The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-05-23
LAUNDERING LEGISLATION.

LAUNDERING LEGISLATION.
From the NJ Y. Times.
1t is undoubtedly necessary to give effect |
by legislation to the fifteenth amendment, |
but grave blunder will be perpetrated if
this purpose be made a pretext for creating |
fresh disabilities, or for enacting penalties
more harsh and vexatious than the circum-
stances of the case require. The equality of
political rights now guaranteed by the Con-
stitution may surely be secured in practice,
without casting imputations upon large
proportion of the Southern people, or con-
tributing to the alienation of races in
the Southern States. The South itself
has a better appreciation of its needs
than Senator Morton lately evinced when
he sought to revive the passions which
should be buried with rebellion, and to in
fuse into the legislation of to-day the spirit
we associate with the agitated counsels of
the reconstruction crisis. Events are no
longer favorable to partisan intolerance
You cannot read man out of the Republi-
can party because he advocates amnesty; you
cannot call for his accommodation because
he protests against the continuance and null
tiplication of political disabilities. The de-
claration of the convention which nominated
Grant forbids any such violent methods. The
acts and the recommendations of those
through whose agency reconstruction was
achieved, constitute protest against further
proScr1pt1On In any form.
The Republicans of the South have honored
themselves in nothing more than in the mode
ration-a moderation in some instances
amounting to magnanimity-with which they
exercised the power conferred upon them by
law. They had the opportunity, in the for
nation of the State Constitutions, and in the
measures which legislative majorities subse-
quently enabled them to pass, of imposing
tests and qualifications that would have pro-
nc;r Aiuf,a oh
ditions under which they met for the per-
formance of their duties were calculated to
develop the bitterest temper. But wise and
generous instincts triumphed Those whom
Congress had suddenly invested with great
power used it i'll the interest of peace. They
sought to protect themselves in the exercise of
theirrights, but they made no assaults upon the
rights of others. The result was that, with
scarcely an exception, the new Constitutions are
models of fairness aMd moderation. Even
where colored votes were allpowerful, as in
South Carolina, the organic law is free from
proscriptive taint. The Republicans of the
State were content with equal rights-they
have not sought power at the expense of
their neighbors; and one of their exponents at
Washington, Senator Sawyer, is the jealous
and consistent champion of policy of am
nesty and peace. The Mississippi Republi-
cans are not behind in the good work. The
harsh provisions of their new Constitution
they expunged at the polls; they have formally
appealed to Congress for the removal of the
disabilities which it imposed; and their Sena-
tor, Revels, with the cruel wrongs of his race
fresh in his memory, demands amnesty for
his own State, where, as he testifies the
people are harmonious and prosperous"
Facts of this nature should shame into
silence the spirit that would not only keep
alive the limited prescription which still
exists, but would seek in the enforcement OF
the newly-ratiied amendment an oc sasion for
other penalties. If this were the only method
of maintaining peace we should hesitate to
condemn it; for the sake even of amnesty we
would not jeopardize security. We are per-
suaded, however, that the harmonious and
prosperous condition of Mississippi is in no
small degree attributable to the generosity of
the course pursued by the party that tri-
umphed in Governor Alcorn's election; and
in the experience of Mississippi we discern
the forerunner of the genuine reconstruction
which will be developed in other Southern
States, when counsels like those of Senator
Morton lose their influence in the Republican
party.