The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1869-05-20
Reconstruction I'm Virginia.


Virginia, The mother of States and of
statesmen, after having been under the
heel Of military rule nearly all the time
since the close of the rebellion, and after
having suffered all the pains and penalties
incident to such a condition, is about to be
permitted to enjoy the luxury of a popular
election, after the fashion in which elections
are now conducted in the Southern States
1t will be remembered that the last recon
struction act, which was passed few days
before Congress adjourned. empowered the
President to submit the Constitution of the
State to vote of the people, at such time
and In such manner as he might deem ex-
pedient. He has accordingly ordered that
the election shall take place on the first
Tuesday in July, and has also directed that
the two'clauses in tho Constitution relating
to disfrdnchisement and the test oath shall
be voted on separately. At the same time,
a Governor and other State officers, mem
bers of Congress and State Legislature
will be chosen.
1t seems strange that ninety-three years
after the signing of the Declaration of indie
pendence. and eighty years after the adop-
tion of the Federal Constitution, a State so
renowned as Virginia, upon whose soil the
first white settlement in the original thir-
tsen States was made-a State that was fore
most during the revolutionary stuggle-a
State that gave birth to Washington, Jeffer-
son, Madison and Marshall, and beneath
whose soil repose their honored bones--a COM
monwealth from whose princcly munifcence
to the general government sprang most of the
present hourishing States of the Northwest
lit seems strange that at this day such a
State should be dependent on the nero
whiEns or caprice of Congress and Presi-
dent, as to the time and manner in which
she shall exercise, what she was the first of
the old thirteen colonies to proclaim, the
right of selEgoverument. 1t is one of the
legitimate fruits of radical misrule and inca
pacity, and will stand to its eternal dishonor
When some future Macauley comes to write
the history of the last three years of radical
reconstruction in the Southern States. it
will be presented to the world as the most
selfish, wicked, unnatural and unstatesman-
like policy that was ever adopted by any
government claiming to be based on wisdom
and intelligence. Nothing in the history of
the world but itself could be its fit parallel.
AS the test oath and the disfranchisement
clauses will be submitted to separate votes.
hax x.,iIl of ha of tod nd he
naming provisions of the constitution will
be adopted But will this secure the right
of self-government to Virginia, her restora-
ton to the Union and the admission of her
members of Congress to their seats in that
body That will dePend entirely upon the
result OF the election, as the very same thing
has depended on the result Of the elections
in other Southern States. and especially so
in the case of Mississippi. The people of
Virginia can decide nothing finally a. this
election. By the seventh section of the act
under which the election is to take place,
it is declared "that the proceedings in any
of said States Virginia, Mississippi and
Texas] shall not be deemed final, or operate
complete restoration thereof, until the ac-
ton of said States respectively shall be ap-
proved by Congress"
This claus econtains the same fraudulent
intent that has marked all the former recon-
struction acts. 1t is simply keeping the
woId of promise to the ear of Virginia, but
breaking it to the hope. Suppose that her
people should defeat Wells, the radical can
didate for Governor, elect majority of dem
ocratic Congressman rs well as democratic
Legislature, thus securing two United States
Senators. does any person believe that rad
ical Congress would regard this result as a
finally?
Reconstruction in the Southern States has
heretofore meant. and in the future will
continue to mean, the success of the radical
ticket. That and nothing less. In Vir-
ginia the decent and respectable men of
both parties will vote for Walker for Cover
nor, and his election may be fairly presumed.
IF Congress will regard that as final and as
operating complete restoration" of the
State, it will form an exception to all for
mer precedents.