The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1868-12-30
r,a EFaot If the Proclamation

| The Effect of the Proclamation.
If the Presidents pardon is 80 potent
| that it confers upon the individual pardon
cd the right to vote under an existing State
| constitution which declares that he shall
not vote. then it follows that no State could
hereafter SO change its constitution as to
deprive that individual Of the elective fran
chise on account of the same offence for
| which he now stands disfranchised. The
| assertion, therefore, that the Presidents
nardon has such an effect is equivalent to
saying that the President has power not
ONLY to set aside provision of constitu-
ton now existing, but to prevent forever
the insertion Of similar provision In any
constitution which may hereafter be adopt
ed. Be it remembered, that no constltu-
ton framed before the recent war Is IN
| Question. The disfranchising constitutions
have all been framed since the close OF the
late "rebellion." The right to vote 10
not natural right, as some Of the fanatics
at the North hold, but is conferred by con-
stitutional provisions as in this country, or
by law as in England. No one will con-
tend that the Presidents pardon, which
| might be needed by pauper or by woman
| as we'll as by any other person, would confer
upon such pauper or such woman the right
to vote in Virginia. and we can see no rea-
son why it should confer that right upon
person disfranchised for any other cause.
So also as to disqualification under the
fourteenth amendment Of the Federal Con-
stitution. That amendment was ratified Gf
az ally long after the war closed. 1t pro-
vides in effect that no person who was
trusted as an officer, before the war shall
ever be 30 trusted again unless with the con-
sent of two-thirds Of Congress. Can it be
seriously contended that the President can
override this constitutional provision? We
think not. So far from it, we do not doubt
that it would be perfectly within the power
of Congress to propose, and Of the Legisla-
lures of the several States to ratify, an
amendment to the Federal Constitution pro-
viding that no person pardoned by the Pre-
sident should ever hold any Office in this
country.
The idea that the Presidents pardon
restores to the man pardoned the right to
vote and the right to hold Office grows out
of the fact that Congress is prohibited by
the Constitution from passing any er post
facto law-that is to say, a law which pro-
vides a different punishment for en- offence
from that which was the legal penalty at
the time the offence was committed. The
constitutional provisions DISTINGUISHING and
disqualifying certain classes of persons who
took part in the recent rebellion" as it is
arrogantly and foolishly styled, may ope-
rate as punishment upon those classes ;
yet as those provisions were professedly
adopted, not to punish such persons, but to
serve as protection for the States and the
Union against future "rebellions," and are
so worded as to have penal effect upon
future offenders, the courts will hardly hold
that they are violative of that section of the
Federal Constitution which prohibits Con-
gress from passing er post facto laws. In
deed, as the fourteenth amendment is now
part of the same Constitution, it will be
the duty of the courts to construe both pro-
visions SO as to make both operative if pos
sible; and in doing so they will be very apt
to hold that the new one is intended to pre-
vent future rebellions and to operate upon
future rebels, and that if in its necessary
operation it at present disqualifes past
offenders that is mere incident which
cannot be avoided. i. e.: <-s
So for. as our State Constitution is con-
cerned, we hope to have one which does not
disfranchise or disqualify even the most
distinguished rebel. The BAYNr-UNDER-
WOOD abortion is a disgrace to the age in
which we live. Congress cannot well force
that upon US if We offer to ratify better
one containing provision allowing ne
groes to vote. But if we sit down in in
glorious ease and stolid contumacy, and
make no effort to save ourselves from such
a curse, we shall possibly not only have to
live under the fourteenth amendment,
which disqualifes so many Of our best
men for holding Office, but under consti-
tuition which DISTINGUISHES the same classes,
and which disqualifes nearly every re-
spectacle man in the State, which provides
in effect that this 'disfranchisement and
this disqualification shall never be removed
by anew constitution, which gerrymanders
the State in the interest Of negroes, scala
wsgs, and carpet baggera, which turns the
property of one Of our largest church
organizations over to northern adventures,
and which would pauperize our people By
taxes. .e.l2 IS. ~