Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1867-02-15
.Jonnsox1Ar DEMONSTRATIONS


The new plan of reconstruction
which the President. assisted by bis
Southern counsellors. has devised, en-
braces the following points 1. The
Union under the Constitution shall
be perpetual. ,. All persons born or
naturalized in the United States shall
be citizens of the same, and Of the
State where they reside shall have
the immunities of citizens of the sew
eral States and be eutitled to the equal
protection Of the law. 3. Representa-
tion shall be apportioned according to
numbers, but when State deprives
any of its citizens of the right to vote
on account Of their race or color, such
citizens shall not be counted in the
basis of representation. No Stne
shall require a property qualification
of more than $3.50 Of taxable property
for voters, or more education than
enough to read the Constitution of the
United States in the English language
and write the voters name. 4. The
national debt shall be held sacred and
the rebel debt repudiated.
Such is the plan proposed as a Con-
stitutional amendment, which 1t is said
the rebel Governors endorse, and have
gone South to recommend to their
respective Legislatures for adoption.
1t will be observed that the first and
second sections cited are substantially
the same as the first section of the
amendment proposed by Congress, and
that the third section mentioned is
very similar to the second, and the
fourth to the fourth of the Congress
sional amendment. Yet there are i'm
portant and essential differences be-
tween the two plans. The third sec
ton of the Congressional amendment
which disqualifes rebel leaders from
holding Office is entirely omitted in the
Johnsonian one, Herein is most
essential and important difference, for
if there is any one subject upon which
the loyal masses who crushed the re
bellion are fully and unalterably deter
mined, it is that some barrier shall be
raised against the leading rebels again
holding Office Whether this shall be
done by Congressional legislation or
By Constitutional amendment is not
SO important matter provided al
ways that the disqualification is at
least so far permanent as to be eontin-
gent only upon the will of the loyal
people expressed through their rep
resentatiyes in Congress.
Again, the Johnsonian plan has an
other essential defect in omitting that
clause of the fourth section of the
Congressional amendment which de-
clares that the United States shall
never pay amy claim for the loss or
emancipation of any slave, hut all
such debt, obligations or claims shall
be held illegal and void" There is
no doubt but the ex-slaveholders who
have bankrupted themselves by a war
upon the government gotten up by
them fully hope to obtain compensa-
tion for their slaves as soon as they
can get reconstructed back into Con-
gress. Such expectations ought to be
put out of the way at once, and this
our amendment does.
Again, the Presidents amendment
permits each State to disfranchise large
numbers of its white as well as black
citizens by requiring property and ed
ucatiOnal qualifications for the right
to vote. It would be idle to incorpo-
rate such a principle in the Constitu-
ton for instead fsettling the suffrage
question it merely unsettles it. The
only way to put that subject at rest is
to make suffrage universal, and this
we hope to see done. As long as this
is not done the agitation will continue,
and the country viii be convulsed un-
til it shall consent to allow all law
abiding citizens equal rights, civil and
political.