The Portland daily press., 1869-03-27
Saturday Morning, March 27, 1869.

Rss- First Page To-Day Wheat in Maine; |
The Last Man Brotherhood; Our Lighthouse
system; A Terrible Murder; American Ton
mage; H. G.'s Manuscript; Recollections of
a London Proof Reader; Sioux Courtship;
Gleanings and Gossip.
Fourth Pdge-Skseton Hand.
The Constitutional Amendment in Dan-
ger.
.The AntiSlayery Standard says that the
Constitutional Amendment MUST" be rati
fed; but putting the auxiliary verb in capitals
will not do the work, so long as the people of
Indiana and Ohio remain of their present
opinion. To ratify an amendment to the con-
stitu ion the assent of three-fourths of all the
States is required, if the ratification OF the
fourteenth amendment is TO be regarded as
precedent. In that case the Official prociaha-
tion announcing the adoption OF the new arti'
cla was not promulgated till three-fourths OF
thu States. including in the aggregate number
th,sa not vet reconstructed, had ratified it
Including Virginia, Mississippi and Texas the
whole number of States is now thirtv-seyen,
and three-fourths are twenty eight. 1t was
supposed when the amendment passed Con-
gress that twenty-six States were to be relied
upon to ratify it with absolute certainty, and of
these twenty-six were Indiana, Ohio and Illi-
nois. The two remaining, States, it was hoped,
would be found in Georgia and one of the three
excluded States when they should be readmit-
ted.
But in the Indiana Legislature the Demo-
Gratis have taken a course that will be likely to
prevent favorable action on the amendment
They resigned SO as to prevent the attendance
of quorum at the legislative meetings They
were small minority of the Legislature, but
in this way they defeated the will of the ma
.jority. A new election was ordered, and the
result is that all the members who resigned are
reelected, and are no doubt ready to repeat
the tactics which have once already given them
the victory. The Legislature, of Georgia has
adjourned after rejecting the amendment 1t
is rumored that Ohio and Illinois will also fail
to give their assent Virginia, Mississippi and
Texas are not in situation to act upon the
amendm ,nt and it does not appear tn 1T they
will be at a very early day. From all these
circumstances it results that the friends of i'm
partial suffrage are beginning to be discour-
aged about the attainment OF their purpose by
this particular method. The admission of new
States will hardly make up for the serious de-
fection in the States that were relied upon to
endorse the amendment.
The old and irrational prejudice against the
negro is the secret of the opposition which has
developed itself in the West together with a
panic in regard to the inroads Of Asiatics which
has spread from the Pacific coast. The gran
deur of our institutions which were designed
- IL
nations of the earth, and to lay the foundation
of the universal Republic by assimilating all
foreign elements that become associated with
our native-born population, destroying the
identity of alien races after few generations,
has not sufficiently impressed some of the
Western people. They take the most narrow
views of our system of government and its
glorious aims. They conceive that the liberty
and the civilization secured to us by the eff
forts of our fathers are the prerogatves of the
Anglo-Saxon race, and they would guard
against any participation in these blessings by
outside barbarians as jealously as the Jews
kept the Gentiles from the shrine of the Deity
who is the God of the Universe and not of the
Hebrew race. If there were any danger of
such vast incursions of foreigners, who are yet
and have no sympathy with them, that princi-
Piles antagonistic to democracy would gain the
ascendency, there would be some reason in the
conservatism of these gentlemen. But there
appears to be no such danger. The rapidity
with which foreigners lose their identity as a
people Of different nationality from our own
is wonderful. The freedom of our institutions
acts as grand assimilating agency, and there
is yet to be found race coming within its in
huence upon which it does not speedily have
its effect. There is no reason to suppose that
the Cinnamon subjected to its influence would
not lose his pigtai as quickly as the Irshman
loses his shillelah and his brogue.
But John Chinaman a1d his Asiatic friends
terribly alarm the people, of the West, who
never feared anything before, and we have to
meat new and most unexpected obstacle in
the way of impartial suffrage. The Asiatic
. is the last individual who was expected to make
trouble in this direction. But the difficulty
having arisen, the only way to surm cunt it is
by adopting Senator Summers plan of estab-
fishing impartial suffrage by law, if it be found
after mature consideration to be constitutional,
or to wait till the Western and Southern peo-
pie learn wisdom. The idea of giving up so
great cause is too idle to deserve moments
consideration.
The Coon PLAN FOR ADvERmsERs-We
are glad to see that the Argus concurs with us
in the suggestion that law requiring papers
printing advertisements for pay to publish in
each issue a sworn statement of the exact
circulation of the issue next preceding, would
be a good one. We are surprised, however,
at the excess of frankness that leads it to
state at length the objections to the plan, while
it fails to give any space whatever to an expla-
nation of the advantages that would accrue to
all parties from its adoption. 1t proposes a
voluntary adoptionsof the plan by the Port
land dailies, to which we see no objection. 1t
has been suggested in New York that such a
method would inevitably lead to an immense
amount of perjury. We do not believe it,
Possibly the objection might have some force
in New York, but we believe our Portland
publishers are honorable men and that in the
way proposed their advertising patrons would
learn exactly what they were getting for their
money. Let our contemporaries inform us
when they are ready to begin. Let us at first
publish a sacorn statement of the aggregate
number of copies circulated during the last
month, and the daily average for that time, as
well as statement of the circulation of the
last daily issue.
DOM PIATT DESCRIBES BUTLER-Donn
Piatt happened to hear the controversial pas
sages between Butler and Schenck in the
House the other day. He gives his impress
sions of the Massachusetts, member as follows:
A timid, sensitive nature would shrink and
shudder to hear the roll of malignant, angry
utterances of this man. And his appearance,
when speaking, carries out the impression.