The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-12-03

of power amid strong tenn pations to abuse IL.
The shortly Of them were objects of Demo-
cratic persecution, and the whole of them must
have felt that they were engaged in q contest,
failure in which would be followed by whole
sale Acknowledgement. So far as they we're
concerned, IL was not struggle for partisan
advantages; it was a battle involving their own
rights, with consciousness that defeat would
entail odious aud humiliating prescription. A
certain bitterness would be natural, and even
excusable, in the circumstances; for it would
be the product of long continued injustice, AMI
an apprehension of further wrong. Aud yet
aside from Arkansas and Louisiana, We search
in vain for the enactmsnts which Democratic
msjorities would most assuredly infict upon
coloTed Republicans. The Constitutions
framed by the Republicans of North and SO nth
Carolina, Georgia and Florida, and made valid
by Republican votes, are marVels OF magma
nimity; and the Constitution Of Alabama has,
by subsequent legislation, been divested of the
illiberality which in the first instance orept
into it.
And now leading Southern Republicans ad-
vOcate the abolition of. remaining disabilities
over which Congress alene has control.
Neither in South nor North Carolina is there
any disfranchisement. The only disability
existing in either is the exclusion from Fed
eral office provided by the Fourteenth Amend
ment which Congress may, by two-thirds
vote, at any time remove. II is with view
to the removal of this disability that Governor
Scott invokes the cooperation of the South
Carolina Legislature. The ground on which
he places his recommendation shows, more
over, how promptly an abatement of Demo
cratic hostility is appreciated by the Republi-
cans. The fact that, since the election,
Wade Hampton and his South Carolina asso-
ciates have evinced disposition to accept
the new order of things is the basis OF the
plea on which Governor Scott is prepared to
ask for Congressional interposition. In this
respect, perhaps, he does but apply the re-
commentator of the Chicago Convention, one
of whose resolutions was declaration in favor
of "the removal Of the dsqualifcations and
restrictions imposed upon the late Rebels in
the same measure as their spirit of loyalty
will direct, and as may be consistent with the
safety of the loyal people, But it is a good
sign that the men who most promptly desire
the execution of this idea are Southern Re-
publicans, to whom the Democratic press
persstently imputes a spirit of hatred and
uncharitableness. How unjust is the allega
ton, these expressions of current opinion
from Charleston and Raleigh sufficiently prove.
The convictions in which they originate are
not confined to the Carolinas. Both in Ten
nessee and Missouri the subject of disfran-
cbisement, as the result of local law, engages
increasing attention. In both, too, influential
exponents of Republican opinion are found on
the side of liberality, and as friends of speedy
amendment of the existing Franchise laws.
Senator Fowler and a defeated Republican can
didate for Congress are among the friends of
cOnciliatory policy in Tennessee; and even
| Governor BrownlOw is not averse to partial
abatement of disfranchsement. The discus
sion in Missouri has brought out similar ex-
pressions of opinion, and there, as in Tsnnes-
see, the more enlightened policy of liberation
must ultimately prevail. AS the excitement
of the Rebellion, and of the political struggles
which have succeeded it, dies away we con-
fidently believe that the Republican party
everywhere will be almost a unit in favor of
the course suggested at Chicago, and uow
! echoed back from Charleston.