The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-03-21

4 ditiOn, but with oil the people of all PARTIES
| and of all conditions. Any Government con-
| trolled otherwise is nota popular Government.
| Any Government in the south under the cab
! solute control oi those only who were loyal
| throughout the war, would be an oligarc6v
| and would be in fiat and ilagrant Contradiction
| to every principle upon which our institutions
| are based Any State Government in Virginia
| in which Mr.. Bolts. and those who acted with
| him through the Rebellion, should alone be
| permitted to vote, would be one of the worst
| and most Odous Oligarchies the world ever
saw. 1t could not last an hour without the
! support of Federal bayonets; and such sup
/ port would only add to the severity of its on
preston and the odiousncss of its character
! Governments in this country must be of the
people and for the people when we make
them anything else, we abandon the only
thing in which we differ from the nations of
the Old World
We understand perfectly the objections to
this view. Are Rebels and lOyalists to be put
or the same footingi Are they TO have equal
power and authority? Is there to be no pun
ishment for crime against the Union, and no
reward for standing by it Unquestionably
there oupht-but both should be bestowed
in some other way than by overthrowing the
institutions which the Union was made to
preserve. Rebels may be debarred from office
they may be held ineligible to all places
of power and authority under the Govern
ment which they tried to overthrow, and 10y
alists alone may be held competent to fill
them. But beyond this it is neither just nor
safe to co. The right to a voice in making
laws belongs to all who are required to obey
them: this is the fundamental principle of
our institutions, and it cannot wisely or safely
be withheld.
Our correspondent favors the exclusion from
the ballot-box of every white man who took
part in the Rebellion. We need scarcely tell
him that this would put the absolute control
of many of the Southern States into the
hands OF the blacks. The whites who were
loyal throughout are a very small minority,
and would be out-voted twice over by the
blacks. Is he i'll favor, for any reason or
under any preteXt, of thus giving the abso-
lutte political control of the Southern States
to the blacks alone The people are not
There is not a single State in the Union,
Massachusetts not excepted, which would favor
such policy.
Political authority, moreover is not earned
by suffering, even in the cause of the Union.
II Mr.. Bolts and his associates had suffered
tentold what they did for the UnOn they
would not be entitled therefor to monopoly
of Government. Political power is to be dis
tributed with reference to the public good
not to the merit, necessities or sacrifices Of
individuals. The Union soldiers suffered in
the Union cause far more than the people who
staid at home: ought they, therefore, to have
a monopoly Of political power in the Northern
States
The Times did applaud the resistance of
fered by Mr.. Bolts to the Rebel Government.
1t regretted his sullerings and his losses
though neither would compare with those of
thousands of others both North and South.
But they do not constitute any valid claim to
absolute political authority, nor ought they to
blind our judgments to the wants and interests
which all government, to be permanent and
safe, must consult.