The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-03-07
CLEANS OF Returning Reason.


As an illustration of how the Reconstruction
bill strikes practical men at the South, even
those who were prominent in the Rebellion,
and who cherished strong convictions of the
rightfulness of secession, we may instance
late letter written by General Chalmers, of
Mississippi, to Reverdy Johnson, endorsing his
speech in the Senate in favor of the bill. The
General alludes to the early acts of President
Johnson towards the Southern States, evil
IDENTIFY fully appreciating the inconsistency
displayed between his present policy and that
which governed him then. He says-
When General Shermin, with a magnani-
nit which ever marks the victorious hero in
the feld when dealing with conquered foe
man worthy Of his STEEL" made terms of peace
win General Joe Johnston, the South hailed
those terms with JOY, and was ready to accept
them.
But the President said that General sherman
had no authority to make such treaty Of
peace, and therefore annulled IL,
Tie President then announced certain terms
OF peace which were very obnoxious TO us, re-
quiring that we should by our own acts abolish
slavery, and degrade ourselves in the eyes OF
the world by declaring that our acts of seces-
sion, which we had passed with great unani.
nifty and enthusiasm, were null aud void, and
that our state Governments were utilities;
ana ne conlDetted as then 10 receive PROVISIONAL
Governors appointed by him. and to organize
our Governments anew.
This was very rdistasteFul to us; but we were
cOnquered-we had surrendered uncondition-
Rlly-and accepted these the terms of
peace, not because we desired them, but because
IL was the best we could do.
ButCOngress said that the President had not
alone the power TO make treaties of peace, and
therefore they prescribed other terms.
The terms offered by the President were, to
my mind, unconstitutional and those offered
by Congress are still more so We accepted one
Tor peace, and can see no sacrifice of principle
IN accepting theIJther.
These points are well put. According to
the Presidents own logic, all of his recon-
BtructiOn work was unconstitutional. The
State Governments that he overthrow were
legal ones, and his entire array of Provisional
Governors and Governments rested upon no
basis but that of arbitrary power. If the South
principle, it certainly can of the Congressional
plan of reconstruction, which at least has the
merit of coming from the law-making power of
the Government and not from the unlawful
action of the Executive.
Adverting to the charge that an acceptance
of the Congressional plan of reconstruction
would be "unmanIy," the General thus dis
poses of it,
When one man has been overcome and un-
armed by another, the only unmanlinesS that
could possibly be shown would be by the victor
who would make degrading terms for the con-
quered foe.
l believed firmly in the doctrine OF secession,
and / believe that we did secede, and that
when we wer conquered u foreign
nation, and therefore believe that the United
States have right to prescribe new terms If we
should make a new alliance with her.
Believing this, and knowing that the Presi-
dent alone cannot make u treaty OF peace with
a foreign Government, never haze believed that
the action Of the President in his efforts TO recon-
st'7Lct the linton right; but gladly supported
him and supported his plan, because IL was
more liberal to my people than the Congress
stonal plan.
Such utterances as these show that light is
breaking in on the Southern mind. This
Reconstruction bill has operated like power
full tonic, and men of brains in the South are
beginning to think and talk practically and
sensibly. No matter what their old views
may have been, they are willing to accept the
logic of events, and to conform to the revo-
luton through which the country has passed.
This is all that we can reasonably ask, and
all such men should be welcomed and treated
with generosity. Those, on the contrary, who
still seek 10 save the old aristocratic system,
and rebuild it from the debris of the Rebellion
those who follow the advice of our Northern
COpperhe ads--should be left out in the cold to
reflect on the error of their ways and to feed
upon the bitter fruit of their own planting.