The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-10-22

among the first to state, the advantages pos
sessed by the Republican party in their large
majorities in Congress. and the long terms of
the Senators. To pass law requires the con-
currenoe Of the three branches of the law
making power, or If the President withholds
his assent, two-thirds majority of the other
two branches. But to prevent the repeal of a
law, bare majority of either House. sufices.
1t hence follows that at least four years must
elapse before the Reconstruction acts can be
repealed, even though the Democrats should
win every election during that period, if the
Republican party uses its power to the
utmost.
But no man of sense, be he Democrat or
Republican, suppOses that the Senate would
be thus stit after a general revolution in pub
lie opinion. When it becomes clearly evident
that the country repudiates the reconstruo-
tion policy of the Republicans, the Senate
will see that resistance would only postpone
what it cannot prevent, and that they would
irretrievably ruin their party by standing out
against the settled determination Of the peO-
pie. The Republicans virtually concede this
in their electioneering appeals. They keep
vociferating with wearisome repetition that
the success of the Democratic party would
break down the Reconstruction acts, and re-
store the Rebels to power. This is an aclnow-
ledgment that their long lease of the Senate
would avail them little against powerful
adverse public opinion. If the elections yet
to be held are carried by the Democratic party,
it is certain that the reconstruction policy will
not succeed.
The law may not be forthwith repealed, but
the Southern whites will stand sullenly aloof,
like a horse led to the water and refusing to
drink. 1t will then be for Congress to decide
whether it will proceed to organize and uphold
pure negro governments. The certain cOnse-
ouence of persistence would be to drive the
whole party out of the lower House in the
Forty-frst Congress. As soon as the Demo-
Gratis have majority of the House of Repre-
sentatives, there will be no difficulty in cutting
the sinews of the Reconstruction acts, although
we may be unable to repeal them. The House
would assent to no appropriations for main
tanning a coercive military tyranny in the
South; the House would impeach no officer for
treating the Reconstruction acts as a nullity,
and the Senate cannot try and condemn till
the House has first impeached. 1t is easy to
see therefore, how the Reconstruction acts
may be made a dead letter after the 4th of
March, 1869, even though the Republican
Senate should prove obstinate. We trust that
we have made it sufficiently evident that the
Democratic party, by its great success in the
elections, is not winning barren victory.
We come now to a more immediate point.
| If the Democrats carry New York and other
| States, as we expect, the country will demand
the settlement of the Reconstruction question
without further delay. Seeing that the radi-
| cal scheme cannot succeed, the people will be
| impatient of persistence in it. There will
| arise moral necessity for an immediate set
| tlement on more liberal basis. We trust
| that such settlement will be reached on the
| basis OF compromise in which the Republi-
| can party will yield something, President
| Johnson something, the South something the
Democratic party something. Each party
| will have advantages which the others cannot
fail to recognize; which is a state of things
| favorable to mutual concessions and liberal
| adjustment of differences. The strong point
| of the Repub blioans will be their large present
| maorites in Congress-; the strong point of the
| Democrats their certainty of defeating the
| radical policy; the strong point of the South
| the ability of its white inhabitants to render
the Reconstruction scheme contemplate by
| standing aloof and surrendering the control
of it to the negroes.
Both the South and the Democratic party
would be willing to make some concessions to
have the question settled ROlU instead of two
or four years hence. The Republicans had
better make concessions than to stand out and
lose all. A settlement thus reached would
have this great advantage being esta-
blished by the mutual consent of all parties, il
would bind the honor of ALL and be secure
from subsequent disturbance. Whatever is
deemed essential could at once be put into the
Constitution by the prompt ratification of al
the States; and neither party would be {
lature hot-oed OF sedltlon, as 1t might under
the soreness and humiliation of a complete
and insolent triumph by its adversary. Ii
proposing as the ground of settlement al
amendment securing perfect equality of civi
rights, we did not intend to assume authority
that does not belong to us, and offer an ulti
matum, but only to express an opinion which
we had no doubt the Democratic party would
readily assent to.
If the Judgment we have now expressed at
1 N TNrp plaah affa nf tiTnrf0 ma n
Democratic successes in the elections be tole
rably sound, the consequences depicted by the
Times should be regarded as mere election
eering clap-trap.