The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-03-22
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
Editorial Opinions of the Leading Journals
upon Current Topics Compiled Every
Day for the Evening Telegraph.
GEORGIA-TO BE OR NOT TO BE.

GEOBGIA-TO DE OR NOT TO BE.
From the ~ Y. Sun.
The bill now being debated at great length
in the Senate as to the terms on which GeOr-
gia shall be held TO be reconstructed, involves
most perpleXing questions Tue Senate Is
apparently closely divided on the points at
issue, the practical aud vital one being
whether there shall be a new election next
fall, or whether it shall be postponed two
years, so as to give time to the Republicans
to harden themselves into shape more fit to
resist the Rebel element
The spirit Of the great apostle of secession,
Robert Toombs, still acts in Georgia and
WHITES her Rebel masses. This spirit is tru-
culent, fierce, and domineering. tits unable
TO make omen war on the United States, but
everything short of that it stands ready to
do It resists emancipation, it resists the
enfranohisement of the negroes, it is deter
mined to hold Georgia in the hands of its
white inhabitants, it commits frauds, it plays
the ruffan, it persecutes and it murders
The action of the courts is sympathetic, and
the administration of law and justice, so far
as the colored people are concerned, is farce,
if indeed it be not tragedy
The question is how to treat this condition
of affairs. If there is a State which ought to
be put under military rule and kept so in
definitely, that State is Georgia. But the
pressure Of popular opinion, weakened by
pusillanimous advisers, is so strong an ele-
ment in this question, that the reconstruc-
ton of all the Rebel States without exception
is generally held to be Immediately necessary
IL is more than doubtful whether this policy
is Just to the loyal men of the South, white
and black and equally as much a question
whether it is not suicidal policy on the part
of the Republicans, looked upon from a mere
party point Of view. If we had any advice to
give on this subject, we should say that when
all these virulent rebellious communities have
found their way back into the Union, the
mission of the Republican party will be vir-
tually ended; whereas, If a Rebel State or
two were kept in quarantine a while longer,
it would be equally good for the general
cause of good government in the South, aud
a nest-egg to keep Republicans from run
ming to parts unknown. But there is ahurly-
burly pressure to get all the States back, and
have the Job of reconstruction finished and
done with; so that our words of truth and
soberness would probably be thrown away
if we should undertake to enforce them by
ever so weighty arguments. Energetic folly
is ever, in action, more than a match for mild
wisdom.
Georgia, then, is to come in. The question
is, How ? Mr.. Edmunds argued, in his re-
markable exposition of the case-an exposi-
tion so calm, so acute, so lucid, as to COM
mand universal admiration-that after all is
said and done, the Government of Georgia,
after she is admitted, must depend on the
predominant public opinion of that State. If
that is barbarous, unjust, lawless, such will
be the character of the government. If we
are to admit the State and try the experiment
of ascertaining whether this be so, we may
as well do it first as last. The expedient of
postponing the trial for two years, by the
Connivance of the national authority, will
avail not at all to improve the results of the
experiment, and in the long run will be of
small consequence to Union men. He, along
with the members of the Judiciary Commit
tee generally, is thus in favor of bringing the
State in at once, providing for an election
next autumn to determine the complexion of
the State politics under reconstruction. This
is the effect of the Bingham amendment $50
called attached to the measure passed by the
House.
The other side, led by Senators Morton and
Howard are in favor of all methods within
the bounds of a decent propriety which will
head off the Rebels and prevent them from
regaining possession of the State. Their law
is not of such silky and even texture as that
spun by Senator Edmunds, but it is stout
and substantial, and held to be quite good
enough for the case. The sympathies of all
who desire to see substantial Justice done,
without regard to nice construction of law,
which in revolutionary times Is not always
easily applied, is with Messrs. Morton and
Howard.
If the plan we suggest of keeping Georgia
where she is for few years longer is to find
no advocates in a degenerate Congress, then
we confess that the next best thing is tc
keep the State out of the hands of the rebels
as long as possible. Georgia is pre-eminently
the filibuster State of the South, and the
one likely to make the most mischief
hereafter over the social and political transi
tions Of this great historic epoch.