The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-11-23
wendell Phillips on the Condition OF
the Country and the Duty OF Con-
gress.

wendell Phillips on the Condition OF
the Country and the Duty OF Con-
RFess.
From the Anti. i.SldUerV Standard Of to-day.
We hear Of compromises to be suggested by
the Premdent. 1t is rumored that he is pre-
pared 10 adopt Mr.. GIeeley's plan, universal
amnesty, and universal or impartial suffrage.
The Democl attic party, It Is SAID, and the South
ern Rebels also accept this. We may be obliged
70 submit to II now, since treason in the White
House and practical statesmanship (O in the
capital have lost us the golden opportunity of
May, 1865. such terms are preventive of
future rebellons; the precedent thus set, that
men may rebel at Richmond, starve and torture
at Andersonvi1le, play the brute at Fort PILLOW,
riot and murder at Memphis and New Orleans,
and still laugh at law and Justice.
But with traitor in the Presidential chair,
with the dominant party all at sea, without
chart or pilot, its officers having shut them
selves up In the cabin, stuffed their ears with
cotton, and covered their eyes sevenfold for fear
OF the lightning and the noise; with timid non-
combatants for editors of our leading Journals
every Republican tort covered constantly with
hsgs OF armisticen what better could we
expects
we only enter our protest that no such plan
will restore peace to the South, no such plan
will give room for even the commencement of
real reconstruction. Accept such plan and
leave the South to carry 1t out and we may look
to see her, for some years 70 come, repeating
the bloody, bankrupt, aimless ard barren an
archy of Mexico. No State charter Of political
TlRnIS 10 tue negro Will ever secure MIN Ine
efficient and substantial exercise OF them. All
grant of rights TO him by the bigoted, besOtted,
anRered, and revengetul white me1 OF the South,
will lack an Executive principle" as Burke
and Canning long ago warned us.
What the South needs is peace, aud cordial
welcome of Northern brains capital and enter
prise. without this reconstruction cannot COM
menCe. In order to have this, the antipathies
between her classes must be kept down by the
strong arm of the United States; her old leaders,
poisoned and poisoning all others, must be
silenced and curbed and her streets made safe
tor any man, however hated, who brings mind.
money, schools and energy with him.
Give the negro his political rights, and inau-
gurate this state of things, and in ten years the
South win become like the West, the counter
part, with the healthy differences, of the North
east-the cradle and true mould OF the nation.
At present, the country population of the
South Is in a hopeful state OF mind ana feeling,
easily moulded aud led, because always accus-
toned to be led. The cities and old political
hacks, resuscitated by their rotten comrade in
the White House, are full OF mischief The real
leaders OF the South its large property holders
and educated men, except a few Gascons like
Wade Hampton, realize their situation. Could
the Government hold the South quiet while real
reconstruction commenced, these men would
in three years be its warmest friends. They
looked on slavery as an investment, not as "a
political hobby, and now that is ended, seek
to throw off those "old men of the sea- Pol
lard, Pryor, and the rest, in order to i'm
prove, accumulate, amass, and enjoy. If true
BtAtesmansnlp COulQ nave managed tllS CrlSlS
all power in the rebeliOus territories would
have been intrusted to loyal hands, black and
white and then the Aikens, MuHroes, Pollards
and Wade Hamptons would have been protected
by Civil Rights bills and Bureaus from any pos
si5le misuse of this exclusive power on the part
OF our white and black allies But as that OD-
pOrtunity was lost we must protect the negro
for two three years, as he rises into his place
and then States may be safely formed, and most
of the powers formerly conceded 10 State
overeignty may be inrusted to it again. The
war has taught us that the regulation OF citizen
ship its civil and political rights ought always
TO be retained by the Federal Government.
Our claim is that Congress shall wholly ignore
the military boards and committees OF pardOned
Rebels which call themselves "States." Let no
Executive sanction induce Congress to recog-
nize such usurpatons. 1t is not yet time to
authorize those Territories TO form state Gov
ernments.
Secondly Whenever any bargain is made and
whatever its terms, let it be guaranteed by the
United States Let the political equality and
right of each citizen be secured by the Federal
Constitution. The South, when she could not
violently rob- has always cheated her vlctiH.
The Missouri Compromise was evaded by SNUG
ling into that State two or three counties north
OF the forbidden line, years before II was openly
set aside by unblushing fraud. So will any ar
rangaments made by States for the negro be
eVaded or annulled.
"Punic faith" is pure gold, spotless Abiiel
compared with Southern trickery, in all that
relates to the negro and the nation.
'Do YOU doubt my word W said Southern
srBombastes Furioso,n in New York Court seve
raj wears ago, 10 an Abolitieuist who demanded
his bond, and not his promise, to produce there
again an alleged slave.
az know you steal, and see no reason whl
YOU should not also lie," was the quiet reply
which embodies volumes of wisdom tor TIN
WENDELL PHILLIPS.