Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-01-01


Vermont, for he asked, Why not direct
the military commander to proclaim the
ratification without the Formally of con-
sulting the Legislature? But Mr.. Morton
reminded the objector that he should have
thought of that long ago, before voting to
impose the fourteenth amendment in the
same way. And Mr.. Edmunds, though
disposed at first to say, els thy servant
dog that he should have done this thing2"
was at last compelled to remember that he
had done it, The Republican party, Mr..
Morton went ON TO say, after imposing
this condition on Virginia, Mississippi and
Texas, could not afford to recede. We
have now, he might have said, in the
words of an earlier reconstructor,
Slept in so far that, should we wade no more,
Returning were as tedious IS so Ger.
Rather repeat q wrong than confess q
wrong, even when everybody sees you
have committed one, seems to be the
maxim of statesmen of Mr.. Morton's
school. Be consistent with yourself, and
it is small matter that you are forever
inconsistent With.d and decency. But
this is not all. Mr.. Morton, having de-
clared that nytbing short of compulsiOn
will not do, and that his proposition will
do, goes on 'thc applause of listen
ing Senate to command by tell
ing us that bis proposition is
not compulsion. And this transcend
ent logic so COMFORTS with the reason
OF Mr.. Howard, of Michigan, that he
echoes the statement We do not compel
Georgia, say these candid gentlemen; we
only say 10 her that if she does not ratify
the amendment she will remain where she
is. And where is she but where you, by
this bill, have put her, bound, gagged and
given over 10 be tortured by her reoudi
sted servant, with The whole force of the
United States, President and all, for his
tools7 If this is not CompUlsien, that
word has no application to human affairs
No man can make another say word IN
less the victim himself makes up his mind
to do IT, 1t is in the application Of the
inducements of pain and fear that the
compulsion lies. ST. Laurence on the
gridiron, the victim of piOus cruelty
pressed to the spiky bosom of the Virgin,
were not, and could not be, compelled to
deny their faith. Their prosecutors only
left them to stay where they were till they
should recant or die.
1t is impossible, one would think, 10
add anything to these examples of sena-
torial honesty; but Mr.. Carpenter, of
Wilson, has done it. In the same debate
he declared that he would never vote to
admit Georgia until she had ratified the
fifteenth amendment, but he was opposed
to placing this determination on record,
lest the avowal Of it should afterward
make void all they were doing Speaking
for the Judiciary Committee, land thisin-
cludes Mr. Edmunds, whose honest indig-
nation We have just noticed), he said they
did not wish to leave any chance for max
ing up a case for the Supreme Court
Like Mr.. Howard and Mr.. Morton,
ne proposes 20 engraft forgery upon
the constitution, and by fraud and
violence to defeat the choice of the
people of the United States; and, unlike
them, he further proposes to destroy all
evidence of the crime; 50 that those
whom he wrongs shall never be able to
prove, or even to allege the wrong. He
tears ont the tongue and cuts off the
hands of the victim whom he has out
RACED, that neither her writing nor her
speech may ever appear against him.
More than that, he assumes TO blindfOld
and gag the nation itself by emitting from
the record the essential condition of the
bargain which he drives with the helpless
State After such an exhibition as this,
no one can be surprised to find Mr.. Car
penter a day or two after congrat-
ulating his fellow members on the dis
covery that the constitution has not for
hidden Congress to impair the obligation
Of contracts, and urging them 10 make
a practical assertion of their liberty.
When public men make such frank
avOwals as those 70 which we have been
calling attention, they must regard the
people whom they represent either as
grossly stupid, or as not caring to main
tain even decent show of honesty; or
it may be that by a long course of ingeni-
GUS evasion Of the sacred obligations Of
the law they swear to support, these Sen
ntors have lost all sense of any essential
distinction between truth and falsehood,
and rest with as firm q faith upon the
shams which they find it convenient to in
vent as upon the solid reality In either
case it is time the people Of the United
States were seriously considering whether
in the hands Of men like these they can
safely trust the public credit, the public
honor, or the public liberty.
HAS SPANISH GOLD BEEN USED
AT WASHINGTON
The New York SIM is n Radical jOur-