The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-09-18

OF Georgia demonstrates that everything de-
sirable can be accom- plished through the
agency of the new State Governments. The
Tact that IN the greater part Of the South the
white citizens ATE majority, and that they
mobopohze the property, the education, the
social influence, and the political experience
OF their section, proves that, II let alone,
they can mould their institutions into any
form they please. There win be no need of
dispensing the new governments by force, be.
cause they can go easily be made the agents OF
their own reformation. Encouraged and sup
ported 10y the public opinion Of the whole
country, as the Southern whites will be- by
the election of the Democratic candidates, they
will have no difficulty in revising the present
Constitutions by methods so free from legal
question, that no Federal interference will be
possible to thwart, and none necessary to aid
them. ....a--
We are confirmed in this view by the fact
that the ingenuity of the Times itself eau
descTy no other remedy than refusal to
admit Senators and Representatives from the
States which thus transform their govern
ments. In an article, on the 11th inst, upon
the expulsion of the negroes from the Georgia
Legislature the Tunes said
"How the wrong may be remeded is ques.
same degree OF confidence. IL is difficult and
delicate question. The House has right TO
decide upon the election and qualification of
its memOers, and no Slate courG has jurisdic.
tion over IT, An adverse Judgment may be an
nouL ced, but the prominent advooales of ex-
pulsion have announced their intention to dis
regard 1t, They claim 10 be judges of law as
well as of fact, and will heed no opinion or
decision at variance with their action. WHAT,
then, can Congress do? May not the Senate and
House In turn assert their supreme control
over elections and qualifications, and respec-
lively refuse 10 admit The Senators and Repre-.
seDtatives whom Georgia Will send To the next
session? The inquiry is not extravagant In
view of the fact that Georgia regained its privi.
lege OF self government, in part 10y ratifying the
fourteenth amendment which without tnat vote
would still be law. Tue act of ratification, how
ever, in the Georgia House, WAS carried by the
votes OF the colored members who have been
expelled as ineligible. II they had no lawful
title TO seats they could have none To votes: and
after striBi ing them Off the motion to ratifY be-
comes failure. Interpreting the action OF the
Legislature IN respect of the amendment In the
light Of Ills recent proceeding, no special pie adj
IL g would seem necessary 10 justify revision by
| Congress ON The ground OF fraud, For II what
| purrorted to be ratification was really not
| such. admission obtained In reliance upon IL
| was in fact admission by false pretences; and
Congress may viudicate lis IN tegrity and punish
| the fraud by refusing to receive The Georgia
Senators and Re- presenia iatives. That step would
virtually be declarai ion that he reconstruc-
| tion OF the nth Is still ncomDlete"
Now, whatever may be thought of this
| remedy in other respects, the Times must per-
| ceive that it cannot work when we come to
have Democratic President and House OF
Representatives. All that Congress could do
at the nt xt session, would be to stultify itself,
and make itself Laughing Stock by expelling
the carpet bag members 1t has just admitted,
and covering with derision the first plank OF
the Chicago platform, which congratulates the
country on the perfect success of the recon-
structiOn policy. But as soon as there is a
Democratic House, the Republicans are check
mated. The joint resolution readmitting the
States and sanotioning their governments can
not be repealed without the concurrence of
both Houses; and until it is repealed neither
| can refuse to admit members on the ground
that there is no valid State Government. The
Times must therefore see that its party will be
bound, hand and foot, in letters of its own
forging. There will be no necessity for de-
mohshing the gallows erected by Haman,
when he can SO easily be hanged on it himself.