The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1867-02-27
COLUMBIA.
Wednesday Morning, Feb. q, 1867.
The so-called Reconstruction Bill.

dents connected with the passage OF
the military government bill was the
vote and the explanation Of Hon.
Reverdy Johnson, of Maryland, who
voted for the measure, although he
argued most vigorously against its
tyrannical usurpations, because he
saw in it the only hope for the ad-
mission Of the Southern States.
Mr.. johnson is an able and expe-
rienced statesman and lawyer, and,
we believe, an honest politician. He
is said to be in the confidence of the
President, and therefore much i'm
portance has been attached to his
vote, and the remarks he made, on
the occasion of passing the Sherman
bill; but we believe that his anxiety
to see the Southern States restored
blinded him TO the fact, that sundry
provisions of the bill, which clearly
and plainly indicate that reconstruc-
ton, or restoration of the Southern
States, was the very thing the joint
originators and engineers of the mea-
sure intended to defeat, at least until
after the next Presidential election,
if not for an indefinite period.
View at first disposed to come
70 tbn cor,n oo,, o1,,c,o,, 41,,L H.
most odious features of the original
bill having been modified, this, per-
haps, should be accepted as the best
terms the suffering and excluded
States could obtain from the radical
majority. The appointment of the
Southern military governors having
been given to the President, instead
of to the General of the army; his
final approval of the sentence of the
military tribunals authorized by the
bill, and the recognition of the writ
of Aabeas corpus, all tended to per-
suade us shat its provisions would
probably be the most favorable that
would be conceded to the South by
this or the next Congress, which, the
radicals have ordained by law, will
meet on Monday next, the 4th prox.
We are not sure, as at present ad-
vised, that tne President will not ap-
prove the bill under protest, or that
he will veto it, and suggest another
plan; but in either case, Judging
from the temper of both houses of
Congress, as evinced by their action
IN regard to this measure, we need
not hope for any enactment, looking
to reconstruction, less onerous and
degrading to the South than it pro-
vides for.
But as q measure OF reconstruction,
tits misnomer to call it so. We
agree with the Baltimore Sun, in no
ticing Senator Johnson's justification
OF his vote, that calm examination
of the bill, and of the motives and
declarations of those who passed it,
that it does not mean, and none of
its manipulaters understood it to
mean, that the Southern States are
to be admitted, under its provisions,
between this time and the next Pre-
Sldential election. The Su7a saws that
it is the fixed determination of those
in power to exclude the Southern
States from any participation in that
election, and that the bill is d device
so transparent that no intelligent man
ought to be deceived in that particu-
lar. The evidence is complete. in
this regard, on the face of the bill it.
self, as the fifth section clearly con-
templates that the people in the seve-
rol States, in the Constitutions they
may form, shall exclude from the
elective franchise those who had par
tlclpated In the rebellion, which
means, Of course, the white popula-
ton, to an indefinite extent, with ex
ceptlons not now to be estimated.
This fifth section extends the right of
suffrage ''to the male citizens of said
State, twenty-one years and upwards,
OF whatever race, color or previous