The Portland daily press., 1866-02-15

pTouus II IL SuccccuS IL Will NC DRESSING 10
the poor, and fruitful in blessings in the ex
ample it will set for other cities to emulate IS
The Constitutional Amendment.
| The amendment to the Constitution report
ed by the Joint Committee land passed by
the House of Representatives. excluding
from the basis of representation all that por-
ton of the population OF any State which
may be DISTINGUISHED by the State laws on ac-
| count of race OF cOlOr-has some manifest adj
vantages over the proposition to make legal
voters the basis of representation. In the
first place, it does not, as the latter would have
done, punish the older States for sending
| large drafts of their young men to the West,
by depriving them of a large proportion of
their federal weight. In the next place, it
does not tempt the States into competing for
voters, and getting them of whatever quality,
where and how they can, and at whatever
cost. 1t would leave the public Judgment
free to decide whether any qualifications are
necessary for the exercise of the franchise
and, if any, what they ought to. be. ~, ~,
But then it would not settle the Southern
difficulty. 1t does not restore or secure any
human being in any of the revolted States in
the possession of his rights. 1t does not pro-
vide for freedom of speech or freedom of the
person or freedom of instruction. 1t does
| nothing for the restoration of industry. It
| does not furnish any Southerner with single
reason for laying aside his old fear or hatred
for the Union, or for desiring to be in feeling,
as well as in fact and in law, one of its citi-
zens. 1t does not remove any of the causes.
whatever they may be, which now either hin
der or retard the assimilation of society in
both sections into one homogeneous whole
We do not say that its failure to do any Of
these things is good reason for opposing it.
1t may have uses, and great and grave uses,
without accomplishing one of these results
But then, these are, after all, the great ends of
any process of reconstruction. Any amend
ment of the seventy now before the public
that does not help us to obtain these results,
ought to have very striking merits of some
kind to entitle it to weeks of debate and the
solemn confirmation of a national vote. -
What will this amendment accomplish? It
win, certainly, as long as the Southern States
do not choose to admit the colored population
| to political equality, diminish the representa-
tion of those States in Congress. This
may be a gain !; for the present, and as
long as they exhibit the least restlessness
under the public debt, or the least disposition
to make us pay for the damage done to their
property in following their armies over their
territory, it certainly will be a gain. If they
do admit the negroes to political rights, there
L
OF the latter will be cast ON our side, and that
the addition they would make to the Southern
delegation would weigh in orr favor. But,
then, suppose the South should give up ali
hope of damaging the public credit-suppose
| they should consider any such scheme Quix-
otto; should perceive that, owing to the mode
in which the public debt was contracted ow-
ing to the character and influence and wide
diffusion through the land Of those who hold
II > ,up foo IN, no of fI,ao
Citations which surround it, to the strong hold
it has on the heart of the North, as the very
price of national existence, they Should aball-
don definitely all hope of either impairing its
value or swelling its volume by adding to it
any portion OF their own burdens-suppose
they should be satisfied, after little better ac-
quaintance with Northern feeling, that the
least attempt to lay finger on it would cause
the very stones of the free States to rise and
mutiny, and they should make up their minds
to sit down quietly and pay the taxes neces-
sary for its redemption-wha then? h'Ho" ~
We should undoubtedly have escaped a
| great danger. But where would we stand? The
South would have few delegates less in Con-
gress than it would like to nave, and one great
cause of Northern uneasiness would have,
been removed. But then the problem of all
others which puzzles us most Just now-the
problem of social and political inequality at
the South-would remain as far from solution
as ever. A large portion of the Southern pop
ulation might still, probably would still, be
permanently excluded from the citizenship
on grounds which we all hold to be absurd and
unchristian, il not utterly repugnant to the
| spirit OF our Institutions. Caste at the South
might still be created and perpetuated A
feudal system, based on serfdom, would still be
possible under the Constitution But this is
not the worst of it. All this we have had in
times past without thinking ourselves moral
ly responsible for it, The trouble is that, the
present amendment once passed. we should be
morally responsible for it. The question
would have been soIemnly submitted to the
Congress and people of the United States,
whether a State with republican form of
government" should have right to disfran-
elise portion of its population for being of a
particular color or belonging to particular
race, If it choose to cut down proportionally
its representation in Congress; and would
have been solemnly answered in, the afirma-
tive. Jt.ET mn
i The choice in this case does not lie between
an exercise of the "war power" and cohsti-i
etutionaf amendment, as it did when negro
suffrage began to be frstdebated, but between
two constitutional amendments. An amend
ment forbidding any mans exclusion from po-
litical rights on the ground Of race or color is
still possible 1t would, perhasp, hang fire for
the present in some of the Northern States;
but 1t would certainly be carried before very
long: In days when New Jersey votes fof. the
abolition of slavery. nothing is impossible.--
ana we confess we believe that the submission
70 the country, by the national legislature, of
q proposition to strike out at once and forever
rom every statute book the last traces of the
great stain of our history, might bring the
matter home to the national conscience with
force which would soon show that the votes
IN some states, such as Connecticut or Wis
consin, did not after all, express the feeling Of
the people in its highest and noblest moods
At all events, we should be saved from the
danger which now threatens us, of establish-
ing a bad precedent for the sake of AVOIDING a
temporary nconyeDience.-lThe Nation.