New-York tribune., 1868-08-12
WgO ARE FOR PEACEP

aSSldu0uSly 10 neal lHt NOuuuS HlilClCu oH Vui
country by parricdal Rebellion and devas-
tatiDg Civil War. They do not propose to do
this by surrendering everything to the Rebels
and making them lords paramount. They demand
that the loyal people of our whole country
not part, but all of them-shall be placed on
as good q footing as the Rebels, and hence
forth enjoy equal advantages and opportunities,
rights and privileges, with those who squandered
One Million human lives and Five Billions OF
property in desperate struggle to divide ana
destroy the Union. Is that unreasonable
The Rebels are disfIanchSod in two States
onIy-Tennessee and Missouri not by Con-
gress, nor by Federal authority i'll any form,
but by the loyal people in those States. If this
be right, Andrew Johnson, above all other men,
deserves the credit of it; if it be wrong, he
should bear the blame. 1t was he who gave
out the watchwOrd -" Loyal men, White or
"Black, shall rule America 1t was he who
managed the first election in that State at
which Rebels were not allowed to vote. He
thus carried the State for Lincoln and himself
in 1864 but Congress did not count her vote !
The Rebels of Tennessee and Missouri want
to vote We want them enfTanclscd. But
from unmistakable indications, we infer that
if they were this day restored to the fullest
rights of citizenship, they would use their
power to disflanchse the Blacks of Tennessee
and peIpetuate the vassalage of those of Mis-
souri,. If they will unite with us in fayOring
UNIVERSAL AMNESTY and IMPARTIAL SUI
FRAGE, we are quite sure that both Will be
speedily carried. But, so long as they demand
enfrauchisement in order that they may dis
franchise thousands who were never Rebels, Is
it wonder that they excite little sympathy !
I'm the recently reconstructed States, a very
small fraction of the Rebels are disfranchised
Congress decreed that so many Of them rs had
taken a sOlem oath of fidelity to the COnstitu-
ton in order to enjoy the honoTs and emOlu-
mentS of public station, and had voluntarily,
deliberately, violated that oath by aiding the
Rebellion, should not vote until the restriction
should be legally abolished. The Radicals Of
Alabama and Georgia have just enfranchsed
the disfranchiscd Rebels of those States; the
other States will follow so fast as they can
safely do so. Gov. Scott has strongly recon-
mended this course in South Carolina; and the
Legislature will doubtless coincide with him, if
the Rebels will behave so that they can.
The World insults the friends of Universal
Amnesty as follows:
Nothng very favorable can be said Of the efficacy OF
a deathbed repentance; but the conscience which Is
aroused by the terrors Of such situation nevertheless
takes iuster view OF the misdeeds or the departing SIN
than he acknowledged IN the vgor Of health and
hope The Republican party in that distressing stua
On and IS trying the effects OF 100 tardy repentance oi
things which IT committed without conjunction when 1t
thought II had strong hold upon NE The foregoing
paragraphs, commenting on and commencing the action
Of the Alabama Legislature III removing political disabil
tues from white citizens, are complete 9ckno"edg
ment that those dsablllles ought not 10 nave
been imposed. For what is the ground on
which the disfranchlsemeut has been defended
affected and dsloyal that they could not be- safely trusted
political rights. II the reason was good, the
; -, itr 70 ~ mind Riit tr Raiiral ar
gaus daily declare that the Rebel leaders growing
constantly and wOrse-tat their attitude bolder
is reckless, cOntumaciou and defiant, at the pres
time than has been before since the close OF the war
And yet this is the time selected for the removal OF
the disabilities so often declared 10 be an indispens
able precautiOn against Rebel influence! II the
current Radical accounts Of the Southern teppcr
are correct this precaution was never so
necessary at this moment. Either disflanehse-
and disabilities neyernecessary or it's absurd
70 remove them nOw-that l there te any truth IN the
Radical representations OF the present condition Of the
Southern mind Their sudden removal, so soon after
they were imposed Is an eXored confession that one OF
erslitv of the Alabama Ieesature are prepostcrous
The carpetbag Legislatures are mere puppets Of the
Northern Radicals The disabilities removed because
the Republican leaders have become frightened. They
dare not encounter Judgment the people upon their
policy III all its hideOus defOrmlty"
Comments by The Tribune.
The views and inculcations of this journal
touching Amnesty and Enfranchisement should
by this time be well known. We have been
setting them forth persistently for more than
three years. With Gen. Grants constant efforts
in the same direction, the public is also
familiar. And no man can well be ignorant of
the fact that the disabilities imposed on the
prominent Rebels by Congress were intended
to be temporary, and to be removed so soon
as they could be with safety.
But the Rebels are as defiant and malignant
as ever, urges The World. That is, unhappily,
too true; and hence the failure of the late eff
fort to enfranchise them in Tennessee. We
wish they would let us help them out of their
hObble; but if they choose an opposite course,
we must submit.
Yet it by no means follows from the fact in
sisted on by The World that they must remain
disfranchised. If Gen. Grant were this day
elected their claws would be cut so that they
might be turned loose without fear. And,
whenever his election shall have been insured
by the popular vote of Nov. ensuing, we
confidently trust that they can be enfranchised
without danger. Frank Bar's revolution will
then be exploded; so will all their dreams of
upsettlng the new State Governments, driving
out the "carpet- baggers," and reducing the
Blacks to serfdom. Congress, by two-thirds
vote, may legally remove their disabilities.
We are sure it may safely do so whenever
Grants election is assured. If they insist on
keeping themselves disfranchised as long as
may be, very WELL. The Democrats in the next
Congress cannot possibly have power to re-
move their disabilities; the Republicans will
have. Will they take counsel of their sense or
their malignity !