The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-02-26
The Expected Veto.

Washington advices concur in anticipating
veto of the Reconstruction bill. 1t is ex-
pected to be sent in tomorrow.
We can regard this veto no otherwise than
as a very grave mistake and national misfOr-
tune; and hopeless as may be the task, we
cannot refrain from showing why this bill
should not be vetoed.
Let us begin by admitting that the terms of
reconstruction proposed in the bill are harsher
than we wish they were-as they are harsher
than they would have been had not the
Democratic minority of the House chosen to
follow the lead of Mr.. Thaddeus Stevens. They
knew-for he frankly avowed-that his object
was to make the bill harsher; yet they saw fit
to unite with a minority of the Republicans in
voting down the Blaine-Sherman proposition
after it had passed the Senate by 20 to 10
every Republican Senator voting for it. The
Democrats so voted as to compel the majority
of the Republicans to accept such plan of re-
construction as was satisfactory to Mr.. Stevens,
or none at all. The fact that majority of the
Republicans are at heart with Blaine and
Sherman, and not with Stevens, is one to be
regarded in acting on the main question.
As to the military provisions OF the bill now
before the President, it must be considered
that they amount in substance to this-The
President is clothed with power to maintain
order and protect loyal men from outrage and
murder in the South. The President is to
select the commandants of the several districts5
he is to instruct them in their duties; he is to
supervise their official actions, and to revise
their judgments. What chance is there of
wrong and oppression?
Are not these provisions needed? Read Mr..
Pixies report on the murder of the three Union
soldiers on the Savannah river, the escape of
~ nf
habeas corpus issued by Judge Hall, of Della
ware, and the general satisfaction with which
their return was greeted by their ex-Rebel
neighbors. Is it possible that any man who
calls himself UniOnist will say that the pun
ishment of such murders can safely or should
be left to the local authorities of the South
And if not who can say that the military pro-
visions of the Reconstruction bill are unneeded
or too stringentt
Again: No one will contend that no negroes
have been killed since the surrender of the
| Rebel armies. We know that negroes have
/ here killed whites, and have been pHnished
/ therefor, as was right We know that whit es
| have killed many negroes, and have not been
! punished Weeks ago, we asked any one to
point us to single instance wherein the eX-
Rebel slayer of a negro had been arrested,
| tried, convicted, and punished by the local
| authorities at the South. The answer is blank
silence. The fact is virtually conceded that
the eX-Rebel whites at the South will not-at
all events, do not-punish the assassins of
Union soldiers or of negroes.
Need we argue that those assassins must and
aoW be punished, even though it should be
necessary to this end that Judges should be
hurled from the bench and consigned to the
dungeon? If there is anything on which the
loyal heart of the country is fixed, it is that
there shall be law and order at the South, and
that the Rebel assassins of loyal men shall be
punished. And, if you do not object to this,
why object to the military features of the
Reconstruction bill' They are essentially
provisional-tr ransitory-transitiona Who
need dread their operationl
There's none ever feared that the truth should
But they whom the truth would indict."
Now as to Reconstruction:-Will those wht
are advising the President to veto this bill tel
him what is to be gained by ''the South" from
such veto? We ask a practical question
and desire a practical answer. If this were tn
, beginning of controversy, it might be well L
veto by way of taking an appeal from Congress
5 to the people. But the appeal has been taken
it was fairly boldly made by the President
year ago, and the verdict is ovepwhelming
S against him. 1t cannot be mistaken no
b argued down. The people have decided tina
the terms of reconstruction shall be settled b
> their representatives in Congress. If it wa
;, right to make the appeal, how can it be wron
u to abide the decision
y The XLth Congress is already chosen-in S
Il far at least that its political character is full
d decided. II is notorious that the next Con
'r gress will be quite as radical as that whic
l. closes with this week. Evidently, nothing
to be gained for 'the South by delay.
t.. Look now, at the fifth and sixth sections
a- the bill, and note that they recognize an
y legalize the existing State Governments at tn
70 South--reoognize them, indeed, as ''prOv
l. ional only" but who ever oontended that the