The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-12-07
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The Presidents Frlsads.

W. "oAe OOusJIalneu, III COnSlueiluB Vne
Presidents late extraordinary Message to Con-
gress, to object to its fagrant defiance Of re-
corded, undeniable truth. The World seems
to take issue with our avermeDts and specd-
cations under this head Let us see how sue
cessfully:-
l. The President, addressing Congress with
regard to certain acts of Congress, says
at is manifestly and avowedly the object Of
these laws to confer upon the negroes the prlvi
lege of voting, ana to disfranchise such number
OF white citizens as Will give the former clear
States."
To this charge we opposed the officially
established facts that, in majority of those
States, there is clear majority of white
voters already registered under these acts.
And we further urged that the States
wherein the white preponderance is most
decided, have given the largest majorities for
Reconstruction under the acts of Congress,
while those which have a majority of black
voters have either failed to ratiiy that plan, or
have ratified it by very meagre maioritles.
The World responds to this as follows:-
"The part of this statement meant to be
denied is not so much the intention as the
eye teeth should deny the Intention, the fitting
reply would be to laugh in his face. The in
tribune take IL upon itself to say it has never
been avowed? Unless our recollection be at
sion again and again. 1t has indeed, prated
and canted every day in the year about justice,
humanity, etc; but IL has also, at various
times, confessed that the negro-suffrage re-
construction was an absolute and overwhelm-
ing party necessity, and that 1t could not be
departed from without party ruin. But it ~
really OF no consequence whether the mask has
when everybody knows the hideous features
under 1t. The reconstruction policy is noto-
riously political device for keeping the Re.
publican party in power by the aid of the
negro vote; and we are not sorry tosee that the
vince under the charge"
Remarts.-Mr Johnson had charged that it
was the avowed purpose of the reconstruc-
tionists to give the blacks clear majority in
every Southern State. The World dexterously
substitutes for this an assertion that the re-
construction policy is designed to keep the
Republicans in power "by the aid of the negro
vote" which is horse of quite another color
1t is established by successive elections that,
where all the ex-Rebels are allowed to vote
while the blacks are denied the elective fran
ohise Gas in Kentucky and Maryland), the
Democratic party carries all before it; while
where the blacks are enfranchised, and 1.-THE
of the ex-Rebels are not, the Republicans gene
rally succeed. Now, then, we not merely
admit but proclaim that one reason for our de-
sire that the blacks shall vote is based on the
probability that they will generally vote with
the party that has freed and enfranchised
them. In other words-We wish the blacks
to vote for reason exactly parallel with that
which makes the World clamor for the enfran-
ehisement of all the Rebels, and there is ex-
actly the same baseness involved in the one
wish as in the other. We don't want fifteen
Kentuckys and Marylands voting for the next
President. The World does. If we "wince''
in the premises, the public will remark it.
We insist that the loyal people of the United
Estates, having been aided by the Southern
y blacks to put down the Rebels, cannot surren-
der those blacks into the unchecked power of
4 those Rebels without undesirable, suicidal
baseness. A simple statement of the case pre-
cludes the necessity of argument.
q II. Mr.. Johnson charged that Congress, by
II its Reconstruction acts, is keeping, or seeking
= TO keep, ten States out of the Union. We re-
piled that this assertion is at war with the
notorious facts. Mr.. JohnsOn's and the World s
trouble is not that those States are to be kept
81 out, but that Congress will not let them come
I in Rebel side up. The World stands silent on
this point.
+. III. The President had talked vehemently
St of "the Constitution" and of "negroes," !" as
81 though the former denied political rights to
the latter. We responded that all Mr.. John
sons talk of "negroes" and "negro govern
ments' was unconstitutionGt-tha the Federal
4 Constitution knows only 'Jree persons, "all
other PERSONS" citizens, Aliens and "Indians
not taxed"-that it recognizes and ustifes no
political distinctions and acknowledgements
based on color. The World silently admits
this proposition.
". The President having assailed Congress
as impeding reconstruction, because it pre-
:. scribed conditions on which the Rebel States
+ might return to self-goVernment and to the
councils of the Union, we responded that Mr.
q Johnson himself set the example of doing that
very thing-imposed stern conditions, and re-
s. luired the Southern Conventions and Legis-
'latures to do many things-some of them re-
lating to matters purely domestio-which they
were most unwilling to do, under penalty of
being kept out of the Union. The World
again allows judgment to go against its client
by default
V. We showed that while the President was
thus pulling and hauling the Rebel States into
= shape for Reconstruction, according to his own
notions, he admitted that the rightful, ulti-
mate power over this subject inhered, not in
the Executive, but in Congress. Again the
World stands mute.
Enough for to-day. The World has only
damaged Mr. JOhnson's bad case by exposure
in trying to help it. II tries only to sustain
his assertion that Congress had recognized the
validity of his sort of Reconstruction as fol-
lows-
" docs not the Tribune know that the Civi
Rights bill was professedly passed to carry ou
" that (anti. slavery amendment and under colOl
Of its authority-an amendment which Is x
this day no part of the Constitution unless The
houthern Publications were valid"
AnSWer.-No, we do not admit and we be
heve COngoess has never admitted, that the
assent OF the States temporarily disorganizeo
by their own act Of Rebellion was necessary tO
validate an amendment, nor that such States
were entitled to be counted in the aggregate
whereof the assent of three-fourths is required
o rnfif "A EOngtitnfiONaal noa