Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-06-16
ReDOrt of the Reconstruction
.... Committee.


The report of the Reconstruction COM
mittee is still-born affair. 1t has no vital
ity: it is a mere rehash of Radical newspa-
per and legislative electloneering, diluted
to the comprehension of the mass of the
Radicals. IL is surprising that men of sense
and decency enough to hold a seat in the
United States Senate should insu the pub
lie understanding so far as to address such
n1 cdDtandum fol-de-rol as the following TO
the American people:
"The question before Congress is, then,
whether conquered enemies have the right,
and shall be permitted, at their own pleas
ure and on their own terms, to partici-
pate In making laws for their conquerOrs ;
whether conquered rebels may change their
theater of operations from the battlefield,
where they were defeated and overthrOwn,
to the halls of Congress, and through their
representatives seize the Government which
they fought to destroy; whether the ma
tional treasury, the army OF the nation, its
navy, its forts aud arsenals, its whole civil
administration, its credit, its pensioners,
the widows and orphans of those who per-
ished in the war, the public honor, peace and
safety, shall all be turned over to the keep
ing of its recent enemies without delay, and
without imposing such conditions as, in the
opinion OF Congress, the security of the
country and its institutions may demand"
No one proposes that conquered enemies
at their own pleasure and on their own
terms shall participate in making laws for
their cOnquerors; but that, after these ene-
mics have adopted the amendment to the
Constitution abolishing slavery, declared
their secession laws null and void, sOlemnly
pledged themselves to support the Federal
Constitution and the Federal authority in
all res poets; yielded uneXceptionable ODE
dience to all the requirements of the Gem
eral Government and to the national laws; !;
repudiated the Confederate debt and ac-
knowledged their accountability for all
Federal obligations, and are prepared to
take the most stringent and searching oath
OF fidelity 70 the Government-we say then
to deny them any participation in the Gov
ernment that rules them, except 10 bear its
burdens, is ungenerOus, impOlitic. aud in
in rious TO the public welfare-that it endan-
gers the peace of the country. em6aI rasses
lis prosperity aud tends TO perpetuate those
sectional antipathies which led 10 the war
and in the continuance of which is our
greatest danger.
1t is not proposed to turn over the civil
Government. and all tue interests euumer-
ated by the committee. to our recent enc
mics, without delay, bnt to allow them to
be represented in the legislation of the
country after presenting such evidence OF
their honesty as we have cited, aud while
having as much at stake in preserving the
Government as those who would relnOrse-
lessly prescribe them. Again, how is the
Government to be turned over to the Rep
resentatives and Senators Of the eleven
Southern States, and controlled by them, 1t
they were admitted, when the Representa-
tives aud Senators from the other Statt
would outnumber those from the South
three to one, and all tue appointments to
places of authority, civil aud military,
United States Judges included, and all the
patronage of the Government remain with
the opponents OF the late Coniederacy /!
The suggestion is ridiculous, and could he
realized only in the adoption of that Hi6ern-
ian strategy which enabled an individual
to conquer an hundred opponents by sur
rounding them.
The pretense of fear is all humbug; a
shallow device to deceive; mere strategem
to prolong party power by Congressional
lying. Honest aud sensible citizens will
scorn such hiugglery.-BOStOn Post. .