Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-03-13
. From the Baltimore Sun.l
The Course Of the ERecOnstT uctiOn
Com mi1lee.

JDc mass OF IDaJJcf WHICH CDe h6COUstTuC-
tion committee of Congress has produced
on the subject of the condition of the South
ern States in the last several days, because
we did not consider it worth the space /;
but we have stated enough to enlighten the
public as to its general character. 1t was
as eg parte testimony, if such itcan be call
ed, and directed solely to one object. IT
the committee had designed otherwise, they
would have proceeded In fairer spirit, and
heard both sides. Now, there is a maxim
that he who decides cause without hear
ing the other side, although his decision
may be correct, has acted unjustly. The
present majority in Congress have not only
acted unjustly in deciding the great nation
al cause which is before them without
hearing the parties interested, but their in
justice has not even the mitigating circum-
stance of correct result. They have
flagrantly violated the Constitution by ex-
Guiding the States of the South from repre-
sentation; and they have deliberately ex-
cluded from a hearing the best witnesses
who could give intelligent and reliable
testimony upon the question on which they
have passed. The shutting out from repre-
sentatiOn of the Southern States during the
preliminary inquiry which Congress as
sumed to be necessary to admission, did
not Justify resort to such material as has
been gathered as evidence in palliation of
the course they have predetermined upon.
If the twenty-five gentlemen who have
been sent up to Washington as Senators,
and the gentlemen who have been elected
to the House Of Representatives could not
yet be admitted as Representatives, they
were, nevertheless, competent and credible
witnesses. They are men of intelligence,
of extensive observation, OF unblemished
private character, whose veracity as men
stands as high as the veracity of any Others
can stand--that is to say, above all impeach-
ment. Why were not these men called as
witnesses before the Reconstruction COM
mittee? Why were they not interrogated
under oath as to the sincerity with which
the people of the Southern States have ac-
cepted the Federal authority; as to the
good faith and peaceful intentions of the
body of the Southern people; of their pur-
pose to uphold the laws and to support the
Constitution, and to sustain the plighted
faith of the nation for all its financial obli-
cations? Does any man doubt that these
gentlemen, one and all of them, would have
testified fully, frankly, truthfully and un-
derstandingly upon every fact and question
in regard to which the committee desired
information? If they had testified falsely
they might have been contradicted. If
they had declined to speak frankly and
fully, they might readily be discredited.
They each and all are personally known to
many persons in every State in the Union,
and the value of their testimony might be
fairly weighed. But no, these witnesses
are excluded; the truth, as they would de-
clare il, is hidden, suppressed, and in lieu
thereof we have loose opinions, vague
hearsay statements of what certain anony-
nous respectable Union men in the Southern
| States, in chance conversations, have said
| to travelling SPECTATORS or obscure Freed
mems Bureau agents, with now and then a
| glittering epaulet thrown in to dazzle and
convince by grave professional opinions,
which, as an expert in politics, he has FORM
| ed during a military reconnaissance in
some part of the Southern States.
Selecting their own witnesses and exam
| ming them in the loosest manner upon mat
tiers of hearsay and conjecture, without
giving the grounds of their opinions or the
real sources whence those opinions were
formed, it is easy for the committee to
prove any theory they may previously
have agreed to establish; but their proof
| is of that sort which would be rejected even
in quarter sessions court, and such as the
American people will not accept In justifi-
cation of the conclusions of the committee
such as will not be accepted as sufficient
to convict five millions of people upon a
general Indictment of moral turpitude and
the mass of them of actual perjury under
the oaths of amnesty and renewed fidelity
to the Constitution and the Union which
they have taken. The majority have
shown by the vote upon Mr.. Schenck's
motion to refuse West Point cadetship tC
any lad in the Southern States, their fixed
purpose to treat the entire people of the
Southern States as alien enemies. Through
out the present session they have been un-
folding, by slow degrees, their resolution to
deal with the Southern States as conquered
provinces, without political right. with
out constitutional guaranty: subjects to
be ruled by martial law at the discretion OF
Congress. The earnest efforts of the peo-
pie to re-esUablish confidence have been
repelled with scorn, and their professions
of faith openly condemned and denounced
as false and hollow. And now that under
such circumstances every individual in the
land has not cringed and fawned. and lick
ed with irrepressible affection the hand of
every subordinate official who has been
amongst them, and some have been heard
to mourn for the hopes which have forever
perished, these things are to be paraded un-
der the mocking form of solemn testimony,
taken by committee in Congress, to justi-
fly the tanatical prescription Of millions.
The committee and the majority in Con-
gress may believe that the American peo-
pie can be deceived by the course which
has been pursued, but there is an innate
perception of truth and right in the minds
of men which cannot be obscured by such
shallow devices, and which will convict
the accusers themselves of treason to the
Constitution out Of the very testimony by
| - A. AN-
throw of the rights of the people and the
| guarantees of the Constitution,