Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1867-04-30
sTAUNToN, VA, TUESDAY, APRIL 80, 1867.
From the Louisville (Ky.) Courier. ]
Reconstruction in the South.

prise at the manifestations throughout the South
of disposition to accept the terms proposed by
Congress for the restoration of the excluded
States. We had not looked for any such ex-
hibitions, and we are still reluctant to believe
that the masses of the people sympathize with,
or will aid in carrying into effect the policy now
announced by some of their leading men and
presses. 1t is difficult, for US at least, to COM
prehend how an intelligent and chivalrous peo-
pie, as we know the people of those States to
be- can be induced to assist in riveting the man
acles upon their own limbs, and giving their
consent to their own political degradation. The
arguments which have been made in behalf of
the adoption of the Congressional plan by those
Southern men who have so hastily given in
their adhesion to it, do not carry to our mind
the slightest degree of force. Wedo not intend
to lmpugn the motives or to call in question the
sincerity of these gentlemen, but we do never
theless maintain that they are endeavoring to
lead the people to the adoption of a policy from
which not one particle of good is likely to re-
suit, and which is fraught with evil and evil only
We fully appreciate the anxiety of the South
ern people for an adjustment of all these diff
culties and their earnest desire to have their
civil and political status defined and recognized.
We can enter to some extent, too, into their
apprehensons of future evil, but we cannot see,
as those who recommend the adoption of these
measures, if they are honest must see, that the
course they recommend would constitute any
barrier whatever against further aggressions up
on their rights or avert the evils they so much
dread
That the entire series of measures proposed
are unconstitutional, no one can deny that they
are intended to degrade and humiliate the
Southern people and to wrest from them an i'm
portant part of the political power which they
are justly entitled to exercise is also apparent.
They are defended by those who enacted them
upon the ground that they were intended as
the punishment of the Southern people for their
treason. They are the instruments of torture
in the hands of savage and ungenerous captors
who are watching and expecting cringing and
abject demeanor on the part Of their victims
Then why should they expect those victims to
aid them in their work, and why should those
victims do it. There should be some powerful
and overwhelming reason to justify such action
on the part of the people of the South in doing
what they are now called upon to do, and to
which some seem willing to assent. Have they
any such reason? 1868
It is alleged that the Congressional plan, op-
pressive and insulting as it confessedly is, en-
braces the most liberal terms that the South
will be able to get, and that prompt accept.
ance of these terms will prevent the invention
Of a still more grinding and humiliating policy
which will be forced upon them This, of
course. is a mere surmise; an apprehension
which may or may not be correct But, wheth-
er correct or not, it cannot be denied that if
Congress is determined to force these odious
measures upon the South, it has the power to
do it, and there is consequently no good reason
why the people thus oppressed should profess
to approve measures which they detest, and
which are as ungenerous and unnecessary as
they are unconstitutional.
It is argued, also, as justification for adopt
ing these measures, that the large body of the
Southern people will be permitted to participate
in the government, to hold office and vote, and
that they will thus be able to control the State
governments; that although the negroes will
be permitted to enjoy the rights OF suffrage In
common with themselves, that it will be very
easy to influence them, and thus be able to elect
whoever they please to Office, and adopt such
policies in theseveral States as they may desire
and that in addition to this. having once OBJ
tanned their representation in Congress, they
will become power in the country, able to in
huence the national legislation, and demand the
removal Of the offensive restrictions imposed
upon them by the reconstruction plan.
In all this the wish is father to the thought.
There is little or no ground for any such hopes.
The authors of the reconstruction plan did not
intend, and will not permit them to be realized.
IQelf OUJecC Is Tie STaUlucdClOu vi tHoiT lldilS
nifty and their thirst for power; to mortify and
degrade the Southern people; to rule them
through their negroes. and if their present
scheme does not accomplish that object they
will adopt some other. They are utterly treach-
erous and unreliable, and, in addition to this,
they have pledged themselves to nothing =
They have not promised that they will restore
the States, but have in emphatic terms reserved
the control Of the entire question of admission
of the States to themselves. When the States
have complied with all the terms of the recon
struction bill and sanctioned the ignominy thus
heaped upon them; when they have volunta-
rily made the negroes their political equals and
Invested themselves of their own political rights,
Congress Still holds the power, and notifies the
nation in advance that it intends to exercise it,
to taunt them with their establishment and
degradation, and remand them to their terrific
rial condition.
The true policy of the South is to take no
part in these proceedings; to submit to what
they cannot remedy, but not to sanction the
outrage sought to be perpetrated Ifthe scheme
is forced upon them, their position will yet be
honorable, for the reason that they were help
less and had no power to resist; but if they
themselves advance to the execution of the
cowardly and wicked policy of their foes, and
apply the scourge to their own backs, they will
earn and receive the pity and contempt of the
world