Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1868-02-15

extent of their power, for discharging
their duties as States in the Union, and
now it is claimed that they have never
been out of the Union, or even for mo-
ment, lost any of their rights in the Union!
The proposition is so nionstrous and
absurd that cannot discuss it They
have no claim, to any of their forfeited
rights, till they submit to. those reasona-
bic terms that Congress imposes, ,.,.u
Mr.. Dilworth, 81 ask the gentleman if
the Southern States are in or out of the
Union" -. ,-... ..-'............ -....e
Mr.. Eames, ''They are out as far as
they could possibly get, but if Congress
is not interfered with too much, it will
get them back in due time With State
Governments destroyed and State Con-
stitutions annihilated, they are like a
wreck on the Sverige of the government
Their people had become demoralized by
the war, and, filed with hate and revenge
at its close, they wreaked their vengeance
upon the defenceless Union mens and
freedmen in their midst, and such scenes
of anarchy and inhuman butchery, were
daily enacted there under the first recon-
struction plan, as to be a disgrace to the
civilization of our age. This was under
Mr.. Lincoln's plan of Reconstruction,
which was modified after his death, and
passed as ;Johnson's Policy. Gentlemen
tell US that, because this was Mr.. Lin
coins plan, Congress did very wrong to
desert it, but ! tell you that Congress
was forced to adopt some other plan.
Ehe first was tiled till it proved failure,
as under that plan the lives and proper
ty of Unionists throughout most of the
South, were utterly without protection.
Mr.. Lincoln declared but three days
before he fell by the AssasSin's bullet,
that the South were not entitled to rep
resentation, and also plainly intimated
that his plan of ofreconstruction might need
to be changed.
On the llth of April 1865, he said, 81
distinctly protested that the Execu tive
claimed no right to say when or wheth-
er, members should be admitted to seats
in CongIess, from such States, (meaning
those reconstructed ON his plan.) AS to
sustainingit it, (his plan,) my promise is out.
but as bad promise is better broken
than kept, Ishall treat this as bad prom
Use, ard break it wherever | shall be con-
vinced that keeping it is adverse to the
public interest. SO new and unprccedent-
ed is the whole case, that 10 exclusive
and iltiexible plan can safely be prescrib-
ed, aud such plan would surely become
al ENHANCEMENT" .s. ea .-
Now those who would adhere so firm
ly to Mr.. Lincoln's plan, do not tell us
that he had so many doubts about it him
selt-that he 50 strongly suspected it might
fail. When it proved SO sad failure
then, as l have remarked, Congress was
forced to try some other plan, and then
the one TO which these Resolutions refer,
was devised. | have not the slightest
doubt that Congress had the right to do
this, nor that it was its duty to do SO.
Heretofore the Democratic party have
only stood back and found fault with this
whole plan, without proposing any other.
Now l am thankful that they propose ore
of their own, viz, that the south be at
once permitted to enjoy all former rights
and privileges without guarantee let or
hindrance, and free from every taint of
negro suffrage. This is their plan, and l
thank the gentlemen Tor avowing it. They
require no guarantee Tor the payment of
our National debt, and the payment of
the pensions due to the disabled defend
ers of the Union. Nothing but constant
republican majority in Congress, cs n then
prevent the payment of the rebel debt, 6
the payment for the emancipated slaves.
The rebel States are to be admitted to
Congress with an increased number of
Representatives, (amounting to some fif-
teen CT twenty members, for the two
fiths of the slave population which were
formerly unrepresented.) Can any one
imagine plan more fraught with evil
or more hopeless condition for the three
millions OF freedmen of the South Who
can doubt that they would be hunted
down with remcrSeless cruelty, or re-
duced again to slavery or sertdom
could scarcely believe, till l heard it in
this hall, that any one could be found
who would favor such project. | would
ask the accidental majority in this House,
if they are ready to adopt plan so un-
just and wicked as this, in preference to
the wise and just measures which are now
i'll operation. .......'..
l am willing to go before the people
with these issues, and have no doubt as
to their verdict. They have stood by
the great Union party and Congress dur
ing the late terrible struggle, and they
feel that it is the only safety of the coun-
try, and if this Legislature shall see fit to
pass these Resolutions, | trust that Con-
gress will give no heed to them, and l
am sure that the people will in due time,
give it merited rebake. T.. ..... ........
.s....ar r.. ..g From the n. Y. Tribune
Freaks of Fanatieism. a