The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-02-15

This Louisiana bill provides that the Presi-
dent, BY and with the advice and consent of
the Senate, shall appoint for one year Gov
ernor for the State, man of thoroughly loyal
antecedents and character, whose skirts are
entirely free of any Rebel affiliations, and that
in the same way and under the same condi-
tions. a Provisional Council of nine members
shall forthwith be appointed for the temporary
government of the State, including the ap-
pointment of subordinate officers, etc, all OF
whom are to be subject to the iron-clad 0ath;
that on the first Tuesday in June next under
said provisional government, there shall be an
election for regular Governor, Lieutenant
Governor. and Legislature; that male citizens
of all colors, above the age of twenty-one,
thoroughly loyal, and free from any faint OF
the Rebellion, shall have the right to vote, and
"none others;" that in October next a conven-
ton of loyal men shall be elected to form
new State constitution that the State, mean
time, shall be placed under the additional pro
lection of a military commander, with sufi-
cient force to maintain order, and that all the
proceedings of this provisional and regular
State Government and convention shall be sub
iect to the approval of Congress from the first
to the last step required for the restoration of
said State to full fellowship in the Union.
This bill, therefore, so far as Louisiana is con-
Cefneu, utterly ONtIlllIOWo anu bu ptIotutS lllC
State establishment set up and recognized by
President Johnson, and may thus be considered
as putting to him the alternative of an abso-
lutte surrender of his policy or the hazards OF
those ulterior meaSureS-impeaChmen and re-
moval-suggested by Mr.. Banks.
Having disposed Of this bill, the House yes
terday resumed the consideration of and
passed, by the equally decisive vote of lO9 to
55, the bill of Mr.. Stevens, from the Recon-
nsIlx
for the division of the ten excluded Rebel
States into five military districts, and the
revival of martial law therein, each district to
be under a military commander, and all to
be subject to the general supervision
and control of General Grant The OBJ
jects contemplated are-the maintenance of
law and ORDER the protection of the loyal
Southern whites and emancipated blacks in
the States concerned, until new civil govern
ments even be established by Congress. In
support of this measure Mr.. Allison, of Iowa,
said that the House had repudiated lin the
Louisiana billy the pretended State Govern
ments set up in the South by the President;
that if Congress did not now place the control
of those States in the hands OF loyal men, it
would be derelict to its duties and untrue to
its pledges; that he did not believe the Presi-
dent would yield one hairs breadth of his
position. His plan was to place Rebels in the
governments a new thing to them. They had
been under martial law from the collapse of
the Rebellion to the lst Of August, 1866, and
from that day to this it has been a sad period
for the Union people of the South. Such was
the general drift of this discussion on the Re-
publican side, their so-called conservatives, as
the debate progressed, gradually giving way.
The Louisiana bill, then, will be the test
The vote of the House indicates nearly un-
broken front of the Republicans in the Senate
upon it. They have no previous questions in
that body but within four or five days the
debate may be exhausted, the minority being
only ten or fifteen men. The bill may thus be
passed in time to give the President his ten
days for consideration within the prescribed
limits of this Congress. Should the measure
thus come before him he must sign it, veto it,
or, as with the Territorial Suffrage bill, by hold
ing ii beyond his ten days limit, permit it to
become law without his signature. We guess
! that the exception and ''the true intent and
meaning of the bill'' is a veto, which, as it will
! be equivalent to reatlirmation OF his purpose
/ to adhere to his policy, will inevitably bring
! upon him the alternative OF impeachment.
| The complete abandonment of his policy and
his surrender to and cooperation with the policy
of Congress, or his impeachment and removal
from Office, is the alternative now presented to
Mr. Johnson. The vote upon this Louisiana
bill eXtinguishes the halfway measures sug-
gested by Messrs. Banks, Bingham and Ray
mond. Nor is there any other course left to
Congress in declaring and assuming its consti-
tutional rights and powers but to maintain
them to the last extremity. The duty and the
policy of Congress upon this question of juris-
dictiOn are as clear as its rights. 1t was not
the 'poundage and tonnage" that arrayed the
Long Parliament against Charles the First, but
it was the great question of executive usurpa-
tions OF the exclusive powers OF Parliament.
Upon that issue the maintenance of our Con-
stitution and its delegated powers depend
upon the surrender, resignation, or removal Of
our present Executives and upon this issue
hangs for some time longer the cohesion OF
the speedy disintegration Of the party now il
power.
The Tariff.
From the Tribune.