The national Republican. [volume] (Washington City [D.C.]) 1866-1870, 1866-05-02
THE CONGRESSIONAL FIAsCO
ONCE MORE.

moment like sick person in the hands OF
unskillful doctors, who amputate her limbs
to cure her Of malady which time, patience
and mild treatment would effectually over
come" Nothing could more accurately de
scribe the unfortunate condition Of this
country than the statement that it sis in
the hands Of unskillful doctors" The radi-
cal treatment they prescribe infames where
ii should soothe-blisters where it should
assuage-and, instead Of healing, reopens
and lays bare the hidden scars and hateful
wounds with which we have been afflicted
It is the province Of quackery to pretend to
cure where science fails. The victims Of its
decisions have added feasfully to the popula-
ton Of the grave. Yet quackery Hourishes,
and its chiefs pile up their ill-gotten wealth
while berating the regular practice" The
Constitution under which the American peo-
pie have lived for nearly eighty years, which
two millions Of our countrymen endured the
tolls and danger Of battle to uphold and
which thirty millions Of people now ask may
operate throughout the land, presents the
most natural, the most certain, the most
efficient method of restoration and settlement
Following its unfaltering light, and ami
mated by its sublime spirit, The president
Of the United States when the last gun was
fred and the last traitor had surrendered,
commenced the hallowed work Of readjust-
ment, and the lofty duties which peace en-
tailed upon him. He brought to the doors
Of either branch Of Congress eleven States
which had been in revolt now submissive to
the authority Of Government; now void Of
their great heresy Of secession and their
great sin of slavery now working under those
wise institutions of freedom which had made
the nation prosperous in peace and invincible
in war, with the Southern pulpit, the Southern
press, and Southern politics, almost without
exception, in favor of those fundamental prin-
ciples which had been the object Of our
fathers to embody into our form of govern
ment. At the door Of Congress he left them
as the Constitution babe, .imploring that body,
in its responsible position as legislators to
be guided, as he had been guided by the plain
precepts and principles Of that sacred instru.
ment. But the TmRrY-NISTH CONGRESS re.
not entitled to their respect. The Constitu.
ton may have been good enough for 1851
but in 1866 new light had dawned new dis.
pensations had been vouchsafed, and Con,
gress, unheeding the law Of the land, was
law unto itself
We had something to say yesterday con,
corning the nonstrosity which this Congress
has substituted for the healthy and restora-
tive constitutional remedy which the founders
Of our institutions patented, and which TIE
President would apply to our troubles at
this time. Again we commence the unwel
come task of examining the abortion, assur
ing our readers that should we undertake tC
reveal all its defects, or canvass all the dan.
gers which might arise from it, we should
have no other occupation for our pen for
weeks to come. We have shown that its
fanfaronade about personal rights in the first
proposition is entirely useless; that every
guarantee therein provided already exists
We have shown also that the plan for recti
flying the inequalities in representation is
neither so Just or sensible as that Of THF
PRESIDENT to base representation upon cleo
tors; and that the supposed inequalities fur,
nish no real ground for ejecting from Con.
gress eleven States, or denying representa-
ton to eight millions Of people. Another
proposition assumes to protect the national
debt. And how? By forbdding the as
sumption by any State, or the nation, OF
obligations entered into in the behalf of re-
I'll n, st.,A Il 81
ment for that Do we need to keep third
of the Union taxed and unrepresented for
that Why, ask all the men which have
been elected from the South to sit in the
Senate Chamber II they are in favor Of
State or nation paying the debt of the rebel
lion, and we premise that not one will answer
in the affirmative.
II would be as wise and Gs necessary to
pass constitutional amendment tG indorse
the multiplication table or verify the ten
commandments as to incorporate by consti-
tional enactment the reputation of the rebel
debt. As to compensation for slaves, every
member Of this Congress knows, and if they
do not the intelligent people of this country
do know, that no man ever elected from the
North will vote for such measure and there
is no more danger from that source than there
is that we shall compensate the Russian no
bility for the loss of their seris. The people
will not be caught in any such trap as that.
They know where the danger to our debt
lies-not in the direction of payment for
slaves or merging the rebel debt into our
nxUr hnt in,rnal,p1, aud