Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-09-03


There was no matter OF legitimate pub
lie Importance which properly come'
before Congress which could not have
been disposed Of at the session JUS
closed. And now no great interest O
the country requires its reassemoling
But II is supposed that Radical part,
interests do. And there Is consequently
| A pressure for September session. This
seems to come chiefly from the recon
structed States. The business is political
The reconstruction patchwork needs
patching. Gaps ore left down and screws
loose. The enormily is not yet perfect
enough TO secure the party results Guns
are needed for the carpet-baggers. They
are not quite sure of securing the
Southern States for Grant and Colfax by
mere lies and riots and the Indictment oil
prejudice. And they want some new
provisions for ostracism, new laws and
more bayonets. The truth is they>are
incapable of completing their own work.
They know not how TO play the
tyrant and at the same time con-
oeal the cloven foot And hence,
as new errors are pointed out and new
blunders discovered, they are driven to
have new sessions, and do more patch
work. Statesmen and patriots make
comprehensive and universal laws, which
operate with equality and justice, and
without difficulty. But no capacity is
sufficient to legislate for party aud for
country at the same time. Whether
session will be convened is not yet de-
termined. The Baltimore Sun refers to
the subject as follows:
Whilst it is probable that session OF
Congress in September may produce
mischief to the country, we have at least
a consolatory hope, derived from the ex-
pefiepce of the past, that it will not ma
terially advance the interests of the dom
inant party. Their reconstruction leeis'
lation is go radically defective and un-
sound that every new attempt to tinker
IL only leaves it worse than it was before.
Every piece Of new cloth that i. put upon
the old garment makes the rent worse.
just now it is the freedmen who are
disappointing Radical hopes. VINO
knows but hereafter the Southern Legis-
latures. and even the Southern Govern
ors, may slip from the traces2 Even IT
this does not happen, and if the electoral
vote should be taken from the people in
the States professedly restored to the
Union, and given to the Legislatures, and
by them exercised in the coming election
in the interests Of radicalism, what act
of Congress can reach the significant
and auspicious fact, which the very
taking away of the popular vote indi-
Gates, that the colored people of the
South are beginning to discover the iden-
tity oftheir own interests with those of the
Southern whites, and are likely to act
hereafter permanently in accordance
with that idea Whilst the result of a
election, whichever way it
NAV 90, may not vitality affect, however
it may retard, the prosperity of the
South, the political antagonism Of the
two races is a peril which menaces
her very existence, and every patri
otto and humane mind will rejoice at
the prospect of avoiding it. If Congress
should be able, at the proposed September
session. Is initiate measures which will
have the effect of preyenting the recon-
citation of white and black, it would be
a great national disaster, and a calamity
to humanity itself. But the social in
fIuencps at the South and the mutual
interests of the two RACES are likely to
prove stronger in the long run than any
political influences which Congress can
venture upon without producing fire in
it's rear more perilous than the danger in
its front.