The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1867-02-23
The Congressional KecOnstruc.
lion Scheme.


lion Scheme.
The reconstruction scheme finally adopted
BY Congress on Wednesday is predicated on
the assumption tina; the constitution of the
United States as applicable to ten states OF
this Union, is imperative and VOID. There
WAS rebellion in those ten states. Certain
people in them fixed up ordinances of seces>
sion and attempted to give them force by
taking mp arms. The vernment Of the u.
\. met them with arms and suppressed the
rebellion When Gen. Lee surrendered, the
rebellion was suppressed and at an end de
f1rto When President Johnson. in accord
aace with an act of Congress, issued his
reclamation announcing the termination of
.h. rebellion, it ended de .j,ue. Thenceforth
th, General Government had nothing to do
bat 10 arrest the individual traitors and have
hem punished BY the civil tribunals, or 10
uirlon them by a general or partial amnes>
Y. As to the government of those ten
states. except to see that they were republi-
can N form, and conformed TO the cons;:tu.
ton IF the United States, it had no more
right to interfere, because of the abortive re-
belli5u. than it had to remodel the govern
rnent of PENNSYLVANIA after the suppression
OF The whisky instruction. or that OF Massa-
chusetts after the suppression OF Shay
reb .liion. Yet congress, ever since the sup.
preston of tie rebellion, has legislated not
only on the assumption that secession had
been successful, but that Congress, by that
fact, was somehow endowed with omEipotent
power over those states, restrained neither
by the constitution of the [. =. or the law
Of nations.
The reconstruction bill just passed by Con
gress does hundred things the constitution
expressly forbids. 1t sUspends the governs
ments OF ten sovereign states of this Union.
To say that these governments are i'll the
hands of men who were once rebels Is no
excuse. The states are not to be inquired
of by the General Government to who
hold Offices in their own g3verHments-The
bill subjects the ten states 20 military or
martial law in sine of profound peace, which
The constitution forbids. 1t abrogates trial
b. jury, suspends the civil courts, and turns
the trial of offenders over to military com
nli;tees or tribunals :; for eli which there is
10 more authority in the constitution than
there would be to tura the government of
Illinois over to the Legislature Of Massachu>
sets. Bat why ennmerate constitutional
objections to this schsme, not a line Of
which. indeed, would even bear seriou- diss
cussion IN the Supreme Court? Radicalism
makes no pretensioHs to obeylng the consti>
tuition. To urge plain constitutional obiec-
ton to any Of their measures only excites
sheer and is answered by a charge OF dis
loyalty" They have the power, they say +;
the people of the north back them; what
siruifes the constitution
We confess, until this strange phrenzy that
has seized the minds Of majority of tie
people Of the nor cools off, we see no help
f5- the south but to grin and bear with pa
t.aHce. or to appease the demon Of radicallsm
~ limiting the negro to the right of suf>
f.aee After all. the latter course would
probably he the shortest and best to end the
i-ieulty- southern politicians have lost
their. cunning indeed if they are not able to
control the negro vote as completely as they
ever did that Of the poor whites Indeed it
Is DO, the far Of The vote that causes the
south to hesitate-it is the idea of the degra-
a1t.on of the elective Franchise which uaprn
Young involves that makes the thing so
rcpuIS,ve. Bat the south had better Weld,
for time at least. the question of mere
fsfc