New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-12-09
mn QUESTION or DISABILITIES.

TIE QUESTION or DISABILITIES
We riG,o that tbo Democrats OF North
Carolina have taken the bull by the hons IN
the election Of Gov. Zobalon 3. Vance to the
Uaitcl sta.c. Serote. We desire speedy re-
moyll Ct al disabilities growing out Of the
Rebellion; and re think no Ouo viii deny
,hat. sh.uld GOV. Vance DC admitted 10 q s,at
in tAe Senate, any further prescription Of
Rebels win he irrational and absurd. Gov,
Vance was "a Representative in the last Con-
gross prio. to Secession, and, very soon after
the close Of his term, plunged hoadlorS into
tle Rebellion, He volunteered TO serve IN the
Confederate army, and was made a Colonel;
be was chosen Governor of his state while III
arms against the Union; he did his utmost rs
Governor to El the Confederate ranks by
speeches by ezdortItioGs, and by q ruthless
conscription; and be persisted in open Rebel
lion till the utter collapse Of the COnfedcrdcy
VIII il not be preposter0us to peIpe,uate any
oue's disabilities after this man shall have
taken lis seat in the highest legislative coun-
/ G. of the Union!
GOV. Vance lacks excuses for Rebellion
which generous minds cannot fail to urge In
/ behalf Of other COnfederatcs lie was not born
/ and reared il a Slaye-holdiHg, State Rights
atmosphere but in mountainous, Frec-Labor
/ Western North Carolina, q large majority OF
y,hose people grew up in the political faith OF
/ Washington, the Adamses, Harrison, Webster,
I aud CLAY, and utterly secuted the pestient
herosies Of tho Notification school. Whoever
asserts that the Wigs Of his region (and be
was a WLig) laugh. their sons to believe that
q State might consdtutonally and lawfully
sccode from the Union, must be grossly iguo-
rant on bTazeGly impudent. Nowhere was tho
discontinue Of Hayne 10y Webster in their
great debate on Foots resolutions more heart
lily enjoyed than by the Wings Of North
Carolina. 1t would be wrong, therefore, TO
urge excuses for Gov. Nance's treason that
ought to weigh in behalf of John Shdcn,
Jefferson Davis, Wade Hampton, and Barnwel
Rhett.
And again, while many have commented
0 sharply on Gov. Vance'sTecent speech to his
I supporters proclaiming that he goried in his
Rebel record, none of them seems to have
noted themost ominOus, though negative, feature
of that carefully prepared harangue-iJs blank
> silence with regard TO the XVIII Amendment
and the rights thereby secured to the Blacks,
3 who are in Moth Carolina a pOweIlcSs min
ori.y, weak in numbers as well as in ednca-
ton, property, and social consideration. Had
, Gov. Vance seen lit TO say in effect" recOg-
l "nze the results Of our great struggle, and
" shall eyermore respect them: the rights Sc
cured thereby to my COlOred fellow-cidzens
shall be faithfully upheld by me-" ho might
have glolied in his Rebel achievements by
the hour for aught we care. But, in view of
the systematic and persistent persecution, viO-
lence, outrage, and murder, TO which the
COlOred people of several counties of North
Carolina have been subjected simply because
they are Black, were not Rebels and mean to
vote, we submit that Gov. Vance owes them
a public assurance that his best efforts Will be
put forth to shield them from further mOlest-
alton and abuse at the hands Of his hottest
paltsans
No matter: we urge the earliest possible re-
peal of all disabilities and test-oaths melted
10y the late Rebellion. They secure no pTacti-
cal good, and are potent fundamentally for
evil. If the dominant Democracy of North
| Carolina have right TO be represented in
Congress at all, they should be represented
truly; and Vance-who, six or seven years ago,
exhorted them to eight the Yankees till hell
should be so full of them that their legs
would stick out of the windOw"-is
man after their own heart. We venture to
predict that he will be found by the Republi-
cans more liberal and chivalrous antago-
mist than Horatio Seymour or John II. Hoffman.
We cannot repress our amazement that poll
tician so keen and practical as Gen. Butler should
need to be told that keeping Rebels out of
| Congress, even thus far, has been an egregious
! blunder, regarding it simply in the light of
| partisan expediency. Just consider what a
good work was done for us by the Rebel sent
/ b IL l.
in the debate on Longs proposed expulsion,
exultingly avowod his entire sympathy with
the still militant Rebellion and his sanguine
hope that it would never be subdued, as well
as by the Rebel chiefs who figured and dictated
IN the last Democratic National Convention,
and how can you fail to realize that we have
suffered enormously from the absence of
Toombs, and Forrest, and Banwell Rhett, and
John Forsyth, and a score of that breed, from
the present COngrcss7 They ought to have
| been there-the South is not fairly represented
without them-and the North will never fully
realize that the ideas, the principles the aims,
which animated the late Rebellion. are still
the ruling impulses of the Democratic party.
until that crowd shall again give tongue in
the Senate and House. Ten of them in the
present Congress would have insured ia at
least twenty more Republicans in the newt
four or five of them from this State. Either
we are inconceivably stupid, or this whole
business of shutting Rebels out of Congress-
when there are constituencies eager to send
them thither, evinces an amazing lack of
common sense.
We trust Vance will be admitted without
question, and regret that Alabama has not
chosen another such. When Brownlow's term
out, we hope for Forrest as his successor. |