The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-02-12
Our Present Needs.

When the Rebellion ended, the greatest tri
umphs which had ever been granted to man
had been achieved. The capability of fede-
raj democratic republic 10 withstand and
survive so great shock had been demon
strated and the war, although leaving the
nation weary, left it in the full consciousness
of its immense power, and resting like Titan
reposing after an effort which had shaken a
wcrld. The Rebellion had done more. It
had Incidentally restored several millions
of men to their inalienable rights of life.
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
The nation, without having been called
upon TO vindcate those principles, as
applied to the enslaved, had been driven, by
the fatuity and frenzy of the South, to
vindicate only the supremacy of the Govern
ment. Without being constrained to assume
the anomalous and awful responsibility of
forcing the South to expiate national sin,
self-preservation, pushed to its legitimate
bounds, had resulted not only in the mainte-
nance of the republic, but in the destruction
of slavery. Providence had granted the
greatest boons, while 1t had exacted the least
responsibility, the least loss reconcilable with
the expiation due to offended justice.
Look back, and let us ask ourselves whether,
excepting a small minority, the nation would
not, within the first few months of war, have
gladly recOnciled its jarring elements, with
the sole proviso that the supremacy Of the
Government should be acknowledged, and
the integrity of the Union be preserved. Such
were its terms, repeatedly offered, and even
NUha M fooi tlu 70 ha
ever ready lor acceptance. But greater
agency than man's-an agency of which he
was only the partially intelligent instrument
was solving, in behalf of the world, the prob
lem of ofrepublicanism and slavery.
Through hours so gloomy that even the
most hopeful sometimes desponded; through
hours when it was doubtful whether the re-
public would ever hail the dawn; through
clashing interests, dissension among friends
eager to do right, yet differing as to means
through treachery and loyalty, reason and un-
reason, good and evil report, the nation has
been guided and it stands at last in the full
blaze of the glorious light streaming from
failure bright as the Promised Land.
That which the Ultina0 ratio was to de-
eide, has been, as usual decided quickly. But
the mission of the sword has ended, and with
its mission ends the quick settlement of great
questions. The war, putting aside relatively
unimportant considerations, has lett the
country one in name but not one in fact. The
passions of men have not yet subsidized. The
madness which precipitated the Rebellion
cannot expire in a day.
We need temperate counsels. Precipitancy
in action, always to be deprecated, is now
to be especially deplored. The Constitutional
Amendment confirming the abolition of
slavery, and decreeing its perpetual exclusion
from the country, was allsuflicient for the
nation, in order that no portion OF that which
it had happily secured might peradventure
be in future lost. But does the nation really
need another amendment to compel the South
to enfianchlse millions of blacks, under penalty
OF total loss OF representation for the whole
of people, only portion of whom may be
excluded from the elective franchise?
Is it tolerable that an amendment to- Con-
stitution should be antagonstic to the tenor
of the instrument? Does the guarantee of
the Constitution, to ensure TO each State a
republican form of government, compel it
| to violate the principle OF our form of demo-
| cratic republicanism? Ii the United States
were republic, when recognizing slaVery-an
infringement OF an inGIenGbLe right-cannot
State still be republican, without granting
to all its inhabitants the privilege of suffrage,
which is not an inallenable right. Is the time
well chosen, when, by the necessity of pre-
sent affairs, the South is excluded from a
voice in the framing of an amendment
| and possesses only final vote by States,
| to propose for its consideration so obnoxious
| a measure? Is it sufficient that the North,
| with few blacks, and unwilling in many places
to grant even municipal privileges to those
! few, should consent Just to taste the bitterness
of a draught which is preferred to Southern
| lips? Are the Northern States prepared to
| say that no influx of white barbarians from
| Europe might make them rue the day
when they proposed a Constitutional amend
ment which did not allow State to exclude
| such men from suffrage, without total loss of
representation in one branch of Congress?
| That, as question of abstract justice, all
men should be equal before the law we have
not the lesat doubt; that we should be
rejoiced did we think that the whole OF the
black race in this country could, without dam
| ger 10 themselves or others, be invested with
the elective franchise, we wish to be distinctly
| understood. But that they are capable, as a
mass, OF exercising the privilege with discre-
ton, we do not believe, nor. if they are, that
it is advisable for them to possess il IN the
| present unsettled condition ofthe South.
| Our wishes ior the present and our hopes
for the future are not, in our view, the true
measures OF practicabllity. The Constitu-
| tional Amendment to be passed, should leave
| to the respective States the light to extend