Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1869-07-08

YOU QlQ Will tuC OlHCI ACGptliS UuC
little weapon conveniently aimed.
His reverence was out about hundred
guineas but with praise worthy appre-
citation Of good joke he afterward rela-
ted it himself with great JUNCTION.
>s-
General Canby's views.
We copy the letter Of Gen. Candy, to
which we made reference yesterday. The
difficulty of interpreting it with confidence
arises in part from our ignorance of the
various statutes Of Congress, which are
only alluded to by the General by their
dates. If we had those several laws be-
fore US, We might the better comprehend
his positions. Another difficulty is the
conflicting character Of those statutes,
which the Commander of the District at
tempts to reconcile. We say this both in
justice to ourselves and to Gen, Candy
In reading the beforehand reading as it
ls-we were strongly impressed with the
conviction, that Gen. Candy was anima-
led by an honest purpose to attain the
exact law, without undue favor or partial
ity to any.
As we understand the letter, the sub
stance, in brief, this is ; Gen. Candy holds
that, under the reconstruction laws every
officer elected by military authority, must
take the iron-clal oath, ''unlcss the Con-
stituti0n sho"1dfrst be ap prored by Con-
gress, or tie oath be otherwise dispensed
nth By law"
He formed this opinion and acted upon
it while commanding in the Carolinas. :
The bulk of the letter is devoted to show
ing 'chy and hoD the test oath may be
dispensed with, in virtue of these two
reservations. In this connection we re-
produce the paragraphs copied yesterday.
I have heretofore held and do now hold,
that the approval by congress of any pro-
posed constitution makes it part Of the
reconstruction laws, and to the extent that
Congress directs or authorizes any action
under it in advance of the admission of
the State, dispenses with the provisions
of any previous laws that conflict with it.
This clause necessarily refers to one of
two things Congress has directed Or at
Morized Virginia, IN odoancc Of admiS-
sion, to pass upon the Fifteenth Amend
-aient. This action, General Candy holds,
can be performed by Legisla ure, with
out taking the test-oath. This meets our
case fully If our Legislature is called
together this summer, all that it should
undertake should be to adopt the Fifteenth
Amendment and adjourn till Congress
meets
The other matter to which the above
sentence may also refer is the test-oath
itself, Congress has authorized the Pres
dent to submit the test-oath embraced in
the constitution to a separate vote, with
the well-understood wish that it may be
rejected. The President has acted in
pursuit nee of the authority with which
Congress invested him, and has submitted
that oath to popular vote, Il rejected,
it is the aWhoyized action IN a9gnnce by
the people themselves, and that is au end
to the iron clad oath
1t is then for the people of Virginia to
see to it that the test-oath clause is voted
down. That done, we are on solid
ground. But if that clause be adopted at
the POLLS all else is of DO moment an
age Of confusion and Of ruin IS our new
table portion. And General Candy can't
help it,
1t is noteworthy that General Candy
carefully forbears any where to say, that
he will require the test Data from mem
bers. AS a general principle, that con
dition is demanded by the law-but it may
be dispensed with by law, Or by Congress
approving the Constitution-and therefore
the General is considerably silent leav-
ing to us the benefit of all contingencies.
Our conviction is that General Canhy's
position gives us all we desire-and that
Mr.. ellis reaps from his pains the luck
of the famous adventurer and carpet bag
ger, who went out shearing and came
home shorn !-RichmOud WLi1.