The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1867-11-01

usurper because ne refused to sanction
series of bills giving him unconstitutional
power. and stripping him Of power which
tho Constitution gives him., Partisan
presses may join in crusade against him;
the people will not, but rather look to his
acts and the acts Of Congress, and weigh
them against each other. The public
mind is prepared for calm comparison,
the temper in which each was conceived,
and the effects that each has produced
and is producing on the country, It's pros
pcrity, and peace.
Very little can now be gained by calling
hard names and the accumulation OF harsh
and reproachful epithets. Copperhead Is
now understood to be flash term, and TO
mean one who is not Radlcal, VINO thihks
the Constitution still worth restoring and
preserving, and of more binding efficacy
than the most solemn Radical platform.
The bittcrest and most vehement curses
against those who refuse conformity are
now without effect. Our Vice President,
Mr.. Wade, tried them to the utmost in
some Of the southern counties In Ohio.
In Gallia these, with his exposition of
Radical policy, brought down the Repub-
lican majority from l,l07 to SIS, and in
washington from Coz to 50, with like re-
suit in Scioto, Mcgs, and Athens coun-
ties. Had he canvassed the State with
like effect, the Democracy would have
carried it by majority of 10000.
His earnest efforts, however, were not
entirely lost. The publication in GaligDa-
mis- Messenger Of choice extracts from his
speeches has given us q most distinctive
reputation in Europe for that species of
oratory. At home every effort of genius
seems to have lost its effect; even sheer
does not avail now in the place of argu-
ment-General Schenck tried it in answer
to Mr.. Stanbery's official opinion on the
reconstruction act, and his county, which
had given twenty majority for the Rcpub-
lican ticket in 1866, thereupon gave six
hundred and eighty for the Democracy.
No one should carp at General Schenck
because of his failure. The opinion was
a compact, carefully considered law pa
per, absolutely unassaiablc by argument !:
SO General Schenck must either let it pass
unanswered, or work off his wit, oven
though not Attic, to stand in the place Of
argument against it. Mr.. Wade, of course,
could do no more than to damn it, and the
Attorney General with it. General Butler
might impeach the President for calling
for it. 1t were, indeed, more than alb
surb-it were criminal even-to fancy that
such an act, framed in the temper in which
that was conceived and framed, admitted
of construction indeed, it was proved at
last that none but the lawgivers who
framed could construe it.
The President also disapproves Of the
reconstruction acts now in process OF
being forced upon the southern States
and | concur with him. The measure
strikes me as neither wise nor just. Admit
that the rebels are treated in it with
mercy; that they all deserve death as a
punishment for their treason, without re-
gard TO the means by which they came or
were forced into it that instead, they are
merely placed in political bondage, under
their former slaves. Still the punishment
is arbitrary and unlawful: it has no consti-
tutional warrant, and no one is bound to
submit to it any longer than constrained
by actual force-and it is not likely to
conciliatc the kindly feelings of the men
Of The South whom it proScribes and
places in subsection. The measure, as |
view it, is unwise and unlawful as to them,
and III Just and degrading to us Of the
North, who never rebelled. Carry it into
effect, and it gives to the plantation negro
of the South a large excess of power in
the Government of the Union over that
enjoyed by one Of our northern citizens.
For example, the prescription of the whites
gives to the negroes in Louisiana, eff
ciently, the power Of the State in the
local aud also in the general government,
and the State is to have power in the
Union due to It's whole population, white
and black. The census of 1860 gives Lou
isiana an aggregate population of los 900,
composed Of $4,000 whites and 35l 900
blacks. The State, therefore, will be en-
titled, under the reconstruction resolu-
tons, to seven representatives in Congress,
OF which 81 900 blacks will be the whole
efficient constituency-the lchite men ,rh0
can read md ,rrite and cipher Us Jar as the
rule Of three Aaving no more to do nth il
than their mules and horses. So that $4,000
maaumitted slaves send a member 10 Con-
gress, and 100000 citizens of Ohio do the
same thing, and no more. One manumittcd
plantation negro in Louisiana will, there
fore, have political power in the House OF
Representatives equal to two citizens OF
Ohio, and the prcpondcrance will be con-
siderably greater in the electoral college
for President. The 35l 900 Louisiana ne
groes will be entitled to two senator's
1900 600 citizens of OHIO arc entitled to
two. One Louisiana negro will, therefore,
have political power IN the Senate more
than equal to six Of our citizens. To
prove the reconstruction SCH. &c a wrong
against us, citizens of q northern State,
who never rebclled, it were only necessary
to show that one Of us, citizen OF Ohio,
is as good as manumittcd plantation ne
gro of Louisiana, and ought to have voice
as potent in the General Government of
the Union.
The Constitution as it is involves in
CAPABILITIES in this particular among the
citizens of the different States, and would
not amend it to remove them it works no
mischief, for we are all one people, Of the
same race, Of like intelligence, in all
things alike, morally and socially. But |
would not amend the Constitution to in
crease it where it exists, or to create 1t
where it exists not and especially
would not give this enormous excess of
power to men of different race, who are
not and can never be our associates; OF
whom we know little socially, except that
they are ignorant and degraded, and no.
thing politically except that they have
always been and are disturbing element
in our system. Their degradation, igno-
rance, and immortality the bitter fruits of
slavery and oppression), entitle them to
our commisseration, but do not cntitle
them to place SO much above US in the
scale Of political power. It would be q
much smaller concession by us to the Atrl-
can, and more reasonable and just, to give