New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-04-19
QUESTIONS or TIE HOCE--sENA10RS
MORTON And WILSON

| QUESTIONS or TIE HOVE--SENAIORS
MORTON And WILSON,
II IL wise TO listen to the utteranccs OF
s,ropg men. Mistaken, they may bc-preju-
diced. one sided, sophistical but they gener-
alv mean something. and know how to ex-
press Il so. when you have heard such on
each side of great question, you may KNOW
IL you will. what is really in issue. We re-.
joce, therefore, TINT Senators Trumbuu anu
scburz on one side, Senators Morton and Will
son on tho other, have spoken In our City's
largest hall on tho questions which cater
into our pending Presidential canvass, and
that We have been enabled to lay their
speeches fully before our readers, who can
| llorcfrom form an intelligent judgment OH the
points to DO decided. To our mind, tho Fast
| and the Future aro fOrcibly embodied in these
conflicting haranglcs; the Past, with It's strifcs,
| it's hates, its dcvastatiOns, being ably repre-
scnted by Senator Morton; tho Future, with its
generous forgctfulncss of bygono fcuds, its re-
Cancellation and reunion, by Senators Trum-
bull and Schurz. But, since 1t was proclaimed
that the Grant Senators came here expressly
to review tho positions and refute the argyll
ments OF Mcssrs. Trunbull and Schrrz, let us
champions respectively appealed to the Amtri-
| can People:
!. Uncersal amnesty
No one can have forgotten how full, frank,
emphatic, was the demand Of tho Liberal
chiefs that all prescriptions and disabilities
growing out of our late Civil War be utterly
and promptly repealed and abolished. They
took tho broad ground on this subject which
the Editor of The TRIBUNE has unAinchingly
held for ycars-but for which, it was then
said, no would have been chosen to tho
U. S. Senate instead of Roscoe Conk-
ling. True friends almonishcd him that
he was "ruining himself,' by appeal
ing 80 pointedly for Universal Amnesty
directly on tho heels of the great Re-
publican triumph of 1866; but. as nc had
ruined himself several times before, and was
not very much the worse for it, he disrcgardcd
their wcl-mcant cntrcatics. Five years have
since passed, and Senator Morton is still i'm
placable. Hear him!
"Every Rebel IN the South e allowed TO vote No man
IA DISTINGUISHED 10y any law IN tho United States there
Is but thing resting upon any man who was In tho
Rebellion and that bis ineligiblity to Ill office. jeff.
Davis has Just much right to vote any he has ex-
crciscd it good many years but the great pcrsccu.
ton he is laborng under that he has not tue right to
return the Senate Of tho Untcd States tApplause
Now the Senate, last week, passed bill granting am
ncsy all but three classes OF Rebels First Those in
Congress who became Rebels went down to engag"
In the Rebellion. Second: Those in this army Of the
United States who left and carried their swords to the
Rebel side. Third Those who had been in the COuven
ton OF the Southern States, aud there voted to carry
their States out Of the Union into the Rebellion.
These comprise such men "a Davis, Toombs, Stephens
and Breckinrid9e who made the R"beliOn-its
otoI.i.
of oil crimes in history above everything else
I am favor Of amnesty to oil except the
great criminals. voted for that bill giving to all except
these Classes; AMI long have scat In the United
States Senate will vote to give amnesty to JEFF
Davis or those who brought on this Rebellion have
never held tho Of soldiers and officers responsible
have held the authors OF that Rebellion who forced 1t
upon the people as responsible and those few men have
consigned their sroves 10000 people Of these United
States They have placed upon the people that load OF
debt under which grooming; they have made
misery and wrotchcdnoss uncxampled and Cor theso
men, allow to say. have no compassion or forgive.
ness. you fully pardon tho rncadcrs and bring
them back to the Legislature perhaps to be fresdentso
the United States, you will find that children. twenty
years hence will hold that there nothing wrong III
the Rebellion. Universal amnesty would re lt In tho
sending Of JEFF Davis, ToOmb' Stephens. BreckiTidge
md men of that class the Senate OF the United States
That would DO result to stultify ourselves and acknow
edge tlero was no crime In the Rebellion"
Here yon SEQ that several Millions of Amer
lean citizens are still accounted criminals /; but
there are only three classes of "great Grim
"inals," whom Senator Morton would keep
under the ban Of pIOscriptiOn-wOuld keep
thus forever. What is this but saying to the
Millions, "You, too, deserve punishment;
"but your ignorance and insignifcance shall
abe allowed to shield you from your deserts
"you shall be further punished only in the
persons of your leaders 2" IL not this keep
ing the wounds of Civil War open and bleed
ing indefinitely Can those Millions feel that
they are once moro our fellow citizens while
their rights are prescribed by our MortOns and
Chandlersf
The Senator says the masses are not disfran
chised; they are allowed to vote.1 But what
is the right to vote if others dictate for whom
you are to v0tei The Senator assumes that
the Southern States, with free, universal suf
frage, would elect certain persons to represent
them in tho Senate; so he interposes his veto,
and compels them to make different choice.
Is not this giving Indiana many Senators and
other States none at all
Let ready example illustrate tho point in
dispute:
North Carolina, at ner East Statc election In
1870, chose Democratic Legislature by which
Col. ZebulOn B. Vance was chosen u. s.
Senator. No one has ever questioned the fair
ness of that election, or charged that it was
procured by coercion or corruption. Not many
Senator'S have been 80 purely chosen from
Northern States for some years back, and no
one doubts that Vance was the choice of the
political majority. Yet Morton g. Co. have re-
fused to admit him to his seat, and are now
debating the proprety of giving that scat to