The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-07-27

effectual for withdrawing the consent of the
said two States, or either of them, to the afore-
said amendment" Congress has denied the
competency of the Legislatures to annul the
ratification they had respectively authorized,
and so disposes of Mr.. Stewards sceptcism.
The Democrats, on the contrary, affirm the
right of q State to withdraw its consent at any
time prior to the completion of ratification by
the required three-iourths; and on this
ground they insist that New Jersey and Ohio
are unlawfully included in the Congressional
count. For this reason, they contend that the
amendment still lacks constitutional ratifioa-
tion.
The elaborate statements of the World, and
the learned arguments OF other journals predi-
Gated on the opinions of Mr.. Charles O'Conor
and Mr.. &. T. Curtis are wasted in the pre-
sent state of the question. They are inge-
nious, and not devoid of plausibility or force,
as against conclusion based upon Mr..
Stewards enumeration of ratifying States. If
the final adoption depended upon the count
ing of New Jersey and Ohio, there might be
some room for uncertainty in the event of an
appeal involving the constitutionslity of the
action taken by Congress. Bat the case Of
those who now assail Congress is defective in
an essential particular. II assumes that, with
New Jersey and Ohio omitted, the consent
ing States would be- but twenty-seven, or less
than three-fourths of the State. To make
the list correct, however, Georgia must be
included in the list; the ratification by that
State having been communicated to Congress by
Governor Bullock. Add Georgia, and it will
/ be found that twenty eight States have ratified
the amendment, exclusive of New Jersey and
Ohio.
Whatever be the merits of the controversy
in regard to the proceedings of these States, 1t
no longer possesses the slightest practical i'm
portanee. The amendment has acquired
validity, with or without their help.
So far as the competency of the newly-or-
ganized Governments is concerned, it is idle to
cherish the purposes and expectations which
the terms of Mr.. JohnsoD's successive prOcla-
nations are calculated to enco ourage. Nothing
can possibly be gained by sneers at the autho-
rity of Governments which Congress has re-
cognzed, or by references to the Southern Lee
gislstures as "the newly-constituted and
newly established bodies, avowing themselves
to be, and acting as, the Legislatures" !" and so
forth. They are Legislatures, and the Execu-
tive has no excuse for doubts or slurs upon
the subject. Least of all, can the World with
any propriety continue TO speak OF them as
''putative Governments" or as 'bodies as-
sumiDg, under such illegal organizations, to
be Legislatures' for that journal has again
and again shown that their recognition by
Congress destroys the last hope of upsetting
them save by revolution. Their ratification of
the amendment, therefore, is as valid as that
by New York.
The senstiveness evinced by the Southern
malcontents, and the Democracy generally,
in regard to the amendment, is scarcely sur
prisng. Mere acts of Congress they might
hope to abrogate, but with the provisions of
the Fourteenth Amendment engrated on the
Constitution, their game is to large extent
estopped. The Wade Hamptons of the South
are excluded from power, and the plans of
those who project negro disfranchisement are
now prostrated by the Constitution itself.
The amendment, however, touches Demo-
cratic stropgholds elsewhere, and furnishes
motives to the adoption of liberal views on
the suffrage question, which will ultimately
gain the mastery. This is true in no mere
partisan sense 1t applies to radical Tennessee
and Missouri equally with Democratic Mary
land and Kentucky; Furnishing by a reduction
of representative power the denial of suffrage
as consequence of color. The universal ap-
pication of the amendment vindicates its
justice; while its bearing upon the future of
Southern and Border State politics explains
the reluctance of the Democracy to acknow-
ledge it's constitutional efficacy. 1t is we'll
that on that point room no longer exists for
cavil or doubt.