The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1867-03-07

last session as basis OF reconstruc-
ton. And since this has been re-
jected by the Southern States, they
now unite in the determination, tina
no State shall be re-admitted, nor
shall the State governments OF the
insurrectionary States be recognized
or established till each State has
adopted the Constitutional amend
ment. and incorporated into its Con-
stitution guaranty of uniuersGl man
hood suffrage. They are. in my opin-
ion, also unit in their determine
ton, so soon as three-fourths of the
States which they call loyal, by which
is meant the States represented in
Congress, have ratified the Constitu-
tional Amendment, to declare it
adopted, and to. enforce their con-
struction. This, they have the power
to do. 1t is, therefore, fixed fact
that the Constitutional Amendment
will be adopted in a very short time,
as it was said when left Washington,
they lacked but single State, and it
was expected that more than one
would act very soon.
Upon the above points there exists
no division of opinion which is worth
notice in the Radical party. Just
here, however, a diversity of opinion
commences. The more radical wing
of the party, which is not majority,
nor is it at present sustained by ma
jority of the people of the North. is
for setting aside the present State
governments as absolutely nuU and
Void, and declaring all acts done un
der them void, except such as Con-
gress chooses to approve: as the repu-
diation of our State war debts, the
abolition of slavery by the States, &c.,
which they would ratify. They also
desire to place us under military gov
eminent till State government can be
organized upon their plan. In the
organization they wish to exclude,
not only from eligibility to Office, but
from the ballot box and the jury box,
all persons who voluntarily participat-
ed in the rebellion, and to place the
government of these States in the
hands of the few whom they call loyal
men among us; and the freed
men, who as they expect, would
form State Constitutions forever dis
franchising us, and depriving us of
all participation in the government,
or in the execution of the laws. The
bills known as the military bill and
the Louisiana bill, which passed the
House, embody substantially these
measures. In addition to this, it is
believed to be their ultimate design
to confscate the property of the South
for the payment of the war debt of
the United States, so soon as the
popular mind North can be educated
or excited to the proper point; and to
obviate constitutional difficulties, if
any are admitted to exist, by amend
ments comforting the necessary power,
ratified by three-fourths of the loyal
States. This class is not believed to
be large one at present; but if we
continue to reject the terms proposed
by Congress, it is believed it will grow
rapidly in popular favor in the North
ern States, and that politicians now
disposed to be more moderate will be
obliged to bend to the storm.
The other wing of the Republican
party, called the moderate wing, do
not desire to destroy or drive us from
the country. They know that com
mercial and general prosperity cannot
long continue, if the present difficult
ties remain unadjusted, the labor and
energy of the South paralyzed, and that
financial panic and great depression
must be the ultimate result. They,
therefore, desire settlement of the
question. But they are as determined
as the ultra wing in their opposition
to the President $ polisy, and will, at
all hazards, maintain the power of
Congress over the whole question of
adjustment. They tell us that we
complied with every requirement
made by the President, whose juris-
diction over the question they deny,
but when Congress, possessing as they
claim, all power in the premises, ten
dered US the Constitutional Amend
ment as settlement, which they claim
was liberal, when rendered by the con-
querors to the conquered, we rejected
it, and, in their language, hurled it
back in their teeth. This they say
greatly irritated the people Of the
North, and caused them to demand of
us, not only the Constitutional
Amendment, which we have rejected,
but to add to it universal suffrage.
And they now tell us that nothing
less will ever be accepted by Congress
or the people of the North, and that
the rejection of these by the Southern
people will be followed by increased
rigor, and the general exclusion of
rebels from all political privileges, if
not by the appropriation of their
property to the uses of the Govern
ment. 1883
When asked why they did not in
form us that the adoption of the con-
stitutional amendment by US should
be received as settlement, they reply
that they so intended it, and that such
would have been the result. And as