New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1868-02-12
ALAHlMl-0bEN THE boOR I

Hb IItSlucUJ anu tu6 heDclS 5HON US chliy
fruits of their alliance. Taking advantage
of an unfortunate provision in the Reconstruc-
ton law, the white people OF the South have
remained away from the polls. They do not
abandon their citizenship. They accepted that
when they registered themselves under the
Presidents Proclamation of Amnesty. But for
the influence of the President, most of these
votes would have been cast. We do not know
what the result of an election in which all the
registered voters participated would have been.
Possibly we should have lost the Constitution.
In a fair canvass, we should have accepted
that result, and tried again. This has not been
fair canvass The white men remained away,
and not only refused to vote, but, by system
of terrorism, kept thousands of loyal whites and
blacks from the polls
We think from all our information, there can
be no doubt of this. We have watched with
solicitude the slow and painful process of re-
construction History fails to show n parallel
to the course pursued by what might be called
the dominant power of tho South. There is
something devilish in their spirit. In society
and business. in the most tender and delicate
relations of life, the Rebel has pursued the
LOYAL Southern white man. the negro, the immi-
grant from the North. Nay, more; when a
Rebel. no matter how active he may have been
in the Rebellion, showed the least interest with
reconstruction, he was denounced as cowardly
servant of the Yankees. We tako two cases III
Illustration. The Rebels had no leader who
did more to precipitate war than Roger a.
Pryor. He was the chief of the young chiyalry
the most eloquent, the most rcsolute, the
most pronounced. When Virginia was lowering
on the verge of secession, he begged South
Carolina to strike the blow, which would
make her secede before Shrewsbury clock
struck twelve. He was brave sol
der. an earnest General, a Rebel until
Lee surrendered. That event taught
him the necessity and wisdom of Universal
Suffrage. He is now an exile from his native
State, denounced by the men with whom he
served in Congress and the field. The Rebel
lion had no commander more reverenced than
James Longstreet He was Lees trusted gen.
eral. He carried the Rebel flag through twenty
battle-helds, and when it was furled at Appa-
mattox. he was the second in command of the
Rebel army. Longstreet felt there could be no
peace unless the Congress plan of Teconstruc-
ton was accepted. He urged it upon his people,
and instantly he was denounced NJ a blockhead
in war and a coward in peace The spirit which
has virtually outlawed Pryor and Longstreet
has triumphed in Alabama. 1t is the spirit of
Slavery, DisuniOu and Anarchy, and Its active
inspiration is Andrew johnson.
Here are three newspapers whose efforts to
attain this result entitlc them to special con-
sideration. The Journal Of Commerce, in its
ponderous molasses-and-tobacco way, tells us
that the tactics of the Rebels, though objec-
tionable as general rule, must be regarded
4" as permissible under the peculiar necessities of
" the case" The Times assures us that ANY
Especial enactment vesting the power OF gov
"erning in the hands of an ignorant unframed
"minority, would be despotism as gross as mill
a. ary dictatorship, without It's advantages
Considering that the editor of The Times voted
for this Especial enactment We can only ac-
count for his present criticism by remembering
that consistency which has been always his
glory and his pride The World, whose editor
seems determined to rival the Infamous wretch
"Brick" Pomcroy in SANDER and recklessness,
calls upon the North to rise and protest against
the "outragesn of the loyal men in their eff
forts to return to the Union. The defeat OF
the Constitution in Alabama is heralded as the
defeat of reconstruction. Let us still have
d" the sword" says The Times, until Congress
proposes genuine reconstruction" "Genu-
zine reconstruction means the return of the
Rebels to power, and keeping the negroes in
a condition of serfdom worse than Slavery.
Another point We do not fail to clearly
note that the vote in Alabama is the legiti-
mate and necessary consequence of the political
blunder incorporated by Congress into the Re-
construction acts. We say the political blunder.
rather than the bunder in craftsmanship, for
while the act is designed to insure the certain
and immediate admission of Alabama into the
Union, it shows want of political shrewdness
in directly defeating that end. 1t might be
argued that truer craftsmanship is subserved
by suspending the readmission of the State
until the Rebels shall have given up the hope
of DISTINGUISHING the blacks, and until Rebel
Acknowledgement shall have been entirely aban-
doned, so that tho whole people may partici
pate in the work of restoring this and every
other State to the Union Oh that basis OF I'M
partial Suffrage and Universal Amnesty" This
would certainly be desirable result. We can
not afford to wait for it, knowing it will all
come in good time. We think it should have
been foreseen by Congress that in requiring
a majority of all the registered votes to
be cast for the Constitution, they ex-
posed every man who voted to persecution
and punishment. Every person who went to
the polls at all is known to have gone there to
vote the Radical ticket Publicity like this
thwarts the whole design of voting by ballot,
the object of which is TO enable every man to
vote, SO that his ballot cannot subject him to
persecution. Every Rebel who stayed at home
counted as a vote against the policy of Con-
gress, and every white or colored Republican
who could be driven, coaxed hired, or bullied
to stay away from the polls counted as two
against the new Constitution. This blunder in