The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1866-09-26

ctt W 70 QlECDukE0 ~
nj and defiant these politicians will become.
The Union Of the States must be restored
at all hazards and on the best terms that
can be obtained, and the plan OF the Presl-
dent having failed through the treachery and
selfshness Of politicians, what now remains
to be dones
There are but two plans before the coun-
try-the Executive plan, and that of the
Congress or law-making power. The Presi-
dents plan provides, first, that the States
exist as States. though by rebellion they had
lost their governments; secondly, that slave
~ must be formally abolished by an amend
ment to the federal Constitution; thirdly,
that the RIGHT of secession must be abandon
ed; fourthly. that the rebel debt must be re-
pudiated, and, as matter OF course, the
national debt must be paid; fifthly, that
loyal persons only should reoreanlze govern
ments for the States. and that no members
elect to Congress from the Southern States
should be prevented for admission, who can
not take the test-oath.
This is the Presidents plan. What is the
Congressional plan2 1t is as follows, in the
shape of joint resolution, proposing amend
ments to the federal Constitution:
ARTICLE IA.
SECTION l. All persons born or naturalized in
the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction
thereof, are citizens of the United States and of
the State wherein they reside. No State shall
make or enforce any law which shall abridge The
privileges or mmunities of citizens of the United
States; nor shall any State deprive any person
of law, nor deny to any person within its juris-
dictioL the equal protection of the laws.
SEC. q Representatives shall be apportioned
among the several States according to their re-
spective mbers, counting the whole number
of persons in each State, excluding Indians not
taxed. But when the right to vote at any cleo
ton for the choice of electors for President and
Vice President of the United States, representa-
tiveS in Congress, the executive and judicial DILL
GERS of State, or the members of the legislature
thereof, is denied to any of the male Inhabitants
of such State, being twentyone years of age
and citizens of the United States, or in any way
abridged, except for participation in rebellion or
other crime, the basis of representation therein
shall be reduced in the proportion which the
number of such male citizens shall bear to the
whole number of male citizens twenty-One years
of age in such State.
SEC g. No person shall be Senator or Repre-
sentative in Congress- or elector of President and
Vce-President, or hold any office, civil or mill
tary, under the United States, or under any State,
who, having previously taken an oath as MEM
Der of Congress, or as an officer OF the United
States, or as member of any State legislature,
or as an executive or judicial officer of any State,
to support the Constitution of the United States,
shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion
against the same, or given aid or comfort to the
enemies thereof But Congress may, by vote
oftSO-thirds of each House, remove such dis
ability.
United States, authorized by law, including debts
incurred for payment OF pensions and bOunties
for services in suppressing instruction or rebel
lion, shall not lie questioned. But neither the
United States nor any State shall assume or pay
any debt or obligation incurred in aid of iusur.
rection or rebellion against the United States, OF
any claim for the loss or emancipation of any
slave; but all such debts, obligations, and claims
shall be held illegal and void.
SEC. 5. The Congress shall have power to en-
force, by appropriate legislation, the provision:
of this article.
This plan, after recognizing, as the Presi
dents plan does, the existence of the States
as States, proposes, first, that colored man
from Massachusetts shall have the SAINT
librety in North-C Carolina that he possesses ir
his own State, and that colored man from
North Carolina shall have the same liberty
in Massachusetts, which he possesses at home
1t providesthat no State shall abridge thu
vi VI u ClllLCu VI tut
United States, or deny to any person life, lib
erty, or property, or the equal protection
of the law. Who objects to that am
sure President johnson does not; for the
civil rights bill, now in existence as a law
and which will in no event be repealed
makes the same provision for the colored
race, and the objection of the President was
not to this feature of that law, but to tina,
part of it which as he thought, improperly
subordinated the State Courts to the Courts
of the United States. If it be said
that there is some concealed purpose in this
provision hereafter to force negro suffrage on
the States, as the only means of securing to
coiored people the privileges or immuni
ties referred to, the answer is that this can
not be so, for the reason that a subsequent
sectin in the amendment leaves the question
of suffrage wholly and solely with the
States.
= The Congressional plan also proposes that
representatives in Congress shall be appor-
toned among the States in proportion to
qualified voters. Who can justly object to
that9 Under the Constitution while slavery
existed, not only were the white inhabitants
counted in apportioning representatives, bu,
three-ffths of the slaves were added to the
whites This rule has ceased with the ex.
tinction of slavery. There are now no such
"persons as those referred to in the Consti
tuition, OF whom three-ffths must be counted
but the whole population of both whites and
blacks must be counted in apportioning re-
representatives.. Under this new rule it ha:
been estimated that the Southern State:
would gain eight members of Congress. 1.
it to be expected that the free white popula
ton of the North will agree to this9 As il
is, and as it has been from the beginning O.
the government, five negroes have had as
much weight in the Congress of the United
States as three white men, for, for every three
white men five negroes have been counted ir
apportioning Representatives. The proposed
amendment provides that the Southern State.
shall be entitled to their present number O
members until the period of the next appor
tionment, in 1872; but after that time repre-
sentatives must be apportioned according tt
voters, and not, as now, according to thu
whole population. Up to 1872 this STATE
Will be entitled to seven members, the pres
ent number; after that time, she will be en-
titled for the next ten years to eight mem
bers, provided the colored people are allowed
to vote, and if they are not allowed to vote
she will be entitled to five members. TIL,
same rule will apply to all the States. If il
is said that this rule is unjust, and that tn,
whole population should be counted, an
swer, that representation and taxation should
go together, and that it is not just to claim
representatives on certain class of popula
ton, and then deny to that population tn,
rNr~I lf.r~n - IL
II am told that the whole population ough
to be counted, though one class of it onl,
should be allowed to vote, answer that til,
free white men of the North will never con
sent that the Southern States shall add b,