Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1868-01-30
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The purchase jof Alaska from Russia
can be justified on high political consid-
erations, and the future commercial inn
portapce of owning the Northwestern
part Of this continent. But IL is not easy
TO see the necessity for spending seven
and one-baf millions of dollars In gold
for the purchase OF st. Thomas, q small
West Indian island which may be said
to be the very birthpiaos Of the yellow
fever, and Sis frequently dssolated by
earthquakes and hurricanes. "a. .f.-i =.
1t is important that we should fund
our national dsbt into q uniform bond
bearing 4 lower rsts Of interest. Wheth-
er this can, be done new L do not know,
/ hope II, can. And 1t is desirable, Ii pos
sible, that the debt should be put ins such
q shape that II may bear fair share Of
the burdens of taxstion like other pro-
pertyj but can seetno ADVANTAGES fn hav--
Ing the Government of the United States
pay taxes to the several States Which
have first to be collected from the people.
The principal financial scheme of the
Democratic party Is that the Government
and the treasury shall he turned over into
the hands Of the mon who made the re-
bellion, and caused the debt to be con-
.racted, and this, suppose, upon the
principle that the chair of the dog is
good for the bite; !" but this am sure is
She last remedy the people intend to try.
But to return to the irrepressibls con-
flict Of ideas to which alluded In the
beginning, the palpajls and direct issue
will be presentedin the attem pit to restore
the rebels Internationally to the full en-
joyment Of political rights to place i'm
their hands exclusively the governments
of the rebel States; to give them the con-
troll absolutely Of the loyal mon, black
and white, living in those States; and
the unqualified admission of their Ssna-
tors and Representatives into Congress.
The Democratic party are not willing
that political power In the rebel States
shall be divided between the loyal and
disloyal, but they demand that it shall
be placed exclusively in the hands Of the
disloyal, to whose tender msrcies the true
and faithful people shall be consigned
without redress or appeal. To deceive
the people they are uttering false cries,
and fill the land with clamor because of
the alleged oppression praotised upon the
people of the South. Who are those op-
press I'd people of the South? They are
those VINO. less than three years ago,
were in arms against the nation who
have cost us more than half a million
loyal lives, and five thousand million of
dollars; twenty-five hundred of which
filled the land with mourning and un-
told suffering and sorrow. And aow we
are charged with being oppressors and
tyrants because they have not been ad-
mitted to full political rights because
they have not been welcomed in Congress
and because they are not allowed to
butcher and drive into exile the Union
men in their midst. tits contended that
these rebels, in the act of being conquer
ed,swere,reinitted to all civil and political
privileges: thatthe moment their arms
were wresteI from their hands upon the
battle field they had right to run back
to seats in Congress, and take part in the
adjustment Of all questions growing out
of their rebellion, and to take charge of
their several State governments the same
as If there had been no war. All these
prctensions proceed upon the. principle
That the rebellion was right for, If it be
admitted that the rebellion was wrong,
they are destitute of all sense whatever.
1t is only by ignoring the fact of the re-
bellion, or by treating it as rightful, that
any man without shamefacedness can
stand up and say these things. If it he
acknowledged that the rebellion was a
crime, then the demand that the criminal
shall, without delay, punishment, con
dition, or security, be restored to pefiti-
loyal men, is to put vice and virtue upon
an equality, and mako nonsense of no
tions commonly received that there is an
essential difference between the good and
bad actions of mankind. So you see that
these questions of Reconstruction all turn
upon the original question as to the right
fulness Ofrebellion. In the Congressional
plan of reconstruction Congress has gone
to the extreme or mercy and cancellation,
by proposing to divide the power in the
rebel States between the loyal and dis
loyal, so that each shall have protection
against the other. But small number
OF men, not exceeding forty-five thou
sand, have been diSfranchised; and thoy
not because they were in the rebel army,
but because the had once sworn to sup
port the Constitution of the United
States, andafterwar,lsc committed perjury
by going into the rebellion. The Presi-
dents decree of disfranchisement in his
plan OF reconstruction WAS far more
| sweeping, for it included fourteen classes
of persons, numbering not less than two
hundred and fifty thousand men, who
were excluded from the polls i'm the eiec-
ton of delegates. The present State gov
ernments, which it is said Congress in
tends to overthrow, and which were
formed under the Presidents plan have
iio TtBut Oo 10 ItBdTucu rs leSdl BOVSTu-
ments whatever. They were formed by
conventions of delegates elected in 1865
by not more than One-third of the white
men who had right to vote under the
Presidents proclamation. These dele
gates represented only by small mi.
nority of the white population, and the
constitutions they formed Were never
ratified or accepted by the people, but
were put In operation by the Presidents
| authority; and are in that condition to-
! day. They were never admitted to Con-
gress; never received its approval; but
OH the contrary, in the reconstruction
acts were pronounced illegal and unau-
thorized. In these constitutions there
are clauses prohibiting slavery, and the
payment OF their several war debts, but
when they were restored to their repre-
sentation In Congress, and thus made Sc
cure in the enjoyment ofpolitical power,
they will throw them off as imPositiOns
which they have only tolerated for a
time, and make new ones, leaving out
the obnoxious clauses on the subject oi
slavery and their war debts. Congress,
in comforting suffrage upon the colored
men of the South, has been governed
by an overruling necessity. A bit
ter and bloody experience under the
Presiient's plan of reconstruction had
demonstrated that the rebels were unrc-
pentant and unrelcnting, and that loyal
State governments could not be erected
on the basis of the white population, and
that a new loyal voting population must
be raised up by enfranehising The colOreu
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