Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1868-06-26


have to see all on" people, who have been
common sufferers N the remarkable and
oppressive calamities which have befallen
the Southern people, feel and practice
those sympathies towards each other, and
to exercise that mutual forbearance, justice
and mercy, which a suffering and down
trodden people ought always to feel
From the Baltimore Sun.
The Restoration of the Southern States
Their Weight in the Presidential Con-
test.
The omnibus bill which is now before the
President is to admit to representation in
Congress Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North
Carolina, South Carolina, and Louisiana
when their Legislatures shall have ratified
the fourteenth amendment to the Constitu-
tion of the United States, up N condition
that there shall be no denial or abridge-
ment hereafter of the elective franchise on
account of color, and that Georgia shall
make certain changes in the fifth article of
her constitution. The fourteenth amend
ment, which the Legislatures are required
to ratify, is the amendment to the consti-
GutiUu proposed in the Joint resolution
which passed Congress June 18th, 1866, de-
claring all persons born or naturalized in
States and of the States where they reside,
apportioning representatives among the
several States according to their respec-
tive numbers, (but reducing the represen-
tatlon In proportion to the number of male
citizens twenty-One years of age who shall
be excluded from the franchise, except for
crime and declaring that no person shall
hold any Office under the United States, or
under any State, who, having previously
taken the oath as member of Congress,
of the tate Legislature, or as an executive
or judicial officer of any State or of the
United States, shall have engaged in re-
belllon or given aid or comfort to the enc
mics of the United States. This amend
ment, which was proposed by Congress to
the Legislatures of the various States, was
rejected by the Legislatures of the ten
Southern States, in some cases unani-
mously, and in all by vote approaching
unanimity.
There was considerable objection in the
House to the admission of Florida, urged
by some on the ground that the Governor
had the appointing of nearly all the State
officers. and hence that the constitution was
not republican that it created 800 officers,
with aggregate salaries of nearly $780, 900
per annum, &C., but Mr.. Bingham's appeal
to admit Florida as necessary to secure the
adoption of the fourteenth amendment pre-
sented view of the case which partisans
could appreciate. The motion to strike out
Florida was lost by vote of 80 to As, and
the bill including Florida was passed by
the solid republican vote. In regard to
Georgia, Congress went behind the consti-
tuition adopted by that State, and required
her to strike out the provisions in her con-
stitution preventing the enforcement of
contracts made prior to June, 1866. In
cases where the time fixed by the constitu-
tion of any State for the assembling of it's
Legislature shall have passed, the Legisla-
ture is required by the bill to convene with
in twenty days after the time this act takes
effect, unless the Governor shall sooner
convene the same. Within ten days after
the President receives official information
of the ratification of the fourteenth amend
ment by the Legislature of either of the
States, he is to issue proclamation an
nouncing that fact.
The bill for the admission of Arkansas
having been already passed, there are now
seven Southern States reconstructed. -
Of the remainder, Virginia completed her
constitution on the 18th Of April but the
election for it's ratification has not yet been
ordered. In Mississippi, the constitution
was adopted on the 18th of May, and the
election on it takes place June %. In
Texas, the constitutional convention
met on the 1st of June, and as its labors
are just fairly begun, the formality of a
vote on its ratification is not expected un-
til some time in the fall. It may be added
here that there is bill before the House
for the division of Texas into three States,
to be named Texas, East Texas and South
Texas The State has an area Of more
than three times the extent of the six New
England States, but its population, slave
and free, in 1860, little exceeded 6O0.OO0
It is doubtful whether the division will take
place at present, or until party purposes
shall render it necessary.
Looking only to the seven Southern
States now provided for by the admission
of Arkansas and the passage of the recon
struction bill, we may expect, probably be-
fore the adjournment of Congress, fourteen
Senators, making Senate of sixty-six, and
thirty-eight Representatives, who, by the
short cut of reconstruction have arrived at
official honors and dig mites which others
have devoted the best years and labors of
their lives to attain. The new Southern Off
cials, both federal and State, will be mostly
made up of persons from other States, or
of ex-confederates whose disabilities have
to be removed by Congress, some of whom
were among the most ultra of the original
advocates of secession. But it has been
already indicated in that body that conver-
sion to radicalism atones for all past often
ses. The real object of the measures
fastening the admission of the southern
States is to obtain their electoral votes in
the coming Presidential election, which
are counted upon as certain through the
same agencies which have already been
employed in carrying their constitutions
The total number of votes in the elector-
al college, when all these States are admit
ted, is 317, of which 159 are necessary to a
choice. OF these Alabama has electoral
votes, Arkansas 5, Florida 8, Georgia 9,
Louisiana Z, Mississippi 7, North Carolina
| 8, South Carolina 6, Texas s, Virginia 10.
Here arc 70 votes, leaving only SO votes to
be obtained from the Northern and West.
ern States, to elect the radical
candidates. 1t may thus happen that
a majority of little more than one
third of the Northern electoral vote.
aided by the colored vote of the South, will
elect President, and the same minority
alliance of whites and blacks may hereafter
control the general government, as it does
| nou tho Goufhorp Statas The constitution