The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-07-05
The Military Governors aud the Recon-
U.ar


The Military Governors aud the Recon-
structtOn Law.
FFo,n ae Times.
Whatever else it may do, or leave undone,
Congress will certainly pass some bill explain
ing and perfecting the Reconstruction law of
last session. If it is to accomplish its purpose
or any useful purpose-that law must be
precise in its provisions, and be carried out
with uniformity in the several districts. This
fact was recognized by the Military Com
manders themselves, in applying to the Presi-
dent for instructions as to the meaning of the
law; and he took only the usual course in
referring that application to the Attorney
General, and in sending his opinion for the
Information" of the parties concerned.
Congress is not satisfied with the scope and
contents Of that opinion. In its Judgment,
the law is misconstrued, and its intent de-
feated. Let it, then, pass bill putting the
provisions Of the law beyond dispute. AS it
stands, the execution of this as of all other
laws, devolves upon the President. Nor is it
easy to see how any bill can be passed which
will release him from that duty. II will not
do to insist, as some do insist, that the Mill
tary Governors either are, or ought to be,
practically irresponsible to the President
in the execution of the Reconstruction
law. Instead of that, no public trusts
we're ever created in this Government which
so absolutely required the most rigid super
vision of its Executive head. The very fact that
the Reconstruction law is the most extraordi-
nary law ever passed by Congress, adds, in the
same extraordinary degree, to the Presidential
obligation to see it faithfully and rightfully
executed. The same extreme public necessity
which constrained Congress, holds the consti-
tutional executor Of its will all the more closely
to his regular duty. It is bad enough that
Congress has been compelled to adopt despe-
rate means against deadly evil. But far
worse will il be if those means are so mis-
managed as to fail of their purpose, and i'm
pose the necessity of repeated renewal or of
succession of mere makeshifts, consuming in
valuable time, and, after ALL ending probably
in confusion worse confounded.
To re6stablish constitutional government
over the South we have been forced to set
aside, for a time, the fundamental maxims of
republican government and some of the most
sacred bulwarks of Anglo-Saxon liberty,
founded in the most ancient times, older than
Congress, older than Parliament itself-por-
tions of the citadel of freedom for which our
prOgenitors struggled for centuries after the
heptarchy, and to secure which kings have
been deposed, dynasties have been changed,
and the blood of innumerable martyrs has
been she'd 1t will hereafter be judged to be
great crime of the Rebellion, that it compelled
us to disturb these venerable foundations.
All loyal men will share in that crime if they
do not see to it that this disturbance shall be
as brief as possible. This brevity will be de-
termined, first of all, by the rapidity and COM
pleteness with which the Reconstruction law
is made to do its work. 1t is the efficiency of
the law alone that can compensate tor the re-
proach and burden of its existence.
To give this great measure the speedy and
thorough efficiency required, it is supremely
| important that its execution should be con-
sistent and steady. There can be no such
consistency and steadiness if, as is claimed
the Military Governors are to follow each his
own fancy or judgment, without being subject
to a common regulator. We have already seen
the most different uses made of their power
by different Governors-in one district kicks,
in another caresses-here fair, manly dealing,
there the waywardness of the weak old nurse,
who beats the child till it cries, and then beats
it because it cries. Our Southern correspon-
dence has made it perfectly manifest that there
is great inequality in the Southern States in
respect to the rapidity and degrees with which
the spirit of loyalty and Union has returned
to their people. They not only differ, but
differ very differently from what their character
and antecedents would have led us to expect.
Tennessee, instead of being very forward, is
very backward, while South Carolina and
Mississippi, instead of obstinately holding
back are in the very first ranks of progress.
1t is high time that all such anomalies
! should be corrected by the enforcement OF uni
form regulations and a systematic policy,
under the prescription of Congress and the
guidance of a single hand. Enough has been
developed to make it certain that the Recon
struction law needs only this to accomplish
its end completely. 1t has been made clear
that the South desires no more war; that her
only future object is quiet and security, and
that, accordingly, she has given up, at one
and the same time, slavery and rebellion for
ever. In their effort to get back into the
Union, the Southern people have, in the main,
displayed a constant purpose, good faith, a
self-reliance, and a power of adaptation that
have proved that dear-bOught experience has
not been lost upon them.
The general testimony of all intelligent and
impartial observers proves that the South is
disposed to accept and abide by the Recon
struction law in the meaning and spirit which
Congress intended to give it. They accept the
conditions it was designed to embody, and will
perform the duties it was intended to impose.
Nor have they evinced any disposition to be
technical in their construction of its terms, OF
even to accept and insist upon the teohnicali-
ties interposed by the AttOrney-General or
their behalf Let Congress remove all ground
for oavil-put into clear and unmistakable
language what it intended to enact, and what
it still intends to insist upon-and neither the
President nor anybody else will have the
power, even if he has the wish, to arrest OF
retard the bene6oent work it was designed t.
accomplish.
Difficulties OF Congress at the Extrs
From 0ts World