Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-03-11
CONGRESSIONAL.
MAX.

IN tnc otuuttt MT atu''~' -
a memorial sf the Executive Committee
of the Colonization Society, stating tina
three thousand persons, mostly from
North Carolina, are DESTROYS of emf
grating to Liberia, and that the society''
funds are exhausted by sending twelve
hundred last year, and asking an appro-
priation Of 100000 annually for the es'
Enlistment of line Of steamers, and
that 500 be donated to each emigrant
Mr.. Howard, from select committee,
reported substitute for Mr.. Anthony's
resolution relative to the admission Of
spectators to the galleries during the i'm
parchment trial After debate, an
amendment fixing the number of tickets
at nine hundred, was passed, and the bill
adopted.
The Senate then went into executive
session.
In the Housr Mr.. Elliott, from the
Committee on "a, dmen's Affairs, re-
ported back a substitute for the bill to
continue the Bureau from July next, and
granting authority to the Secretary of
War TO re.establish the Bureau where it
has been discontinued, on being satisfied
that the personal safety of the negroes
requires it. The bill went over until to-
morrow.
Mr.. Schenck, from the Committee on
Ways and Means, reported back the bill
reported by him yesterday, to exempt
certain manufacturers from internal rev.
enue tax. The second section is mod
fled to read, "nothing in this act shall
be construed to repeal or interfere with
any law, regulation or provision for the
assessment or collection ofany tax which,
under the existing laws, may accrue be-
fore the LIST of April, 1863" The third
section is struck out altogether.
The Committee on Reconstruction, to
whom was referred the application of
Alabama, asking admission into the
Union as a sovereign State, reported this
evening, as follows:
That it is the intention to pursue the
shirt, il not the letter, Of the law of
March %, 1867, entitled AN act to pro-
vide for more efficient government of
the rebel States" passed March 2, 1867,
and to facilitate their restoration I; and
they especially intend to enforce the
spirit of that law, where there seemed to
be any facts in evidence, on the spirit
and letter, as such is the true principle
laid down by moral jurists, for the gov
eminent Of judges, by the act of March
%, were evidently. intended. The one to
admit Alabama as State, if, after full
registration and with time for delibera.
ton. a majority of persons should be in
favor of admission. The other was to pre-.
vent hasty and precipitate legislation, be.
fore the people should have duly exam
ined the subject. Hence the law provided
that not only Alabama, but all the imme-
date Territories, should have all their
legal voters registered by proper officers,
and majority of the legal voters thus
registered should cast their votes in favor
of constitution. A convention should
be ordered for framing it, but if major
| ity of all the registered voters should not
| be cast against a constitution, these
should be still counted in the negative
q most unusual provision in our or any
ether government; but in ordinary times
it would have but little effect to keep in,
30 far as removals and deaths took place,
between the time of registration and the
time of voting. On the day of the Ala
hama election q most extraordinary and
unexpected state of things existed in a
considerable portion of the State, and
especially in the Republican portion.
A very severe storm ragged from morning
till night, and the streams were swollen
to such an impossible degree (as Is tes-
tilted to by General Smith, who was
then elected Governor of the State, and
several other respectable gentlemen,)
that it kept from the polls number of
voters who would otherwise have at
| tended; and in attempting to reach the
| places Tor voting, one or more persots
were drowned, which deferred many
from proceeding any farther; and thus
all who chose to stay away we're counted
as voting against the Constitution,
though if they bad all gone and voted
against it, it would not have changed tbs
result from a positive majority in its
favor to a majority against it This fea-
ture alone of this unfortunate election is
sufficient, in the opinion Of the Com
mittee, to authorize the declaration that
q large majority Of the legal voters then
! in the State, are known to have cast their
votes for it; and besides that, very
large proportion of the registered voters
were deferred By the most infamous
threats from coming to the polls and
casting their votes for the Constitution
by few white men, and very few black
men dared thus to cast their votes, lest
they should be deprived Of their lives,
for which they are suffering, all of which
is proven by the sworn statements of the
most respectable (?) citizens Of Alabama.
Indeed, nearly two hundred lahorers have
voluntarily come forward singly and testi.
fed to their violent discharge since
the election by their cruel employers,
for having exercised the elective fran.
| chise according 10 their own will and
pleasure. A careful analysis has been
made as we'll as could be done, Of the
number Of votes that we're destroyed, the
boxes that were destroyed and thrown
out Of the windows, and the other modes
Of violence used to destroy them; and
it is believed, from oil this, that the
number Of votes thus destroyed, and de-
tanned from the polls by violence, out
rage and fraud, had they been cast,
would have overbslanoed all those
counted against the Constitution, whether
cast or not
Some time before the Alabama cleo
ton the convention saw the injustice Of
thn Law and rannnslad Conrrasa 10 70