The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-06-04

y
Congress. Nor did il look to Congress for
legislation which should control State action
in these respects; for even Congress had not
reached that point then But IL did pledge
ITSELF fully and unreservedly, to the absolute
equality, in all civil and personal rights, of all
the people, black and white, of the Southern
States;-and to that pledge IL secured, as no
other Convention has done, the voluntary
hearty, and effective assent of the great body
of the Southern people through their represen-
tatives in that Convention. That was a work
deserving of praise and not of censure. II
may not have gone far enough but it went as
far as the Republican party had then gone
and so far as it went, it was in the direction of
the freedom and equality of all men without
distinction of race or color.
But all this is of the past We agree with
the Tribune that il is ''dead' ''and that the
political action which is to shape the future
has to deal with other questions and other
issues. Congress, welding the tremendous
powers placed in its grasp by the country
with a bold audacity never surpassed in our
history, has carried the nation ages beyond
the point where either the Philadelphia Con-
ventlon, or any other representative Conven-
tion, would have put 1t year ago. 1t has
decreed universal negro suffrage for the
Southern States. 1t has subjected the whole
South to absolute military domination. 1t
has imposed its own will upon the South, as
the only law and the absolute condition, of
restoration. We do not say it has done
this constitutionally, in the exercise of power
and authority conferred upon it by the Con-
stitution, for we do not believe it; but it has
done it nevertheless, and it cannot be undone.
Negro suffrage will never be revoked.
The military authority now paramount
in the South will remain dominant
until the Union is restored by the readmiS-
sion to political power of the Southern States.
The will of Congress, so far as it has been ex-
ercised hitherto, will remain law for the South
and the nation, whether it transcended the
limits of Congressional authority or not. The
acts of which we have spoken are acts of re-
volution-but they are fixed, irreversible facts
none the less. The Supreme Court may de-
clare them unconstitutional, but that will not
annul them. That Court may decide that
Congress had no power over suffrage in the
States-but neither that decision nor anything
else short of civil war, will take the ballot
away from the negroes in the Southern States.
They have got it, and they will keep it, 1t is
worse than idle for any man or any party to
contest their possession of it, or to ignore in
political action or discussion, the fixed fact
that, from this time forward, the negroes of
the South constitute an essential and power
full element of our national and of their local
politics.
This being so, we see very little room hence
forth for the line that has been drawn between
Union Republican party. Hitherto the main
difference has been upon the question of suf-
frage for the colored race in the Southland
that has been decided in favor of the radicals.
We are by no means certain that the decision
will prove to be the wisest possible-but that
is practically of little consequence 1t has
been made, and will stand. All men and all
parties will accept it, because they cannot help
themselves. They are open questions yet to
be settled-but they are of temporary and
comparatively trifiing consequence. The
amnesty, upon which Mr.. Greeley in
sists with so much emphasis and fervor,
must sooner or later be conceded - it
is simply question of time. He
may think that Davis, Breckenridge, and
other leaders and authors of the Rebellion
should be at once admitted to participate in
public affairs and on this point he may con-
tinue to be, as he unquestionably is now, at
variance with the Republican party. But
this can scarcely be deemed a matter of vital
or permanent dissension. So there are other
issues, such as confscation, nomination of
negroes to Office, assertion of the authority of
Congress in the matter of suffrage over the
Northern States, &c., which a few men, eX-
treme alike in their opinions and their auda-
city, are determined to tasten upon the Re-
publican party but they will scarcely succeed
we trust, even so far as to create any percep-
tible disturbance in the ranks of the party
mony and success.
With the adoption by the South of the Re-
construction measures of Congress, and the
readmission of the Southern States to their
share of political power, will end, we hope,
the embittered political strife to which the war
has given rise. Accepting the status of affairs
| as fixed and iTrevocable, whether by fair
exercise of constitutional authority or a vio-
lent assertion of revolutionary power, the
| great body of the people, of all parties, and OF
| both sections, will be prepared to adopt a
! policy based upon the actual condition and
necessities of the country. COnceding that
the negroes of the South will henceforward
vote, all men are equally interested in securing
for them the means of fitting themselves to
vote intelligently. The restoration of Southern
industry, the promotion of intersectional har-
mony and CO. operation, the removal of al
causes of strife among races and classes, the
reduction of public expenditure, the equaliza
tion of public burdens, the removal of public
abuses, the relief of industry from hurtfu
restrictions, and the permanent guarantee Il
all men, by peaceful means and through
mutual interests, of equal civil and politica
rights, will be the leading objects at whicl
considerate men of all parties will steadily
aim and if such men unite in a common effOr
to secure them, their speedy attainment, il
spite of clouds and discouragements, is rea
sonably certain.
The Dominion of Canada,
From The Herald