The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-09-07
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
Ed,torioI Opinions Of the Lending Journals
Unon Cnrrent TOpics-COmDiled every
nav for the Evening Telegraph.
ATTORNEY GENERAL HOARS OPINION
ON TIL T. VIRGINIA TEST-OATH.

The opinion of Mr. Hoar in reply to the
inouiry of Secretary Rawlins, whether the
officers of the new Virginia state Govern
ment must take the test-oath, will have re-
assuring influence, although exceptions may
he taken to some of the AttorneyGeneral ais
reasoning He splits the difference between
General Candy and the Virginia conserva-
tives but splits it in such way as to give
Virginia the oyster and Candy the shells.
Congress, Mr.. Hoar maintains, cannot pre-
scribe tests for the State of Virginia any
more than for the Governments of the other
States and therefore the test-oath cannot be
required: but then, on the other hand, the
new Government has no validity until ac-
cepted by Congress, and can perform no
functions except such as may be prerequisite
for bringing it before Congress for judg-
ment. The Virginia Legislature, Mr..
Hoar thinks, may assemble and
organize without taking the test-oath; but it
can pass no laws, and can transact no other
business than to ratify the fifteenth amend
ment. 1t may do this he thinks, because
Congress has prescribed it as a condition of
admission; but since the military government
will stand until the State is admitted, the
ordinary functions of the new officers remain
suspended until that time, unless they take
the test-oath. The new Virginia government
is a foetus perfectly formed and mature for
birtl awaiting the Congressional ucc0UcbeUr:
forth into the air for the sole purpose of
going to Washington and getting the dcc0u-
cheuT to deliver it,
The legal absurdity of part of the Attor-
ney-General's opinion must not blind us to
the excellence of its practical effect-the
practical effect, we mean of the whole OPT
nion. 1t capsizes the pretty radical scheme
in which this test-oath proposition had its
origin: the scheme to throw out so many of
ba va nl,nr of rri,,io To
gslature as to make the radicals a majority,
and then proceed to elect radical Senators to
Congress. We are too grateful to Mr.. Hoar
for blasting this contemplated rascality, to
bear very hard upon that part of his logic in
which he trims to the radicals and indorses
Candy. The Attorney General is a radical
himself; he wishes to keep on terms with his
faction, and we must pardon something to the
exigencies of his position. The Senators
cannot be elected when the Legislature
first meets; but when they are elected,
they will be chosen by the same
body, neither thinned by the test-oath nor
trammelled by the presence of a military gov
ernment. The majority of the Legislature
will be of the same mind next January or
February as when they first assemble in Sep
tember; both in the choice of Senators and
the passage of laws they will act upon the
same preferences and be governed by the
by the radicals under the Attorney Generals
opinion is barren advantage; it is the un-
profitable malice of keeping an heir out of his
estate for few months, by yexatious litiga-
ton which does not impair his rights, and
will change nothing in the end.
The distinction which Mr.. Hoar tries to
draw between ratifying the fifteenth amend
mentand other legislative business, will strike
many minds as ridiculous. The ratification
q civ hyro T,aoi
lature; and it is preposterous to contend
that valid Legislature cannot transact the
ordinary business of legislation. Mr.. Hoar
must OF course assume the constitutionality
OF the Reconstruction acts, and there would
be no justice in complaining of any conclu-
sions which, by fair reasoning, he may de-
ducs from that assumption 1t is undoubtedly
true that, according to those acts, the new
government has no complete authority until
Congress shall have accepted it. If Con-
gress rejects the new constitution, the
whole structure falls at once into ruins. In
that case, the ratification of the fifteenth
amendment would be just as null and nuga-
tory as any other act of the abortive Legisla-
ture. In point Of authority, all it's acts must
stand on precisely the same footing. If Con
gress can cast back retrospective authority
upon one of them, like the ratification of q
constitutional amendment, it may upon all
The provisional passage of ordinary laws, OF
the provisional election of United States
Senators, is Just as much within the compe
tency of the Virginia Legislature as the pro
yisional ratification of the fifteenth amend
ment. They would all be alike void if Con
gress should reject the new constitution, an
they would all be clothed with equal vigo
and authority by the acceptance of that II
strument This part of the Attorney Gene
raj s reasoning rests upon u futile distinction
the new Legislature being just as competer
to transact any other business as to ratify a
amendment. Congress may just as we'll civ
a retrospective sanction to ordinary laws as
a ratification.
The concession which Mr.. Hoar makes [
General Canby's crotchet and the consequel
postponement of legislation and the electic
of Senators, though untenable in logic ar
Objectionable in point of convenience, WI
have one compensating advantage which w
not in the contemplation of the Attorne
General when he wrote his opinion. AS
puts off the election of Senators until aft
the approval by Congress of the new cons
tuition and its acceptance of the State Cover
ment, the Legislature will be quite free to c
press its real choice in the election; where
if the Senators were to be chosen immeC
ately, the Legislature would be restrained
fears that a choice dispeasing to CongrC
would imperil the new government. In &C
sequence of the postponement, the Senate
will not be chosen by Legislature which i
timorous candidate for Congressional {
proval but by Legislature acting with
full confidence of assured authority; free
elect whom it pleases without endangeri
the re-establishment of the State as a meml
of the Union.