The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1867-03-05
The Temper of the North.

that the conquered States have been
treated as s'i5iugated provinces, or their
people subjected to those indlgnlties
which q haughty victor is prone to IN
fict upon Il foreign and batfied enemy
Ifthere is apparent severity III the meas
ure bv which Congress expresses Its
determination to indicate the majority
of the Nation, it is because the uniform
lv bad conduct of u stubborn and I'M
converted majority has demonstrated
that no other method Of attaining the
result is feasible. The causes which led
to the adoption of the Military bill, are
to be found in the Memphis and Nor
folk riots, the New Orleans massacre,
the repeated election of unpardoned
traitors to high office, the unbroken
series of outrages upon the freedmen
and upon Union whites, and the con-
temptuous rejection of the easy and
generous terms embodied in the Consh-
tutional amendment. 1.-THE South does
not like its broth, it at least will hard
ly dare to complain of the cook.
When the war ended, and ever upon
the threshold of the intense excitement
produced by Mr.. Lincoln's assasslna-
ton, n very large section Of the Repub-
Iican Party was prepared to receive the
Rebels back with but the most lnoder-
ate conditions. 1t may be said with
almost equal truth, that considerable
majority of the Confederates were pre-
pared to accept any conditions. But
the mischievous and pestilent agltators
of both sections, who were responsible
for the initiation Of war, succeeded in
preventing adjustment. Aided, untor-
tunately, by Il misguided President,
they induced the Contcderates to believe
that if they only stood firm, the North
would grant everything in its desire for
peace Just as, five years earlier, they
had taught that the North would ac-
cept anything rather than go to war.
AS stubborn and unteachable perver-
sitv precipitated emancipation, so it has
created the hard alternative of proyis-
ional domination There was a time
when the Rebels could have surrender.
ed their arms and kept their slaves
they refused, and the slaves were not
only liberated, but converted into sol
diers to do battle against them. There
was long period during the pending
controversy when the South could have
returned to the Union with its existing
civil Governments; but that ceased to
be possible when it accepted the advice
OF its own branded Traitors and Demo-
cratic marplots in this section, and .purn-
ed the Constitutional amendment.
There is wisdom III the logic which in
duccd such an ardent Rebel sympathi-
ger rs Mr.. Reverdy Johnson to vote for
the Military bill because if it was de-
feated, something more decisive would
follow. The same sentiment was eI-
pressed by leading delegate in the
Virginia House of Delegates, during
debate last week. Shrewd observers
even upon that side, have learned that
the North is terribly, unquestionably in
earnest and that every element of au-
thority necessary to enforce Constitu-
tional law, will be steadily and unfinch
ingly employed.
And what is the issue ? Simply this;
Shall the laws be enforced, or shall they
be disobeyed with impunity ? And are
the vioiators of law to be permitted to
judge how far it shall proceed? The
Rebels talk glibly about q rights under
the Constitution !" They, forsooth, who
conspired to oblitcrate the Constitution
in fifteen States What I" right have
they under the Constitution, except the
" right" to be visited with the penal
consequences of their treason ? And
they pirate concerning the reserved
franchises ofthe States" AS if this were
not the very question upon which they
went to war, and which has been decid-
ed against them by the arbitrament Of
battle. So far rs they constitute the
States, their franchises at least have
been effectually obliterated by their
own acts. And if there was ever any
doubt of the overriding supremacy Of
the Federal Government, that doubt
ended with the end ofthe Shareholders
Confederacy. The Nation has made an
amended Constitutional of the Ma
ton which was in condition to exer-
else political suffrage. 1t has enacted
laws in conformity with that Constitu-
ton, which is itself " the supreme law
of the land" 1t has right to demand |
that these laws shall be obeyed and, if !
necessary, to enforce that demand by
the interposition of its physical power
In the unrepresented States of the South,
the laws are set at defiance-the whole |
organism of the so called civil Govern
ments is antagonistic to them. The
existing condition is one Of practical re-
volt, differing only in degree from that
of arms. And the Nation must either
abdicate its sovereignty, or remove the
obstacles in the way gifts assertion, and
compel allegiance. History, reason and
analogy present no alternative to this
proposition.
And is it a hard thing which the
North claims from the South; when it
simply says that those who have been
in the rebellion shall submit themselves
to the same rules which govern those
thoroughly loyal from the first D.? There
is not principle of the recent legisla-
ton applicable to South Carolina, which
does not bear equally upon New York
the difference being in the sense that in
a community where crime abounds, the
punishment of criminals is most severe
ly felt. In the basis of representation,
in the standards of political and civil
equality, in all the safeguards for natur-
al and political rights, the policy pro-
posed to be established is national, and
how can any State claim to be exempt
ed from code SO just and SO equitable