Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1868-02-04
NUMBER XXI.
The New Reconstruction Bin.


| In speaking or this most 1nlqult0uS measure
of the Radical Congress, the Dispatch says,
| IS How will the new law las it may, by court
esy, be called) affect the southern people?-
That depends upon General GRANT. Its object
is to secure to him the electoral votes of ali
| the southern States. Congress says to him,
You are our candidate for President. Your
election depends upon the votes of the South
/ ern States. We appoint you dictator over
them. If you do not secure their votes, and
thus insure your election, it will be your own
fault " We may then assume that the inten-
ton is to count the electoral votes of all the
southern States for GRANT. The Bureau will
of course have to attend to- that little mat
ter for the General, it being utterly impossible
that he should attend to it in person. -
/ Keeping in mind what. the object of the bill
Is, and that General GRANT himself is appoint
ed to see that these States ere made to cast
their electoral votes for him, we viii state he
provisions Of the bill, and then the reader can
juge for himself how it will affect us. eas
The first section outlaws all the seeded
States. r.a t....s- e t..-.f.
The second section authorizes General GRANT
to remove any district commander who is op
posed to his election, and substitute new man,
even if, in order to find Radical, he shall have
to come down to the rank of Colonel 1t also
requires General GRANT to enjoin upon his
new appointees the strict performance of all
acts necessary to the accomplishment of the
grand end In view. ootfg.ss3s
The third section authorizes General GRANT
to remove all Of the State officers and appoint
in their stead men who viii use their official
influence in favor of bis election, 1t also pro-
vides that the president shall not remove from
office in the said States any person whatsoever
THAT is, any GRANT man); which prohibition
is repeated in the fourth and fifth sectiOns, and
On tha Ito dopOunoaH nm
should he do so. 1.s-.....7-. q
The sixth section merely repeals all acts or
parts OF acts inconsistent with the foregoing
programme for the election of a President By
General GRANT -r
Such is the new reconstruction bill, according
to Mr.. Bingham. He avowedly supports it on
the very grounds which we have stated-thatis,
as means of perpetuating the ascendency of
the Radical party. We have merely translated
his language into sort of practical English.
New Reconstruction Bill.
This new reconstruction bill proposes to set
aside the President and the courts and the civil
governments and laws of the ten excluded
Southern States, and to set up over them, in
the person of General Grant, an absolute mill
tary dictator. Let us suppose that this scheme
is carried out, and that these ten outside States
are placed absolutely under the will of General
Grant, with the army at his back that he has
carried through the work OF Congressional re-
construction; that these ten Southern States
are again in Congress-are with radical delcga-
tions in both houses, some with a sprinkling of
negroes and some with all white radicals that
these States, so reconstructed, have voted for
the radical candidate for the Presidency; that
their votes are necessary to his election, and
that In their acceptance by this Congress the
radical candidate is declared elected by this
Southern negro political balance of power
What next? Unquestionably such a state of
tumult and chaos among the political elements
of the North as will invite the experiment of a
military dictator over the whole land. o
This Southern negro political balance of pow
er in the Presidential contest is clearly the pres
ent object of this revolutionary. Congress. In
this design the radical fanatics have gone too
far to recede. The game is desperate but
there is no alternative; and as desperate cases
require desperate remedies, we may be pre-
pared for anything from these radicals resolved
upon the perpetuation of their power Where,
then lies the remedy? In the hands of the
people of the Northern States, to be applied in
the coming Presidential eection.-N. Y. Her
add
MORE TINKERING.-The New York Times
well remarks that the recent propositions in
Congress from Upson and others contemplate
"a reconstruction of reconstruction ;" and ''by
their scope threaten to disturb the whole pan''
They, indeed, involve new beginning and
new start" THE resolutions denote very plain
ly the desire of certain of the extremists to re-
open the question DEMONSTRATION and to COM
plicate it with provisions that could only tend
to widen the existing breach between black and
white, and to increase immensely the danger of
anarchy" .-.
Thus says the Times, by no means preiudiced
in favor of the i'll used and PROSTATE South.
The Horid remarking upon these same prop
ositions, and especially that to make the whole
South military district, and place it under
General Grant and his subalterns, says:
"The explanation of these incessant fuctua-
tons is, that Congress is engaged in an attempt
to circumvent the Constitution and the Con-
stitution is so skilfuy constructed that they are
constantly baf1led The capering of Congress
on reconstruction recalls snatch OF the famous
negro melody:
4 wheel about and turn about,
And do jis so;
And every time | wheel about, 2
jump Jim Crow
In which the only constant part of the per-
formance is jumping Jim Grow; just as Con-
gress, in the ever-changing dance of reconstruc-
ton, never fail to jump at negro suffrage"
The South is the victim but, from long suf-
fering, is at the same time the passive and un-
excitable spectator of these heartless and selfish
proceedings. There must be an end of them,
we all know-and we are waiting '-Dlspatch.
For the Spectator