The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1870-03-21
Pom PiaIi on lhs silua,isu.

DOuu Elutt Oh INC SttuAttous
From "D. P's" last letter TO the Gin
einnati COMMERCIAL, we make the follow
ing extrastl Ibis cohdpsfbn that Gre
constrdotioh means ybtibg the Repub-
lican ticket" and that only, is the view
held by all the members of tie Repub-
licau party, though they don't a:l ac-
knowledge it, as Dom does:
The Senatorial confuserS of useful
knowledge are pounding away at Geor-
gia Senator Revels is to deliver, to-
day, Governor Bullock's speech, and
the old routine of talk will go on over
and over to dreary length of apoplec-
tic stupidity, Troops are needed in
North Carolina. Troops are called for
in Tennessee, and there seems to be no
end of tinkering, patching and threat
ening on the part of the majority in
Congress. And when we sift it down to
a real definition, reconstruction means
voting the Republican ticket.
We have given the negro the ballot.
We have expended vast sums on his
education and for his support, and yet
the legislation in his behalf has no
limit. 1t is the hopeless legislation of
vengeance. Some fellow writes Senator
Sumner a letter full of lamentations
aud direful forebOdings, and Massachu
setts' elongated agOny-the animated
personal prsnoun "l"-rises in his place,
has the letter read, and then moves an
enactment looking 10 ;he annihlation
Os the 6isloyal element of the South.
Well, gentlemen, it can't be annihilated
in that way. This disloyal party, as
you call it, is the growing element in
the South, and can not be suppressed
unless we are willing to give up our
theory Of government and wipe out the
State lines, and substitute military de.
pendencies in their stead. Let us see
where We are.
After passing the most stringent en-
auLments, after driving the disloyal
element from all political power, we
fiud that it yet exists. 1t makes up the
majority in numbers, and the vast pre-
ponderance Of brain. 1t controls the
press, makes public s9ntimenta and holds
the property. 1t is more dangerous to
our Government out OF Office than in.
Oppressed, insultsd and abused, it
grows in deadly antagonism to our best
up and take control to our injury.
When the war was ended, had we,
like any other Government situated as
we were, seized upon the leaders and
hung them, coniscated property right
and left, aud left our armies to occupy
the lands they had conquered, we would
now be at peace. But recognizing our
old theory of Government, we hung no
one, confiscated no lands. withdrew our
armies, and so sought to restore the
States as the fathers had designed. Un-
der this state Of fact conc liatiOn was
our policy, and after setG,ing by law
the issues that grew out Of the war, we
should have treated our Southern citi-
zers as if no war had ever existed. We
have done neither one nor tho other,
and now find the evil of irrtatiig and
aggravatlng the element we ara forced
10 leave i'll power whether we leave it
in office or not
know of nothing more childish or
puerile than to hear Charles Summer or
Puritan Drake reading anonymous let
ters and shaking theif Senatorial fingers
at power that has to-day more brain,
more plnek, and far more craftsmanship
than these our impotent lawmakers.
] have no question but that Sumner,
Drake & Co. are honest in this. But
one in saying so is forced to compliment
their morals at the expense of their in
telleet. But back of these, and urging
them on, are certain other Lawmakers
not so honest. As the matter
stands, neitAer the brain nor the
material interests of the South
are represented in Congress. New Eng
land and Pennsylvania represent that
region. The scaIawag or carpet-bagger
sits like monkey on a hand-orgsn,
watching with keenest eyes the whip
of his master. The immense moneyed
interests, the accumulated and accu-
lating capital Of few, own and pos
sess and occupy the South. Hence it is
well never to be done reconstructing.
We have toled the South along as a
farmer does stupid OK, with nubbins
Of corn, until the poor beast finds that
it is the yoke and not the feed that be
was to get. t.t-N