The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1867-05-28
acknowledgement Views from
the Congressional Committee.

| May IL, 1867. It'd.
Reconstruction---Impo Views from
the Congressional Committee.
The Republican Congressional Committee
at Washington has just issued pamphlet
containing the reconstruction acts, with an
Address to the people of the Southern States
setting forth the policy of Congress in regard
to restoration.
The Address is short, and we copy it be-
low in full. 1t is mild and just in its require.
ments, and we are satisfied that Congress
will not abate one jot or title of what is
therein set forth. Let this Address be read
and pondered If not carried out in both
letter and spirit, the Southern States will be
reduced to Territories and contiscation will
follow.
1.-THE preceding acts of Congress were de-
signed as measures of benefcence and restor-
alton, and not of revenge or punishment
They are measures looking to the restora-
ton of the Union in the spirit of justice and
upon the basis of equality. Slavery has
passed away, and it only remains to destroy
its spirit and to crush the institutions which
it established and nurtureG. The Republi-
can party expects and desires the restoration
of the Union, but upon sucn terms and con-
ditions only as shall render it impossible for
its enemies to renew the civil war or to in
volve the country in sectional strife. 1t will
be true to its friends in the South without
regard to color or previous condition. The
Republican party is the party of freedom
and progress. 1t is its purpose to aid in Sc
curing for the South freedom of speech,
free press, and a system of free schools
These desirable results will be sought through
the action of Congress as far as possible
but olir main reliance must be upon the wis
dom and virtue of the people of the respec-
tive States. BY the acts of the Cd of March.
and of the 23d of March, 1867, provision is
made for the enjoyment of the right of
voting by all male citizens, twenty-one years
of age, except those who have been convic-
ted of felony and a small class of rebels who
are excluded from office by the third article
of the proposed amendment to the Consti-
tuition of the United States.
The negroes of the South by the measures
of the Republican party, as expressed in the
those acts OF Congress, are elevated to the
full and equal rights of citizens of the States
to which they belong, and of the country
which hereafter will recognizeno distinctions
on account of race or color. The nation is
indebted to the negro race for services rem
dered during the late war; the negro race is
indebted to the country, controlled in its
policy by the Republican party, for the
emancipation of the race from slavery, and
now, by these acts of Congress. for it's eleva-
ton to position of equality From these
reciprocal services arise mutual obligations
and duties.
The nation can no longer hesitate. 1t will
at once, and freely, concede to the colored
race every political and public right that is
enjoyed by any class of citizens. The negroes,
on their side, cannot hesitate to support the
party and the principles by whose labors
and influence their redemption has been &C
complished. Thus, by this natural and ne
cessary union of forces in the South and
throughout the whole country, peace, pro-
gress, and prosperity are secured.
Nor is there in these suggestions any food
for hostility between the races. The wants
of black man and the wants of white
man are precisely the same; their interests
are the same. Especially is this true of the
laboring classes. The laboring man, whether
white or black, needs the protection of law
He needs the ballot as the means By which
he secures equal laws and the just admins
tration of them. By the ballot he rebukes
or rejects unfaithful public servants. By
the ballot he arraigns and condemns corrupt
or tyrannical judges. BY the ballot he or
ganizes and maintains schools for the educa-
ton of his children, and inspires the police
and magistrates with due respect for his
personal and family rights. While. the
measures of Congress extend this great right
to new and numerous class of men, there
is no invasion of the rights of others. The
white people of the South, with few ex-
captions, comparatively, are to enjoy Just
and equal political rights and privileges
Freedom has given to the North unexampled
prosperity and constantly increasing wealth
and power Freedom and free institutions
will secure for the South the same results
but there must be cooperation of the races,
and there must be cooperation upon the
principles which prevail in the North, and
to which the Republican party is fully COM
mitted. For more than two hundred years
the slaveholding. aristocracy of the South
originated its policy and controlled its des-
TIMES. The result is seen in it's exhausted
and barren fields, in the condition of its
laboring people, white and black, in the
relative poverty of the inhabitants of all
classes, in the absence of public schools, of
commerce, of manufactures and of an en-
HSHteueu SYSTEM VI agriculture. we Cllen
earnestly invite and implore the people of
the South of all classes, first, to accept the
plan of universal suffrage as the basis of
political, educational, and industrial pros
perity and power.
The black man will soon prove that he is
more to the State as a citizen than he was
as slave. The laborer, whether black or
white, with education and culture, will ele-
vate and enrich the community, which, in
his ignorance, he dishoncred and burdened.
Secondly, upon the basis of universal suf-
frage we urge the. people of the South to
direct their efforts to the establishment and