Litchfield enquirer., 1868-02-13
" .ENs kOtfA7-R- 1- 1'7 Woodhurs Feb. list. 1868.

A. E;W; s,ITEE5 LATHRoP. ( cos'nrrrHH. M!
 Wcodhpry Feb. list. 1868. .t .;. n .~ - The Issue: 9
 The sole issue, of importance between Democracy and Republication in Con- necticut is that Of Reconstruction. Con necticut Conservatism is too shrewd to raise the cry ofxepudiation the eight hour issue is dead; and the c'iarges of corrup- tion and cxtrayagance thrown in by the Democracy against us, to fill the chinks in their platform, scarcely deserve reply from | party no way in fault for .the course of an Irresponsible Administration. .. Let us therefore examine the positions of the respective parties on the question of Re construction. t- e4 --
 Gov. English and his friends demand that the Johnson governments of the Southern States should be recognized by Congress, and the Representatives and Sen ators chosen by the Southern whites ad- 1nitted without test or qualification: This course would inevitably restore the men who led the rebellion, to all their former political power; it would inevitably reward distinguished services rendered in. that cause with high positions of State and Ma tional authority. These areno mere sur mises. The members of the Johnson leg islature of Virginia openly manifested their desire that Robert E. Lee should be their governor Every candidate of the domi- nant Democracy of Kentucky and Mary land vaunts his fidelity to ''The Lost Cause, No Constitutional Amendment can so completely disqualify rebels for of flee, as public sentiment disqualifes Union men for office in Kentucky. These, how ever, are by no means the most important results that will follow the adoption of the Iy the best half of slavery vii remain abol- ished. The negro will be forced, as before, to do the whole manual labor of the South, for compensation which it will require little ingenuity to make merely nominal. From the witness stand, from the jury box, from all except menial avoca tions, from every chance of education or improvement, and from the privilege of carrying arms to defend their own lives and the honor of their wives and daughters, large part of the male population of the South will be forever debarred In short the negro will be slave without the protection of mas
 ter. Soon all free speech, even of whites, will again be crushed out; reasonable unanimity restored; and that aristocracy which has fought freedom at the polls for half century, and in the field for four ter rible years, ten times more disloyal and } ten times moro desperate than whom it commenced the rebellion of 1861, will have re-established It's authority over half the territory of the United States
 IF The Republican plan of Reconstruction is different: We have disfranchised a small proportion of those most conspicuously guilty of what we consider the crime of treason; and we have forbidden that those who deserved we'll of the Confectionery should be rewarded with offices under the Union. But our great measure has been the enfranchisement of the Southern de- mocrscy--of the men who do the manual labor of that section. We do not expect the Southern aristocracy to be friendly to the Union. Their hatred is irreconcileable because the democratic principles on which that Union is founded are hostile to the l
 interests of their caste Even If we could sacrifice those principles as entirely as Mr.
 Johnson proposed doing, the record of 1865 and 1866 shows that we could never gain their friendship or their respect. We much prefer an intelligent soldier or elec- tor to an ignorant soldier or elector. But ignorant as the democracy of the South undoubtedly are, they hayen shown intelli- gence enough to aim their bullets and cast their ballots against the enemies of the United States, an important qualification for the franchise, as it seems to us. in those parts of the Union where her friends are few. That the majority who monopolize the land and the intellectual culture of that section are likely to be oppressed by the Ignorant minority, no Northerner who has seenths working ofinstitutions really dem ocratic, is excusable for believing. Even with equal laws on the statute book, and with majority of votes, the Southern ne- gro will find that the tyranny of habit, of property. and of intelligence, will keep him far enough from that full equality which northern Conservatives so greatly depre- 1 cata 5r.9 ss.-..a1f2 l ,ee- r }" 't#4s a.. ..2 "y ' >-e ssF Among the names spoken of for the Democratic presidential nomination the chairman of the late Dem ocratic State con- vention mentioned that of Gen. Sheridan