New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-07-26

that her newly CHOSEN Legislators SHALL Itihe Viio
irOn-clad oath Chat they never gave any ala
or cOuntenance to the Rebellion), which many
of them caAnot do, and which the members OF
no Legislature of o reconstructed State nave
vet been required to. Gen. Grant instructed
Gen. Meade not to require it in Georgia OF
Alabama; and he did not: Gen. Candy was
urged by Gov. Holden to require it in North
Carolina, but would not. We will not review
the reasoning by which Gen. Candy justlfies
this requirement in the case of Virginia; Dut
we assert with entire confidence that none OF
his superiors-President Grant, Secretary Raw
Inns, and Gen. Sherman-have directed OF coun-
seled it.
Just consider for one moment, the intrinsic
absurdity of the requirement: Inc virginia
Conservatives say to the President we want
"to vote for the Constitution, and thus to re-
"turn to our place in the Unionj. but there are
"certain clauses thereof which disfranchise and
"proscribe a part of ourselves; these we want
ito vote against, and vote down If we can."
The President looks into the matter, and says,
"This is reasonable and right; it shall be as
"you ask.n They proceed to vote, and vote
down Prescription and Disfranchisement by
some Fifty Thousand majority, thus establish
ing, upon the highest authority, the Equal
Rights before the law of All Citizens; and yet,
in the face of this verdict some thirty or
forty members of the new Legislature are to
be excluded from their seats
Most certainly, the partisan aspect of this
matter is quite subordinate but just look for
one moment at this: We want Virginia's rat
ifcation of the XVIII Northumberland tnow
want the moral influence Of such ratification
by the assent of all parties. Exclude all the
prominent Conservatives from her Legislature,
and that ratification will be shOrn OF all power
and significance. 40 yes ~ says caviler,
of ,Bfs.,-iuia has ratified but howl What sort
Lsags 76oto GoLa is it Let us exclude from
all whom we will, and we can
make it do anything we choose" Is there
not force in that criticism
We ought to have had all the outlying States
brought into the Union this Summer-ought to
have welcomed and helped them to come
thought to have put through the XVIII
Amendment by their aid, and had 1t officially
proclaimed q part of the Constitution, so that
the Blacks could have votedin every State next
Fall. That would have given us five to ten
thousand votes in each of the great States,
where we are quite likely TO need them. Bet
ter than this it would have taken the ques-
ton of Negro Suffrage out of politics, and en-
abled us to fix public attention on other points
of the gravest interest and imminence. All
affords but q minor reason for doing what
ought TO be done, and in time must
be. We are for Universal Amnesty with Inn
partial Suffrage, for reasons far above any
question of party ascendency-because this is
lust in itself, and best for the whole country,
North as we'll as South. We do not advocate
the prompt. cordial, ungrudging restoration OF
Virginia because we imagine that all those who
voted for Walker will henceforth be in party
sense Republicans: we expect nothing OF the
kind. Congress never exacted this, and they
never promised it, They were asked to ratify
the XVIII Amendment and that they stand
ready to do in good faith and abide by it.
Farther, we do not look nor inquire. And now,
if that Amendment shall fail, when its ratifi-
cation was so clearly within the reach of its
friends, there will rest Somewhere a fearful
resnongibilitV