New-York tribune., 1867-10-17
c,y RECONSTRUCTION BE REvERSED,

Some of our Democratic ulSnuS arc WORKING
themselves into the belief that the rcc0nstruc-
ton policy adopted by Congress can be re-
yersed, and the laws passed last Winter for the
organization of State governments on the basis
of impartial suffrage can be repealed, by Dem
Ocratic victories this Fall. Suppose the victories
won. what would be tho result9 No members
of either House of Congress can be elected
until 1868 II would be in vain TO ask the pres
ent Senate and House to repeal the laws which
by two-third vote they have adopted, and
return to the Presidents policy OF reconstruct
ing the South on the basis of the white vote
only, nine -tenths of which are Rebel and pro-
Slavery. For nearly two years after
President johnson came in power, the policy OF
reconstruction on the White vote only was
fully tested Its fruits were the Black Codes
of South Carolina, Mississippi Georgia, ana
other States, for the reinstatement OF the
freedmen, debarring them from owning lands,
hiring houses dispOsing freely OF their services
and providing them the knout and the lash as
substitute for wages, and the Fugitive Slave
law. with it's biOOdhOunds, as q remedy for
discomfort.
Laws were passed by the legislatures and
municiDa governments elected by the white
vote only, dis,,rming the colOred soldiers who
had fought for the Union, taxing severely all
occupations followed by cOored men, limiting
their right to testify as witnesses in court and
to meet in public assemblies. Not single law
providing for the education of freedmen was
passed Acts abolshing Slavery and repeal
ing the Ordinance of Secession were wrung
from them only by moral coercion and under
Dat f,,,4 fban a
could be driven. Nowhere did they give equal,
or any civil rights to the blacks. A black man
must hire out for the whole year during the
most disadvantageOus season, VIZ. the hrst
weeks in January, thus excluding him from
all employments but agricultural and meniai
labor, for in no others would employers hlre
for 30 long terms; he was forbidden either to
buy or hire house or land thus breaking up
that first and highest element OF freedom. the
family, and compelling all its members to live
as meDals in white families or field hands on
white mems plantations. IL permitted to testify
in court Mt ALL it was before q judge whom he
had no vote in electing, and jury from which
all of his race were excluded. Justice, to him,
was an impossibility. different code OF
rights, of punishments of taxes, was made out
for him from that which governed his white
master If these barbarous and oppressive
laws needed enforcement, Rebel sheriff was
authorized to call upon Rebel governor who
summoned into the field tho same Rebel armies
that surrendered at Appomattox, commanded by
the same officers, and whose organization was
continued under the name of State militias.
Tho race thus sought to he oppressed were
two thirds of the people in South Carolina,
three-ffths in Mississippi and Louisiana, and
one third in the entire South The blacks saw
that their coveted liberty, proclaimed by Lin
coin. was vanishing under Johnson's system OF
reconstruction. They cried out in agony that
their condition was tenfold worse than when in
Slavery. Then they had each but one master,
aud his heart might soften. Now sand they,
"we serve mob, and it is merciess." Negro
killing became the amusement OF the chiyalry.
If a negro looked impudently, lac was shot. Ii
he dared to be Industrious his property was
burned. If he sought higher wages, he was
sent 10 jail for idleness. If he got out OF work,
he was sold as slave. Fifteen hundred muir
ders of negroes, for which nobody was
arrested, were reported in Texas. Daily,
like murders were perpetrated, and went
unpunished, in every Johnsonized State.
officers were powerless to stop this incpent
war against the black race. For want
of the ballot, every means adopted to protect
them was inadequate. Rebels and Democrats
were equally furious in denunciatiOn both OF
the Freedmen's Bureau and of our military
occupation of the South, which were all that
saved the trembling blacks from an immediate
return to Slavery. The President, to stop the
"irritatiOnn of the late Rebels, was too
rapidly withdrawing the troops aud work
ing to abolish the Bureau. Before the
freedmen there were but three alterna-
tiyes-the ballot, determination, or Slavery.
All sensible men saw that partial suffrage was
perpetual war, and that white suffrage meant
war of races. President Lincoln on numerous
occasions, and President Johnson in his letter
to Gov. Sharkey, had recommended that the
suffrage be given to all blacks who could read
and write. The South received the proposition
with greater scorn than it afterward showed
toward universal suffrage. Evidently it was in
vain to look to the white vote of the
South for the remedy. That was, itself,
the disease. There was no remedy save
in Congress That Ibody could not have
proceeded with greater deliberations Ii pro-
posed To the white vote of the South a scheme
by which it might still rule the South abso-
lutely. provided it would consent that each
Northern mans vote should have the same
weight in electing representatives i'll Congress
AS that of each Southern voter, and that GER
tain classes of Rebels should not hold Federal
Offices. The South rejected with scorn any
proposition by which they could not send Lee
and Davis to the Senate, or vote for them for
the Presidency They demanded with equal
hauteur that their old prerogative of voting
L.. l.1I fnr iLn llapLS