The Daily clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1866-1888, 1867-05-14

! an able Radical journal, the st. Loui
Democrat called the most inAuen
: tial, and as we believe, the oldest o
: the thoroughly Radical newspapers ii
n the Northwest We ask the reader
d TO turn to that article and ponder i
attentively. gssG sanaaa ~
y A great stumbling block in the
. way Of many of our citizens to recon
struction in compliance with there
g QUESTIONS Of Congress, is the doubt
. which they entertain of the good faith
. Of that body after they shall
' have executed its will They are
reluctant to perform what they feel to
r be a disagreeable act, unless en-
tirely assured that they will realize the
! promised compromising advantages of
relief from military surveillance, Of
restoration to the Uniou upon the
, terms of the most favored States, and
! of securing control Of their local
governments.
Il Our reply is that the Reconstruc-
ton laws contain these pledges. That
they were given by the authors of
those measures at the time of their
passage. They have been reiterated
in repeated forms by the same persons
since they were enacted. The passage
ofthe Supplementary bill, providing the
machinery to carry them into effect
and their unwillingness to leave the
work of Reconstruction to be deter
mined by State officials, attest the
sincerity of their pledges. This sup
Elementary bill, it will be. borne in
mind, was the work of the present
Congress, which has just entered upon
its term of two years; and this Con
gress, it will also be remembered, re-
iected in the Senate the additional
conditions attempted to be engrafted
upon the Reconstruction measures by
Sumner Of Massachusetts, and post
poned in the House the agrarian
scheme proposed by Stevens Of Penn
sylvania. T Iooi3'o js talea6f
The fact that orators are engaged to
traverse the South in the interest Of
particular party at the North, is con-
elusive evidence that they expect the
South to reorganize and to be admit
ted into the Union under the existing
laws stFsR
We have repeatedly explained that
we hold these measures to be harsh, 1
and oppressive. Certainly we
owe no thanks to Congress for passing 9
them, though its power to do I
SO by reason of conquest and of
the unconditional surrender of .
the Confederate armies, cannot s
be logically questioned; but v
this much must be said, that since :
The fall of the Confederacy these meas +
ares are the only pledges of re-admis- p
sion which that body has rendered to c
5he excluded States. 1t was not Con- 2
gress, but the President who promised :
hat they would be admitted on con- n
orming to the Executive plan, in viz Ii
ue of which State Conventions as
Iembled, and members were elected to u
Congress in 1866. His plan was not p
endorsed by single Northern Legis-
AZURE. Congress was not consulted in r
egard TO 1T. Nor did that body in ~
ven the rem hottest degree intimate its D,
willingness to endorse it. 1t made no so
hedges to the South, and therefore 10
has broken none. Whateverit may til
ave declared to have been the pur- , ns
oses of the war, the South did not re-
ccept them as pledges, but persist or or
ntly rejected them. If they were gu
lade in the form Of conditions of s nG
eace the South did not receive them su
nd it is nncandid now to claim the y
enefts of bargain which was never be
lade At the Hampton Roads Con- f.,
,rence, near the close of the war, Mr.. lie
lincoln promised nothing and said fsi
lat he would accept our submisson, fai
ut would agree to permit the Confed- Pc
ate States to resume their places in Re
e Union on such terms only as Con- sir
Tess might prescribe. The severe rat
rms of the pending Reconstruction of
easures, are all that it has offered, a.
'upled with a pledge Of restoration the
position of CO. equality with other so1
ates in the Union. The Constitu- Eat
,nal Amendment rejected by the t eSI
,uthern Legislatures contaitied no we
oh guarantee. s Sdi
To recur to the article of the the
adical organ above quoted. It if q
lrns the Republican party that its and
erthrowis inevitable lift plays false lust
tn the South IN reference to Its own ena
an of Reconstruction, which she is a Oas
wing unmistakable indications of a has
rpose to accept 1t confesses the nesl
disability that these States now that try
cir people are arousing themselves to
action aud aro so;z;no tho onnortu tho
'--->. - -. %. can
", will not reorganize in the interest sucl
any faction or political combination t aelo
t it "protests against the idea that bell
} Republican party has any right to ViS ~
lay reconstruction merely to make Rep
own triumph secure" And to t sO%
ay the fears which are manifestly pie,
sing in the hearts of Republican % aCes
ders that the South will not reor- by {
nize in their interest, it states that h lay;
Presidential election can be carried tern
;hout their votes, as it was carried in anu