The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-07-25

reconstruction question being in truth, as the
Sun comedies it to be, the capital issue
of the canvass, the Democratic parry, without
any dodging or any disguises, comes before
the country and places its opposition to it
boldly in the foreground. The party does
not propose to ignore the other issues, for
some of them are o. great importance; but it
believes that the Presidential election will
turn mainly on the peoples approval or re-
probation of the reconstruction policy of
Congress- Old Thad. Stevens is the only man
we have yet heard of who stands ready to
subordinate the reconstruction question to the
bond question. There are many Republicans
who agree with Senator Morton that the FIVE
twenty bonds are payable in greenbacks; but
they do not on that account intend to vote for
the Democratic candidates. To convert people
10 the greenback theory does not necessarily
bring them into the Democratic party. On
the other hand, there are many Democrats
who hold that the five-twenty bonds are paya-
BILE in gold, but not a man OF them can be per-
suaded to vote the Republican ticket. Con-
versions to the gold theory will not therefore
swell the ranks of the Republicans any more
than conversions to the greenback theory will
swell the ranks of the Democrats. Neither
party is going to eXpend its chief efforts in
preaching doctrine which may gain converts
without winning votes.
The great body of the people are willing
and anxious to have the public burdens light
overborne by their political fanaticism. OF
practicable curtaiments of expenditure the
greatest is the reduction of the army and navy
and the abolition of the Freedmen's Bureau
the reduction, that is to say, of the expenses
which are incurred for maintaining the
supremacy of the negro race in the Southern
| States. Even the question of economy thus
resolves itself into the question of RecoDstruc-
| ton, large retrenchments OF the public ex-
! penses being impossible so long as the negro
| policy is upheld.
We suppose the Sun means to be candid,
but an unconscious bias carries it wide of the
mark when it represents this issue OF Re
construction as substantially identical with
| the questions ON which the Presidential cleo
tion turned ia 1864. Diverse views on the
proper mode of restoring the Union had been
| put forth within the year preceding that cleo
| tion, but none of them had the slightest in
fuence on the canvass. The Republican can
! ddate for Vice. President was taken from an
| unrestored rebel State. President Lincoln
| had caused new State governments to be set
| up in Louisiana and Arkansas and had re-
| fused to sign a reconstruction bill passed by
Congress, although the bill was free from
| negro suffrage and the other extreme
| provisions of the present legislation. 1t was
| his opinion that Congress had no bust
| ness to intermeddle with the subject, its
| sphere of action being confined to the simple
| admission or rejection of members presenting
| themselves from those States. The fact that
| Mr.. Lincoln's views on this subject were no
impedimeDt to his election, is evidence that
| reconstruction was not an issue in that cam
| pagn. That in his opinion nothing on that
| subject was decided by the election, is proved
by the last public speech he ever made-the
| speech delivered from the balcony of the Pre-
sidential mansion on the evening of the illu-
mination to celebrate the surrender of General
Lee. That whole speech-a long one for such
an occssion-was taken up with defense of
| his reconstruction of Louisiana on his own re-
sponsbility. "Concede, said he, ''that the new
Government of Louisiana is only to what it
should be as the egg is to the fowl, we shall
sooner have the fowl by Matching the egg than
by smashing it, The same reasoning would
apply with greater force to the State govern
ments organized under the auspices of Presi-
dent Johnson--governments formed in pursu-
ance of Mr.. Lincoln's we'll known policy, as
was testified last year by General Grant and
Secretary Stanton before committee of Con-
grsss. We think we have made it clear enough
that neither Mr.. Lincoln nor anybody else
supposed that anything was decided on the
reconstruction question by the last Presidential
election. The issue was not even presented
how then could it have been decidedY
The truth is, that the present reconstruction
policy of Congress has never been passed upon
by the people at all. At the time of the last
Congressional elections it had not been de-
VlSeu, anu Lne peOplo nave uau no opportunity
to give verdict upon it since. To be sure,
there were State elections last year, and the
powerful and sudden reaction against the
Republican party in all the greater States
where elections were held, evinced anything
but a disposition to acquiesce in the new
policy which the people had not yet had time
to maturely consider. The people of the whole
country will have their first opportunity Il
render their judgment on this tremendous
innovation in the coming contest for thu
Presidency. 1t is absurd, it is contrary to the
genius of our institutions, it is subversive o.
the fundamental principle of republican gov.
ernment, to consider any important policy as
settled before the majority of the people hav
given it their sanction. Congress, even /
ongress were not fragmentary rump, ha
no power to bind the people against their owl
consent in a thing of such consequence. Tn
genius of republican government forbids grea
changes without the sanction of majority
and the genius of our Constitution require
that changes which are great and meant to b
irreversible shall be approved not merely by
majority, but by three-fOurths of the who'll
people. 1t is preposterous to regard polio
as settled and sacred, which the people hav
never yet approved, nor even had an oppor
tunity to vote upon.
To the COnsiderate.
, m