Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-10-30
O.blo Statesman.
~tFrom the Cincinnati Commercial.]
A Letter from Hon. Thos. Ewing
ON :. THE REACTION
SEEN IN THELATE ELECTIONS

SEEN IN THELATE ELECTIONS
.ss9LANcAsTER, o. October 2S, 1867. Q
To the Editor of the Commercial -: 4
My opinion is often asked as to the cause
of the Republican losses at the late election
especially in Pennsylvania and Ohio, and
the best means to relieve our country from
its unhappy complication and restore har-
mony and union. I am always prompt
| and free to give my opinion on political
questions, and-choose, now, to give ii
through your widely circulated paper.
By publishing the enclosed you will
oblige Your obedient servant. =
. .s,.t-o ~ n4s,.;s.,g si4lu -, 7. EWING.
THE CAUSE OF THE REPUBLIcANZLossEs AT
|, THE RECENT ELECTION.
| lam well satisfied with the result of our
electiOnNwe may consider it a tie-the
100000 majority which, when we were al
together a Union war party. elected Rrough
1OurGpvef16fs mas been driven off by few
fRadisaf headers, whom the Republicans in
the two Houses have allowed to rule and
perhaps to. ruin them. There is very
large number of old-line Wings, and OF
those who inherit their prepossessions and
opinions, who went with the Repub-
licans- at the late elections, in all
things except the constitutional amend
ment, because they feared to place
pow in the hands of their old adyersa-
ries, the Democrats, while they heartily
diapproved the extreme radical policy of
| the Republican party. This class of voters
Is very nearly numbered in the difference
between the Democratic vote for Governor
and the vote against the constitutional
amendment. On the whole, the result has
shown that If a new election were to take
place at once, it would be in the power of
| the Conservatives to give a large majority
to either side at pleasure. This may, or
may not be, the case year to come-either
party when in power may, within that
| time, utterly destroy itself past the possibil-
ty of rescue. The present tendency of the
Conservatives is to unite with the Repub-
lican party, if that party will, in obedience
| to what they now know to be the will of
the people, recall their, proscriptive man
| rate, and leave, the intelligence of, the
Southern States free to act in modifying
and carrying on their State Governments
and desist from forcing on them negro suf-
| frage and quasi negro, quasi military rule.
This they will do if they read Alright, and
profit by, the lesson which has just been
taught them.
The two propositions, namely: that of
| giving suffrage to the blacks and denying
it to the whites as a punishment for past
| the first time submitted to the people, and
their opinion asked upon them at the late
lelection in Ohio. e. s.s-s-. 5sz
| Ohio was selected as the most decidedly
Radical among the great States, and the
questions were put to her. people, first of
all in the confident expectation that their
authority would be obtained for fastening
| the Reconstruction Acts on the South, and
extending them over the Border States,
| under the assumption that the government
| OF no State can be republican that does not
admit negro suffrage and prescribe men
who have been rebels. Both these Ques-
| tionS were involved and discussed in the
Ohio election; the Republican orators in
sisting that it would be inconsistent and
| unjust to force negro suffrage on the South,
and not accept it for ourselves. This was
manifesrly true; we could not, with any
pretense of political justice, place the whole
South under negro government, by admit
| ting all black, and excluding so many white
voters as would give the negroes majori-
| ty everywhere, and at the same time refuse
! to suffer 1000 negroes to vote in Ohio, with
100000 white voters to control them When
| the people of Ohio refused to accept negro
suffrage as part of their own system, they
| were guilty of no inconsistency and no in
| Justice-they had inflicted neither proscrip-
ton nor negro suffrage on the South-as
| far as 1t had been executed, it was the act
of their. public servants, and. they, by this
vote, refused it their sanction. This was
the response of the forty thousand majori-
| ty who voted against the constitutional
amendment. They disapprove proscrip-
| ton for past political or military offenses,
and they disapprove of the attempt to force
| negro suffrage upon an unwilling people.
| have no doubt large majority of the
| Republicans in the two Houses of Congress
are Conservative in their opinions and feel
l fr hnf q torn nf oh fhax,
| prefer, for themselves and their neighbors,
white to negro rulers, and would rather
soothe and heal the wounds OF the Union
| than to aggrayate and intlame them. For
| ,unately, for them and for the nation, the
| Ohio election has shown, before it was too
1 late, that it will consist with the will of
the people to act in accordance with such
| feelings and convictions. 1 therefore most
earnestly hope that the conservative Re-
/ p1blicans of Congress will dtthrone their
despotic leaders, keep ont of those pens of
1 political bondage called Congressional eau
cuses, and take control of the two Houses
! for they can do it readily, if each and all
| will but keep themselves free to vote and
act according to their convictions, and thus
represent each his district, instead of all
representing a caucus. And they should
at once recind all measures which operate
as mere insult and annoyance to intel
lliyent men of the South; give over the
effort to establish negro government by the
Idisfranchisement of the whites; repeal their
ordinances placing the Southern States un-
der military government, and make the
military there again subordinate to the civ
Ill power, and replace it where the Con-
Stitution places it under the control OF
| the eXecutive-admit at once the loyal
and legally qualified Senators and
Representatives. from the ten excluded
States, not making party adhesion test OF
either qualification or loyalty. They will
4 then have the aid and counsel of the wisesi
and best men of those States, and recon
struction will be possible, and, in time, eff
fectual. There will still be, for a while,
disturbance, riots, crimes of violence, and
| perhaps, local instructions; for the public
| mind which tended to settle down in peace
after the close of the war, and under the
j Presidents plan of restoration, has been
again greatly agitated, and, unhappily, the
men most interested in re-establishing or
der, the men of intelligence. men of prop
erty, men who, by their position in society
| had influence over the ignorant and unrea-
sening masses, are placed under the ban Of
: the Union anu thus rendered powerless-
and all is left in the hands of disorderly
multitude, except in so far as they are res
trained by military force. There never
can beypermanent reconstruction until tht
Intelligence of those States is released from
political bondage. When the ban is re-
moved they may soon regain their infiu
ence and render efficient aid in the restora
tion of order and domestic quiet and peac,
land there is no danger of their again ex
citing or countenancing secession-the ter
rible calamities which it has brought upoi
them will be an enduring monition agains
it, and nothing but actual and persisten
oppression will again drive them to revolt
! There are, doubtless, very many goo6
!, patriots among US who differ from him
and think it better to punish the rebel
than to restore the Union; but such is no
. the general feeling of our people. Gen
orally they would destroy the sin and spar
0 the sinner. Such seems to have been tn