Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-04-30
HEAD CENTRE STEPHENS.
Saturday Nights Report.
Congress.
WAsHISoToS, April rs.
HOUSE.

g WAsHISoToS, April Is.
HOUSE.
The House met to-day for general debate
on the Presidents annual message.
Mr.. SCHOFIEBD, of Pennsylvania, ad
dressed the House on the subject Of recon
struction. The premises which he assumed
wero that the disloyal population Of the
South would not exceed 5,O0O,0 600; that this
population was SC distributed that If the
late seeded States were admitted with con-
ditiOns they would be able TO elect twenty
six Senators and eighty-four Representa-
tives, thus permitting One-seventh of the
whole population OF the United States to
control more than One-third of its legisla-
tive power and that this control would be
used for the destruction of the Government
He argued that the seeded States came
back to the Union only by coereisn, that it
was forced bridal, that the original cause
of the secession hatred OF the North and its
anti-slavery majorities was much stronger
now than in 1851. They did not even pro-
fess themselves to be in favor Of the Union,
thengh untruthful men from the North
prevaricated for them. If they could they
would revive the Confederacy at once, and
they would use their power to provoke
war with Great Britain or France, hoping
thereby to secure their own Independence.
For this state of things three remedies had
been proposed First, to disfranchise the
leading rebels second, to neutralize their
votes by enfranchising the blacks and,
third, to make the population, minus the
6isfranehiged classes, or the number Of
voters the basis Of representation. He ad-
vocated the third proposition, claiming that
It was the republican plan of reconstruction.
The delay in reconstruction he attributed
to the opposition Of the Democrats. They
fought against all reconstruction that did
not allow the return of their long mourned
friends, more rancorous and more malicious
than before. But there was no need of
great haste; the rebels had been for full
four years out upon plague-infeeted seas,
| and could they not now tarry at quarantine
for single session.
The Presidents policy as exhibited in his
/ correspondence with his provisional Cover
nors, was not inconsistent with this plan
His breath was even now the law Of the
land in these States. The Democrats were
pursuing him with unrelenting friendship,
and if they finally seduced him his friends
could rejoice that the past is at least secure.
The Presidents thoughts of the last i've
years would still live, although only to re-
prove him. The proposition to admit the
loyal Representatives from the South, he
regarded as q snare, Just as Mr.. Semmes
had hung out the Union flag as decoy to
unarmed merchant vessels, replacing it with
pirate emblems when he had secured his
victim.
Mr.. Schofeld replied at length to the
leading objections made to the republican
plan Of reconstruction, contrasting it with
the policy advocated by the opposition. Of
the latter were to succeed, the Confederates
would have so votes in the next electoral
college, and would need only II more to
elect President. Of these they claimed
81 from the Semi-Confederate State, and
the expected Democrats of New York, New
Jersey and Connecticut, to make up the re-
naming &c. The government would then
be run entirely in the interest of the rebels
and then would be realized what opposition
in different phraseolOgy constantly asserted
was the object Of the war, namely, to com
pei the rebels to become the rulers of the
nation.
The House was also addressed by Mr..
HIGBIEE, of California, who took grou2d
in favor of granting equal political rights
to the Freedmen as q condition OF recon-
struction, and argued against the Recon
struetion Committees report admitting
Tennessee; by Mr.. HARDING, Of Ken
lucky; by Mr. FINCK, of Ohio; and by Mr..
BANKS, of Massachusetts,. During the
speech of the latter a spirited colloquy oc-
CURED between him and Mr.. Mr.WENTW0RTH
of Illinois, in reference to the Northern
Pacific Railroad Bill.