The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-07-26

m. OToVonq
himself that he, at least, wishes he never were
to hear 1t spoken Of again, and we feel sure
that many other members are equally sensi-
tive. we therefore refer to it with oonsidera.
BILE reluotanoe, and without the least desire or
ntenuon OF wounding any gentleman's feel
lpgs: But we owe IT to ourselves aud to the
public to mention that the affair has ended
very much as we expected It would end-in
rather ridiculous failure. The longer the in
vestgation. lasted, the louder were the pro-
misses OF the impeaohers and the smaller their
performance. The committee has duarreled
good deal, and INDUCED in much open re-
crlmination; but in spite of their quarrelling
none of their startling revelations have
ever reached the public. We venture TO repeat
the assertion which we have already several
times made, that the public knows now as bad
things of the President as any member of the
committee knows, and that the efforts of the
minority have for the last six months been
directed simply to making up in bulk of evil
dence for what was lacking in quality. When
this movement was first started nearly year
ago, we attempted to show why it ought not
to succeed, and we prophesied that it would
not meet with any popular favor, although at
that time the country was seething with ex-
element, and the penalties of differing from
Messrs. Stevens and Boutwell, on any public
question were heavier than they are now We
have never since then abated one lot of our
confidence in the popular good sense with re-
gard to it, in spite of many vigorous remon-
strances from excitabe subscribers, and the
result has fully justified us. So, too, when,
shortly after the Nation was started, we ven
tuTed to contrOvert the theory which was
set afoat in Massachusetts,, that the Su-
preme Court could be got to establish
negro suffrage by declaring all Govern
ments to be non-repubican which made
electoral determinations based on color, we
incurred some obloquy for taking such a. cold,
heartless view of the powers of the court in
opposition to such weighty. authorities as
Messrs Boutwell, and Sumner and we forget
how many others of like respectability. We
were not shaken, however, and we have lived
to see this same court decide against Mr.. Bout
wells whole plan of reconstruction and see
him denouncing it with his usual fervor and
threatening it with abolition for its perVerse-
ness. We have not the slightest doubt that
the confiscation scheme will meet with the
same fate as the impeachment scheme The
knowledge of history and of legislative science
may not be very widely diffused amongst the
American people, but the sound common
sense, the feelings, hopes, and sympathies out
OF which the lessons of history and the prin-
ciples OF legislative science are drawn, pervade
all classes and conditions; and any writer or
speaker who holds to these lessons and prin-
ciples firmly, may feel right well assured that
even if his path should temporarily diverge
from the popular path he will not fail to come
out in the end in the same place. .Ufl
Speaker COltaX told the story of recon struc-
ton to the crowd under his window on Satur-
day night, in Washington, in fewer words,
and with more force and effect than we have
ever seen it told, and it is story which does
infinite credit both to Congress and to the
people. The process has now lasted nearly
two years; it has been marked by much foolish
speaking, no doubt, and much waste of time,
but we doubt if it would be possible to point
to a legislative process in any age or country
of equal intricacy and gravity which has been
marked by SO few mistakes. The essential
facts of the case were when the war closed,
little known; they were infinite in number
and variety, and they had been complicated
by Mr.. Johnson's premature and unwarrant-
able interference. Every step taken, there
fore, at the outset, had to be tentative. No
thing positive was done till the South had
fairly recovered its self-possession and had
revealed its real spirit This spirit was then
met by minimum of coercive legislation.
The Freedmen's Bureau act and the Civil
Rights act were the least that could be done,
If anything was done at all, to secure
to the negroes, not political rights pro-
perly so called, be it remembered but the
common rights of humanity, and the South
ern States were offered, in the Constitutional
amendment, conditions of restoration in which
the NOrth eXacted nothing whatever as victor
in bloody struggle. 1t simply asked the
South to adapt its political organization to the
alterations in its social organization. The
South, acting under the advice of Northern
Democratic poiticians-perhap the shallowest
politicians which any country or age has ever
produced-refused this offer with much bonn
bast and rant. A whole year was then taken
for the next step, and this next step was to
arrange machinery for bringing the South into
the Union notens UoLenS, not as a slave or vas
sal, but with every form and guarantee, right
and privilege which has ever been found in,
or suggested for, free government.
Atfietion and disappointment have, beyond
doubt, reconciled the Southern whites to
their fate, and this time the revolted States
will qualify for readmission and will be read
mitted. The duty of the Northern people in
the meantime is clear They ought, in the
first place, to embody in their own legislation
the principles they are forcing on the accept
ance of the South; in the next place, bear with
patience and good temper any capers which
Southern politicians may be pleased to cut
while coming back to their old places; in the
third place, devote themselves strenuously
during the next ten years to the work of edu-
cation. If the experiment of freedom and
equality should not end well in the South, it
is ignorance that will cause its failure. What
the blacks as well as the whites need is not
lard but light, and this no expense or labor
ought to be spared to supply; and the more
demagogues rave and rant the more carloads
of teachers and books we ought to send off,
Every time Governor Perry makes a speech, a
dozen fresh schools ought to be opened with
Northern money. Every time Wendell