The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-01-26

thereof While the Copernican system lasts.
it is good enough foa us.
THE ADMISSION OF VIRGINIA.
From the NJ Y. Herald.
1t will be seen from Mondays proceedings
IN Congress that the House. after strao
Cling, though somewhat lively discussion.
receded from its bill for the unconditional
readmission of Virginia into Congress, and
yeas l36, nays 57-adopted the amendments
OF the Senate binding the State Legislature
to the terms of the fourteenth amendment
and some other conditions. The bill, as il
passed the House some days ago, provided
that as the State of Virginia had fully COM
piled with the terms of reconstruction laid
down by Congress, she was entitled to repre-
sentation therein. On the test vote this pro-
position of Mr. Bingham, by close fit, was
carried, by the Democratic balance of power,
between the Butler, or radical, and the Bing-
ham, or conservative, Republicans-the
Democrats voting with the latter en- nGSse.
This point having been gained, good many
radicals, on the question of the passage of the
bill, wheeled to the right about, and so it
passed by an overwhelming majority.
But the orthodox Republicans in the Senate
did not like that Democratic balance of power
and Bingham's snap judgment in the absence
OF Butler, and so they restored the bill sub
stantially to the shape in which it had been
rejected by the House. In this shape, being
first referred to the Reconstruction Commit
tee, 1T was reported back to the House,
with the recommendation that it be
adopted. All this was equivalent to party
caucus on the subject, and this recommenda-
ton thus became test of party fidelity The
mlsfortunes of Raymond and others in the
House in undertaking an Independent course,
and of the ''unlucky seven" in the Senate on
Ia G
pllcatlon OF the party whip, were regarded as
warnings against boiling too fearful to be de-
fed; and SO Bingham and his followers
wheeled back into line Bingham had hinged
his unconditional bill upon the Presidents
suggestion in his annual message; but he has
no doubt found out that General Grant
does not care to take upon himself the respon-
sibilities of Congress. His policy is not the
policy of Johnson. He has no notion of
that he wants without it. He has the inside
track for the succession and is not disposed
to quarrel.
But Virginia, though under the conditions
of the Senate BILL is restored to voice in
Congress. The bill, as we have said, passed
yeas, 136; nays, ga strictly party divi-
sion of the House. Butler and Sumner are
thus masters of the field, while Trumbull is
still under the shadow of the ''unlucky
sSfSu, occupies q DacK seat In
the councils of the faithful. Our squabbling
politicians, since the initial twenty thousand
dollar proclamation of Andy Johnson, have
led the late Confederate States through a
rough course of treatment; but now that the
case of Virginia is settled; now with the re-
construction of Georgia in the hands of
General Terry, who is said to be first-rate
lawyer; now that Mississippi has proved her
loyalty in the election of Republican of
African descent to the United States Senate;
now that General Reynolds has reported the
results OF the reconstruction election in Texas
as satisfactory, Governor and Legislature;
zow that the fifteenth amendment lacks only
the vote of Georgia or Texas to be proclaimed
part of the national constitution, may we not
hope that we are near the end of this recon
struction business, and that the day is at hand
when there will be no more intermeddling by
military commanders nor by Congress in the
local affairs of Georgia, Virginia, or Texas
than in the local concerns of New York, New
jersey or California !?
With the proclamation of the fifteenth
amendment, if not before such proclamation,
a bill should be passed by Congress removing
all the disabilities on account of the rebellion
imposed by the fourteenth amendment, and in
the manner provided for in his amendment.
Thus the great ultimatum of reconstruction,
universal suffrage and universal amnesty"
will be an accomplished fact. With universal
suffrage secured to the negro, all parties will
cultivate him, and if not too much elated by
his good fortune, even ''the poor white trash
vii cease to persecute him. With universal
amnesty to all concerned in the late Rebel
lion, the bitterness which has so much pre-
vailed in the South between the disfranchised
native whites on the one hand, and the en-
franchised blacks and noisy ''carpet-baggers'
on the other hand, will speedily disappear,
and the Southern States, ''like giants re-
freshed with new wine, will enter upon
new career of prosperity never dreamed of
by the projectors of an independent slave
holding confederacy.
We have said universal suffrage, but the
women are still excluded. Woman suffrage,
however, will serve as a convenient subject
for agitation by our political reformers until
something else shall turn up. Having dis
posed of the almighty Niger, the women
of the United States, regardless of color,
from blondes to blacks, surely may claim
equal rights. But with the completion of
Southern reconstruction on the basis of negro
suffrage, universal amnesty is the next
thing in order.
STATE PRISONS AC FREE pTTRTTN