
one can doubt who bears in mind that the |
copperhead leaders look to an alliance with
the leaders in the late rebellion, as their
only hope of political future; they must,
in the nature of things, demand for these
allies of theirs all political rights and priv
ileges; while the so-caIed radical wing of
the Republican party will not fail to take
advantage of the folly of the southern
states in refusing the amendment, and of
the obnoxious schemes of their opponents,
to impress upon the people the necessity Of
still more effective precautions against the
dangerous ambition of the southern lead
ers and their northern allies.
Thus, with the rejection of the amend
ment, we shall enter upon another politi-
cal struggle, more intense than that thro'
which we are now passing, more injurious
to the country, and especially to the south
ern states-a contest of which the issue is
not doubtful; for the twenty millions of
the northern states will begin to see the !
unreasonableness of the southern leaders,
and will lose patience with these men, who
so stubbornly refuse the mildest terms ever
offered to beaten rebels. Hitherto the
country has wonderfully restrained itself;
but we advise no one to push its patience
too far. 1t is not at all impossible, it is not
even improbable, if the amendment should
fail through the obstinacy of the southern
leaders, that the laws which are still on the
statute book may be enforced against the
politicians who led their states into treason
and rebellion.
Hitherto we have given only mercy
but justice is still alive. 1t seems a mon
strous thing to the southern politicians that
some of them should be excluded from
office; but suppose they were to be hanged
for their treason, as the law demands, sup
pose their estates should be taken from
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