The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-10-21
The Reconstruction Question In Com
gress-Mhnt Omght to BE Done.


from the NJ Y. Herald.
What effect will the late elections have upon
Congress VIII the two houses still adhere to
their radical leaders and their extreme mea-
sures, or be guided by the instructions of the
late elections? The voice of Ohio, for exam
pie, warns the party in power of the rocks and
shoals which lie before them as distinctly as
the elections Of last autumn point out the way
of safety and success. If the Republicans
would settle this business of Southern recon
structiOn on fair and enduring basis, if they
would retain the power which they hold to the
finishing of this great work of restoration, the
way is so plainly marked before them that he
who runs may read it. On the other hand
the road to swift destruction is not less plainly
indicated. Which ROAD will the two houses
take? What will Congress do
The experimental measures of the last three
sessions on negro suffrage for the reclamation
OF the Rebel States, as far as submitted to the
bar OF public opinion, have been condemned
by the loyal States. The developments of
Southern universal negro suffrage under the
five Southern military commanders pointing
as they clearly do, to Southern negro political
supremacy and to a negro balance of power in
our national affairs, have startled the public
mind of the North, and its first warnings have
been heard in these recent elections. If this
radical programme is adhered to by Congress,
these warnings will assume bOlder form of
expression, and in the elections of next year
the party deeming itself too powerful to be
dislodged will be shattered into fragments and
dismissed in disgrace There will be a political
revolution in the settlement of the Presiden-
tial succession as remarkable and decisive as
that which broke up the old pro-slavery
Democracy at the Charleston Convention.
Mr.. Stevens, the impracticable radical leader
of the House of Representatives, thanks God
for these late elections, as involving the pro-
per rebulle to the Republican party for playing
the coward's part. He is mistaken, for in
Pennsylvania, where this universal negro suf-
frage issue was avoided, the party substan-
italy holds its own; while in Ohio, where the
friends of Mr.. Chase distinctly presented this
issue in the form of an amendment TO the
State Constitution, they are terribly defeated
and by Republican votes. We may expect a
similar result on the same question in New
York in November, though here the Republi-
cans, snulhng danger in the air, have post
pOned the issue as an amendment OF the State
Constitution. " Old Thad" and Wendell
Phillips, and all their disciples of the radical
school, are all wrong. They would charge
bayOnets against an impossible stone wall;
but in a council of war, if common sense is to
prevail, their foolish instructions will be re-
jected, and they, too, will be set aside.
The Constitutional amendment submitted
from the Thirty ninth Congress, first session,
and ratified by a sufficient number of States to
make it part of the supreme law of the land,
is the true policy of the Fortieth Congress.
All these subsequent measures pushing TO the
hazardous ultimatum of universal negro suf-
frage in the work of Southern reconstruction
ought to be repealed, and the conservative
Republicans and Democrats of the two Houses
have the power to do this thing and to reestab-
lish the conditions of this aforesaid Constitu-
tional amendment What are they? They
are-First, that in all their civil rights cti-
stand in all the States upon footing of
equality. Second, that suffrage and repre-
sentation in Congress shall 60 together, as
each State for itself may elect that where
there is any abridgment of what is known as
universal suffrage, there shall be a correspond
ing reduction in counting the people for repre-
sentation' Third, that certain leading Rebels