The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-02-21
The sherman Bill I'm Congress on
Tuesday.


From he World
The proceedings in Congress on Tuesday
are engrossing the attention of the country.
The House, by vote of 73 to 97 rejected the
Sherman bill for prolonging disunion till after
the next Presidential election, under the guise
of reconstruction, and asked a Committee of
Conference. The majority which defeated the
bill was composed Of all the opposition mem
bers save one, and ffty-seven radicals who
joined them because the bill, bad as it was,
was not bad enough to suit their torch-and-
turpentine purposes. The Senate, on receiv-
ing the rejected BILL discussed the question of
Committee of Conference, and finally voted
to refuse such Committee and to insist. On
Tuesday evening the bill again came up in the
House, and it was the endeavOr of Wilson, of
Iowa, and other Republicans, by amendments,
to make the bill bad enough to suit the most
radical taste, whereupon the Democrats pro-
ceeded to parliamentary tactics to stave off a
vote until, by the operation of the ten-days'
rule, the refusal of the Presidents signature
without veto shall suffice to defeat it. In
this they were successful At half-past IL
o'clock the House adjourned, Mr.. Wilson's
motion not having been acted upon.
Some Republican journals are blaming the
Democrats in the House for the course which
they have wisely adopted and manfully ad-
hered to, of resOrting to every parliamentary
expedient that can possibly defeat the passage
of this bill.
In the first place, it is a sufficient reply, in
a partisan sense, to all these imputations to
say that the Republicans in Congress have an
overwhelming majority-a majority sufficient
to override the Presidents veto. Upon them
solely rests the responsibility, therefore, for
everything that is done and everything that
is not done by the Thirty y-ninth Congress.
In the next place, in patriotic sense, it is
not possible for any Democrat who loves his
country, who desires the present disunion to
be ended or who regards his oath of fidelity
to the Constitution, to vote for the Sherman
bill 1t establishes martial law over the whole
South, in the absence of invasion or rebellion
to justify the same, and on the assumption
and pretense of a rebellion still existing when
none exists, and when the Rebellion which did
~eXlst has been declared ended by Executive
proclamation, in accordance with the act of
Congress authorizing such declarations to be
made. 1t prolongs disunion, and, in place of
the republican self-government alone kno wn
to the Constitution, it establishes military
despotism. 1t involves the adoption of the
radical Constitutional amendment by Southern
states which have already refused to
adopt 1t, and, therefore, before those
states can be restored to their
laaw-maklng functions, it prescribes that
they snail taithlessly surrender their
superior Conshtution-amending function, and
accept, as the supreme law for majority Of
thirty millions of people, the will and passions
OF minority OF them 1t therefore admits to
tne basis OF Congressional representation at the
North millions of non-voters. 1t therefore
ehacts representation basis which is neither
lotal population nor voting population, but an
a[tlul sWlndling basis, which cheats the South,
MlleIe there are negroes, and the East, where
'ne proportion OF women to men is larger than
at the West, of representatives to the national
assembly 1t is bill of denominations, and
! any democrat who should vote for it, or who
snouid tail to expend all his strength in the
! eHolt TO defeat it, would be faithless alike to
ms principles and his oath.
Inc P0St Is one journal which has under
~ ~tSAeh 10 lecture Democrats for not assisting
tne radicals to prolong the present disunion
| III ater the next Presidential election and the
meS Is another. To both journals we COM
mend the truths uttered by the Times itself
last lall concerning the constitutional amend
meht, which neither Mr.. RAYMOND nor any
0thef Republican member has, in the present
uepeto' proposed to strike out of the sixth
section OF the Sherman bill:-
Congress, we take IL, must he held resnonsi.
Dle loI the consequences Of its own action And
we must also assume that the radical majority
resolved upon their action with a full Know
ledge of its effect. Whether thev avow hon
estly, that the South shall not be admitted, or
couple an, an invitation TO enter with conditions
which they hnow viii not be accepted mat
ters comparatively little. The result Is the
dod same, The ne, South is excluded. And it is
rently indefinitely, by the course ~ the rabdi-
calls in regard TO 1t. " 'A0 -
The wrong Is more hagrant because gratul-
tous. II the exclusion OF Southern Represen-
tatives proceeded from a rigid INTERPRETATION
OF constitutional provisions, no objection could
be fairly raised against It, Not onIv however
is IL not warranted by the Constitution. but il
is directly at variance with the requirements
OF we spon ~ the subject To keer