The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-08-04

armies have done within the last century.
VII. The World contrasts the cost of the
British engineer service with ours, and wonders
how our Engineer Bureau spent over S6, OOO,OO
last year. AnS,0er.-It spent nine-tenths of it
In constructing steamboat canal around the
lower falls of the Mississippi at Keokuk, and
other works of internal improvement which
have nothing to do with military affairs, ex-
cept that they are prosecuted under the
charge of the Engineer Bureau, in order that
the work may be we'll done and the public
money not stolen. Why thus expose your
ignorance in vain attempts to crafty your
malice ?
Friends of Grant and Colfax try to have
Wells report on the finances read by all your
neighbors
Working Of the Reconstructed Govern
ments.
From The N. Y. Times.
The pro- Rebel crusade against Reconstruc-
tion would be more plausible and more just
if it were less directly at variance with facts
revealed by the working of the new Govern
ments If their organization rested upon
sweeping and permanent measures of pro-
scription, if in their operation they were
found making war upon particular classes,
upon property, or upon the enterprise and
industry on which the prosperity of the South
must be rebuilt, it would be easy to extenuate,
and perhaps to justify, the course of the South
ern leaders. Their policy might not admit OF
defense, but the causes of their action would
be apparent, and a certain reasonableness
would be conceded to it. What then, sene-
rally, are the facts in regard to the seven
States which have been restored to the Union
under the Reconstruction acts
The new Governments are at work in all OF
them. They have been organized under
great difficulties. Circumstances have in
many instances favored the pretensions of in
farin haua lat,fi ,nrfa IN nat
ters and influences which it is not desirable to
perpetuate in their present shape. There
is lack of experience n many directions,
and there are in all sources of embarrassment
and difficulty which no candid observer will
ignore. Very large allowance should, in
fact, be made, as well for the men composing
the new Governments as for their proceedings.
And yet their most malignant assailants
confine their attacks to general denunciation of
the nature of the Governments and the autho-
rity which called them into existence. witn
the exception of North Carolina, where dis
| position to tread in the footsteps of Brownow
| is attributed, not altogether without reason,
to Governor Holden, we look in vain for spe
cifc allegations of harshness or wrong. Even
there, judging from experience elsewhere, 1T ID
fair to set down something to partisan exag-
geration, and to the circumstances which mar
row the Governors choice of procedure. Be-
sides, supposlng his spirit to be bitter, it does
ture, and it certainly has neither warrant nor
aid in the labors of the State Convention.
| The provisions of the local Constitution are
eminently wise; and there is an evident appre-
citation, both by the Legislature and the Execu-
tive of the educational and material needs of
the State. ...
In Louisiana, again, the course of events is
not so smooth as the friends of the South de-
sire it to be. The operation of the Govern
ment is impeded and current references to
the probable necessity of Federal interference
| betoken feebler OWL authority than is re-
| quired when dealing with organized and nm
scrupulous enemies. This condition of things,
however, implies nothing discreditable to the
new Government. 1t is not charged with an
with aught prejudicial to the industry and
| credit of the State. If its embarrassments are
more serious than those of any other State,
it is because in Louisiana the spirit of hos
tility to all loyal authority is more defiant,
and practically more formidable than in the
other six States A fact which does not re-
fleet untavOrably on reconstruction, but rather
vindicates the stringency of some of its mea
sures. ....... ...I
Nor has the abusive ridcule with which the
new Government of South Carolina has been
assailed, provoked its Legislators to depart
from the sensible course marked out by the
Constitutional Convention. Unfortunate
tical measures are retarded by questions o.
patronage. But we trace no sign of the ex
tIeme measures which disaffected whites pro
fess to dread. The "negro legislature" as il
is called is in truth more moderate, and
withal more just than its assailants. And the
opening message of the new Governor gave
proof of the sagacity and good feeling with
which the authority of the Executive will be
exercised.
Alabama has advanced further, and in some
respects more satisfactorily. The Common
Carrier bill, providing for the unrestrainet
and equal access of whites and blacks to rail
road cars and steamboats, creates excitement
but its significance is infinitely less than the
favor with which efforts for the removal of al
disabilities are regarded by the Republicans
"The native Republicans generally favor it, ;
a despatch from Montgomery reports, and the
time is not distant, We trust, when it will bC
successful. The worst obstacles to this anC
every other measure tending to reproduce
harmony is the fierce opposition of those
whom it is proposed to benefit.
The position of affairs in the Georgia Legis
lature is not less creditable. More appears tC
have been done there than in any other State
towards the blending of moderate elements,
irrespective Of partisanship, and the Legisla
ture is evidently ripper and under more saga
cious leadership. Were it not for the wild
harangues of Toombs and Cobb and Ben. Hill,
Georgia might be supposed to be reconstructed
in heart as we'll as in form. We don't know
that their folly should be held to prove other
wise, but it displays the nature Of the opposi
tion to be encountered. Judging of the Rebe
orators by their speeches, and the recon
structed Government by its action 1t is safe Il