The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-07-10
The Passage of the SupDIementnrV Re-
combination hin In The LInnan-


promptly passed the Supplementary Recon
struction bill reported by Mr.. Stevens the day
before. The bill is a brief one, and declares
in section first the true intent and meaning OF
the acts of March 2 and March %, 1867, com
monty known as the Reconstruction acts, to
have been that the then existing Govern
ments in the late Rebel States were "fllegal
and void';' and that if they were thereafter
continued, they were to be subject in all
respects to the military commanders of the
respective districts and to the authority of
Congress.
Section provides that the said acts
shall be construed to authorize the officer
in command of any district to remove or sus-
pend from Office any person exercising autho-
rity under any so-called State Government,
and to appoint another in his stead, and to set
aside any act or proceeding of said so-called
State Government, and also to render valid
any acts heretofore done by any such military
cfioer.
Section 3 covers the matter of regis
tration, providing that the oath of the
party to be registered shall only be taken as
prima fdcie evidence, liable to be contradicted
by other witnesses, and by either record or
parole evidence. The registrars are empow-
cred to remove from the lists the names of
persons who have been already registered, but
were not entitled to be. 1t also provides that
the Boards of Registration shall not be bound
or governed in their action by any opinion of
any officer of the United States Government.
Section provides that no suit shall be en-
tertained in any civil court of the United
States against any officer for acts done in
obedience to the requirements of the Recon
struction acts.
Section provides that the District Com
manders shall not be removed except by the
advice and consent of the Senate or unless by
sentence of a court-martial they shall have
been convicted and dismissed from the army,
or unless the officers themselves shall consent
to such removal.
Amendments were also adopted imposing
severe penalties upon any person attempting
to obstruct the execution of the law, and pro-
viding that the right of any person to vote
shall not be affected bya pardon from the Pre-
sident for having been engaged in the Rebel
lion.
Upon this sound, straightforward, and radi-
cal measure the entire Republican strength Of
the House of Representatives was consolidated,
and it was passed by vote of 119 yeas to 81
nays.
We could wish that this same measure
might now be taken up and passed with equal
promptitude and unauimity by the Senate.
| oN;
| Mistic.
IT is with deep regret that we notice an
apparently growing antagonism between
heathful recreation and professed religion
1t seems as though we are returning to the
days of the Purtans, and smiles were to be
once more considered sinful, and laughter an
ungodly thing. The recent action of Gene
raj Convention of the Young Mems Christian
Associations, on which we commented few
weeks since, by which they forbid the playing
of billiards, and favor the exclusion of all
games from the rooms, is step which we
think will be regretted by all Christians who
are sensible as well as devout. 1t is great
mistake for the Church, or any series of re-
ligious organizations, to attempt to oVersteI
the bounds laid down as the limits of theiI
authority, and dictate to their members or
matters exclusively personal and in no way
doctrinal. The discountenancing of chess
checkers, backgammon, and dominoes is moi
only idle and otiicious, but is positively stupid
and displaysan absence of proper appreciation
of what is required by hygiene, surprising in
any set of well-informed men. 1t is doubtless
delightfully."- instructive to contemplate "Scott's
Commentaries, - and to ponder over the niceties
of ''Butler's Analogy" And TO do both of these
is very right at the right time. But if a man
was to do nothing but delight in Paley and
Doddridge and Butler and Scott, we have
our doubts whether the return of spring
would not find him in the State Asylum near
Media, erected for the benefit of the feeble
minded and insane. Yet just such an
excess does the resolution of the Young Mems
Christian Association contemplate. We had,
indeed, mistaken the object of that organiza-
ton. We had supposed its rooms to be q
place where pleasant and harmless enter
tainment for an evening could be supplied tC
young men. But if the acme of perfection is tC
be, what the Chicago Association gloried in, a
building in which there were allowed no games
of any kind, but merely instructive converse
tions and edifying lectures on free-will and
the character of Martin Luther, we feal