Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-06-29

States at once, trusting that time ana expe-
lrience would set all things right" tits not,
therefore, owing 70 a want of CONSTITUTIONS
al power, that 1t Is not DONE 1t is not be-
cause such States are not States with re-
publican forms OF government. The exclu-
sion must therefore rest on considerations
of safety, or of expectancy alone. The
first, that of safety, we have already con-
sidered, and. as we think, proved it to be
without foundation. Is there any ground
forthe elatter-expediehcy We thinkndt.
o.. the contrary, in our Judgment, their ad-
mission is called for by che clearest expp-
diency. Those States include a territorial
area OF $4,000 square miles, an area larger
than that of five of the leading ma
tions of Europe. They have a coast
line of three thousand miles, with an
internal water line, including the Missis-
sippi, of about thirty-siX thousand miles.
Their agricultural products in 1860, We're
about $5G0O00O00 in value, aud their pop
ulation 9,664,656. Their staple productions
are Of immense and growing Importance,
and are almost peculiar to that region.
That the North is deeply interested In hav7
ing such country and people restored TO
ALI the rig Is aad privileges the Constl-
tuition affords, no sane man, not blinded by
mere party considerations, or not q victim
OF disOrderiug prejudice, can tor moment
doubt. Such restOratiOn.is is also necessary
to the peace of the country. 1t is not only
Important but vital to the potential wealth
which that portion of our cuuutry Is capa-
bic of. It cannot otherwise be fully devel- |
oped. Every hour of Illegal political
restraint, every hour the POSSESSION 0t the
rights the Constitution gives, is denied, is,
NOT only in political but material sense,
of great injury to the North as well as the
South. The Southern planter woGksfor his
Northern brethren as we'll as for himself.
His -labors heretofore Injured as much, II
not more, to their advantage as to his. |
While harmony in the past between the
sections gave to the whole prosperity, a
power anda renown ofwhich every Citizen
had reason to be proud, the restoration OF
such harmony will immeasurably increase |
them all. Can it, will it be restored as long
as the South is kept in political and dis |
honoring bondage? And can it not, will
it not be restored by an Opposite poll |
cy? Ry admitting her to all the rights |
OF the Constitution, and by dealing |
with her citizens as equals and as brothers. |
not as interiors and enemies. Sucha course
as this will, we are certain, be seen to bind
them heart and soul to the Union. and in |
splre them with confidence in its Govern |
ment by making them feel that all enmity |
is forgotten, and that justice is being done
to them. The result of such a policy, we |
believe, will at once make us in very truth |
one people, as happy, as prosperous and as
powerful as ever existed Mt any period 6f
time, while its opposite will keep usdivid- |
ed ipjuTiously- affect the particular and
general welfare Of citizen and Government, |
aud if long persisted in can but result in
danger to the nation. In the wolds of an
IL n
"a free Constitution and large exclusion |
from its benefits cannot subsist together; !
the Constitution will destroy them or they
will destroy the Constitution" 1t is hop |
ed that, needing the warning, we shall
guard against tue peril by removing its
canSe. 4
The undersigned have not thought it nee
essary to examine into the legality of the
measures adopted, either By the late or the
present President, for the restoration of the
southern States. 1t is sufficient for their
purpose to say that If those OF President
johnson are not justified be the Constitu-
tion, the same at least may be said OF those
of his prt dece:sor. We Ceem such an eX-
animation to be unneces sIry, because,
however it might result, the people of the
several States who possessed, as we have
before said, the exclusive right to decide
for themselves what Constitution they
should adopt. have adopted those ConstiIu-
tions under which they respectively live.
The motives of neither, however. whether
the measures are legal or not legal, are
liable to censure. The sole object of each
was to effect a complete and easy Union of
all the States: to make the General Govern
ment, as it did at first embrace all the
States; to extend its authority and secure
its privileges aud blessings to all alike.
The purity of motive of President john
son in this particular, as was to
have been expected, Is admitted by
the majority of the committee to be
beyond doubt, so that. whatever may
have been the unconstitutiOnality OF his
course, and its tendency to enlarge the eX-
ecutive power, they do not for moment
impute to him any such design, but cheer
fully concede to him she most patriotic mo-
tives." Aud we cannot forbear to say, in
conclusion, that he sins against light and
closes his eyes to the course of the Presi-
dent during the rebellion who ventures to
impeach his patriotism. Surrounded by
insurrectionists, he stood firm. His lie
was almost constantly in peril and he cluhg
to the Union, and discharged all the obli-
cations it imposed upon him even the
closer because of the peril; and now that
he has escaped unharmed, and by the con-
fidence of the people has had devolved
upon him the executive functions of the
Government, to charge him " ith disloyalty
is either a folly or a crime-folly in the
fool who believes it, crime in the man OF
sense Gf any such there be) who asserts it.
Senate-REvERDY JOHNSON,
of Maryland.
HENRY GRIDER,
of Kentucky.