The Daily clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1866-1888, 1867-03-12


TO elaborate IL. Itmay be worth while
to add that where the farce Of elections
are permitted to be enacted under the
Provisional governments, negro suf-
frage is fully established. This is a
part of the system.
1t is also proper to state that no
person is permitted to hold Office I'M
der these $50 called provisional
State governments, who as Governor,
Member Of the Legislature, or Judi
cial officer, has taken the oath to sup
port the Constitution of the United
States and subsequently rendered as
sistance to the Southern cause during
the war.
How long this military despotism is
to exist, the bill does not specify fur
ther than that its application, to any
State shall cease on the adoption OF
the Constitutional amendment. Mr..
Sherman, however, who is one of the
authors of the measure and is classed
as conservative in comparison with
Sumner, Stevens & Co., gave out the
significant intimation in the conclusion
Of speech which he delivered in re.
ply to Sumner that if within reason.
able time the Southern people do no,
accept the terms offered for restoration
to the Union, reconstruction act will
bepassed, authorizing the enfranch sed
negroes and "loyalists' of the Hamil-
ton school in the late Confederate
States to hold Conventions and form
Constitutions for their future govern
ment. The character Of the organic
laws which Conventions thus compos-
ed will undoubtedly frame, will be I'M
derstood by a reference to the govern
ments now in force in Tennessee and
Missouri.
Thus we have the government Of
martial law now, with an almost GER
tain prospect Of Brownlow rule in
the prospective if the States concerned
prefer these evils to reconstruction on
the terms of the Constitutional Amend
ment.
This latter measure is intrinsically
Objectionable. No patriot could think
ofaccepting it except as choice Of
evils; but in this light, it is preferable
to the military government bill, and
the measures which must flow from
the policy of ''masterly inactivity"
The military bill declares that when
the said amendment is adopted, with
the conditions prescribed, by any
State, "said State shall be entitled to
representations Congress-" and thus
freed from military rule, and vested
with the making and enforcing of its
own laws. 1t disqualifies the same
classes who are disabled from holding
Office or voting under the Provisional
Governments, with this exception, that
the sooner our people are restored to
representation in the government OF
the United States, and the sooner they
are allowed to manage their own local
governments, the sooner will these
CALLING disabilities be removed.
1t may be said that it will be humil-
iating to accept these terms in order
to avert more serious evils. The same
argument might have been with equal
propriety addressed to Gen. Lee when
he surrendered at Appomattox 1t
was a question between the surrender
of his army and its destruction. He
met the responsibility like christian,
a patriot and soldier; and who dare
assail his honored name! 1t is now
question between military rule, the
total Authorization of our Southern
territories, sweeping measures of con
fiscation and acknowledgements, with
all its train of indescribable horrors !;
or reconstruction, on the terms of
the Constitutional Amendment. This
is the question to be decided. Let
the people look it fairly in the face
and make their selection 1t is a
momentous question involving untold
consequences to this generation and
to the generations which are to follow.
Before the majesty of such an issue,
no emotion less exalted than the pu-
rest and most unselfsh, should be per-
mitted to arise.