The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-10-07
Accepting the Amendment.

the policy of using the projected
constitutional amendment us plan
for settling the vexed question of
restoration. Mr.. Raymond, author
of the address of the Philadelphia
Convention, and Chairman of the
Republican National Committee,
places himself, by this accession, on
ground which is not different, in
practical import and tendency, from
the platform laid down by Governor
Parker, who now has the chairman
ship Of the above committee, in the
address recently issued by it, and by
Mr.. Greeley, who wrote and signed
the |; tier document The Times has,
from the beginning, approved the
amendment as wise and just in itself,
but it has disputed the propriety Of
the present Congress, as now organ
lied, adopting and referring it, in q
peremtory spirit. to the Southern
States to ratify, under peril Of con-
tinued exclusion. This position is
somewhat illustrated in the subioined
extract from an editorial in the Times,
of recent date:
''There is not the slightest differ
ence of opinion, SO far as we are
aware, in the Union party, and very
little anywhere else, as to the wisdom
of ratifying the constitutional amend
ment proposed by Congress- 1t re-
ceived every Union vote in the
House, and is sustained by every
Union journal throughout the coun-
try. The only point upon which diff
ferences do prevail is as to the policy
of making its adoption a condition
precedent to the admission of repre-
sentatives from Southern States.
Upon this, Union members of Con
gress were not agreed among them
selves. Some were opposed to adj
hitting them until after the amend
ment should have become part of the
fundamental law, by the ratification
of three-fourths of. all the States.
Others, like Mr.. Bingham, of Ohio,
insisted that whenever any Southern
State should ratify the amendment,
that State should thereupon be ad-
mitted to representation Others,
like Mr.. Boutwell,, Of Massachusetts,
and Mr. Kelley, of Pennsylvania,
refused to pledge Congress to admit
them even after the amendment
should be adopted, and others still
| did not deem it within the constitu-
tlcna! power of Congress to impose
its adoption as q condition of admis-
sion to the fundamental right Of rep
resentation.
''In point of fact, the adoption or
rejection of the amendment has
nothing whatever to do, as the law
now stands, with the admission or
rejection of members from the South
ern States. \ bill providing for
their admission, on condition of its
adoption. was rejected by the House,
and even if every Southern State
should ratify the amendment to-mor-
row, Congress has not pledged itself
in any way thereupon to admit their
representatives in Congress. The
two questions are entirely separate
and distinct, and each must be de-
termined upon its own merits"
Infelicitous, to say the least, is the
Times method of manifesting its
objection to the amendment as con-
dition, and its support of the amend
ment as measure of intrinsic merit.
The excluded States are told that they
ought to ratify the amendment with
out delay, but that Congress ought
not to make, and, indeed, has not
made, ''its adoption condition pre-
cedent to the admission of represen-
tatives from Southern States" In
other words, those States are called
upon to do gratuitously an act which
even some of the most prominent
radicals in Congress were willing to
requite by admitting Southern rep
resentatives without further prelimi-
nary concessions and guarantees.
We need not say that the South does
not want the amendment; that it
wants the Constitution as it is, and |
not Government changed profound
ly by such an addition to, and such
all eXSclSSiOn from IFS Con StitutiOn.