Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1868-01-29

fDLIIitAL.
The Supreme Court Of the T. s. has decided to
take up the McArdlc case out Of the order and
hear it in March This will result in a decision by
the middle Of April This looks strongly as If
majority of the court was determined to make de-
cision involving the consttutonality Of the recon
struction acts, before eSngress has time to admit
a single State under those acts. In the House
this action Of the court strengthens the feeling in
favor OF the Supreme Court bill, but Trumbull
Fessenden and other members Of the Senate urge
moderation and the avoidance of anything like a
panic. 1t is claimed by some Republican Senators
that if the court does go out Of the way to declare
the reconstruction acts unconstitutional it will not
harm reconstruction at the South or the Republic
can party at the North.
The Committee on Reconstruction has agreed
to bill declaring that the appellate jurisdiction
of the Supreme Court shall not extend to cases
arising under the reconstruction acts but will not
report it at present 1t is at least possible that
the Court will itself decide that it has not jurisdc-
ton.
Senator Wilson made strong republican speech
at a meeting Of the Washington Soldiers and Sail
ors Union Monday evening in which he took de-
cided ground in favor of the scheme of Congress
on reconstruction. lie protested the belief that
ten Southern States would be reconstructed by
their loyal negroes in less than six months, and
that in the grand Presidential struggle of this year
the republican party would be victorious at every
point lie claimed for the republicans thirty Of
the States and surrendered to the democrats only
Kentucky, Maryland and Delaware, with possibly
three Of the Southern States. The Senate, Mr..
Wilson said, would be for a long time republican,
and he hoped that the party would for as long
period command majority of hundred in the
House of Representatives. In regard to the ma
toual debt, he considered that this generation had
done enough, and it we,pay the interest, posteri-
ty must take care of the principal. Evidently the
Senator was less careful in his estimates and freer
in his opinions than he would have been had he
not been exercising himself in purely political
speech.
Mr. Logan Of Illinois has prepared bill which
he will introduce into the House at the earliest OPP
portunity for an equitable distribution ofthe clerk
ships at Washington based on the population of
the respective States. hy its provisions Massa-
chusctts will be entitled to 164appointments, Yer
mont to 81, New Hampshire to 65, Maine III,
Rhode Island 10, and Connecticut New York
gets 4s7, and in all there are 1882. Ofthis num-
Der there are at present 367 soldiers.
Speaker Cofax in a letter declining to be can
didatc for Governor of Indiana, predicts that Con-
gress will decline to hurry up the payment Of the
national debt in a manner burdensome 10 the peo-
pie, that it will stop contraction, retrench expen-
ditures, reduce taxation, and will agree upon
just and acceptable financial policy upon all other
questions that will neither dishonor the Republic,
impair its credit nor wrong creditor or citizen. "
Mr. Colfax adds.
The staple argument CT our opponents is to be
the charge Of negro supremacy They will seek
by this to darkeu counsel and TO invoke aud excite
prejudice. But the issue is too plain and palpable
for them to mystiiy or msrepresent. They de-
mand that the men of the'South who used the pow
of their State governments to organize the con
federacy, to involve the country in a long and
bloody war, to hur the armies Of the rebellion
against the defenders of the Union, and to carry
anguish and desolation to a million hearthstones
shall be renstalled in supreme and undisputec
power in the governments Of these states, and lot
demand that they shall not be, bus that loyal mer
shall rule the States that loyal sacrifices saved
On this issue, to use the language Of our lamente,
chief, we invoke the considerable Judgment oiman
kind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God. "
The Republicans of New Hampshire are organ
izing Grant clubs all over the State. The humble
now exceeds one hundred, we think.
The Washington Chronicle says that the follow
ing atrocous toast was given at corporation din
in Georgetown, a few evenings since, by
prominent merchant:
Here's to the man who pulled the trigger
That kiled the who freed the Niger"
There are numbers of such miscreants flourish
ing yet in Georgetown and Washington.
We hear very little now of the effort to invali
date the act of Congress creating the State of Yves
Virginia, but it is instructive to notice that TIT
late democratic convention of that State resolve,
that they regarded the existence of the State al
accomplished fact and declared its "unalterab
determination to maintain it.
The Legislature of Colorado has striker tn
t word white from its statute book. A new APP
plication for the admission of Colorado as a Stat
into the Union will be made this winter.
ALABAMA.-The Republicans are making yigor
GUS efforts to ratify their Constitution and elec
the Congressman. Judge F. w. Kellogg of Mo
bile is candidate in the first district, and Maj. Il
w. Norris Of Gilmore in the third
REV. DR.. OsGooD ON GEN. GRANT.-Rev. DR.
|. Osgood OF New Yook, in a recents communicate
60 the Liberal Christian says;
"The instincts of the people move in hstorica
cycles, ami they are feeling as never before tn
great pulses of civic life that have been swellin
the veins of the nation for nearly hundred years
! One administration Of the length Of George Wash
ington's will bring us to 1876, the centennial q
our national independence. Let us repeat as near
ly as we can that administration, and call to tn
u Presidency the man who best represents the polio
, of that Father of our Country AS things loo
y now to me, | one man who, beyond all Others
upholIs the flag and bears the sword of Washing
ton, and is ready as be was to submit that swor
> to the majesty Of the law, and lift up that fla
above the clutch Of party spirit into the upper al
! of brave and broad patriotism. ! thought it pre-
per in the recent Thanksgiving sermon in A
Souls Church to express this conviction on tn
: ground of Christian patriotism, and am sure tina
the pastor of that church would have done the same
| called no names then, but am willing to call
name now, and to say that Gen. Grant seems to b
the Providential man for our times He has tn
oldfashoned American instinct and has don
more wise things and said fewer foolish thing
than any other public man OF our time. My wor
= is of little weight in public matters, but every ma