The Portland daily press., 1872-05-29
Unparalleled Generosity.

John c. Breckenridge, Gen. Joe johnson,
Alexander Fl. Stephens, Forrest of Fort Pill
low, the members of the Lee family, Beaure-
gard, Bragg and Semmes of the Alabama,
may, so far as any legal prohibition is con-
cerned, be members of the Forty-third Con-
gress and take their seat in the Senate and
House next March. And is not quite seven
years since they ceased their armed OPPOSE
ton to the government! The passage of the
general amnesty bill one week ago, on the
very day when, by the admission of Mr.. Rog-
ers as Representative from North Carolina,
every seat in Congress was filled for the first
time since 1861, was an event whose import
ance may prove to be very great The re-
moval of the disability to hold Office from be-
t,reen one and too hundred thousand of the
foremost men in the South, who have had
little influence and less power during the re-
construction era on account of their exclu-
sion from public life, must have profound
effect on Southern society. 1t should be re-
membered, too, in estimating the result of the
extraordinary magnanimity of the North to-
ward the rebelious people of the South, that
the greater part of the men who have been
relieved by this act of wholesale amnesty are
those who have in no wayindicated the slight
est regret for their past treason or promised
anything for the future. In all cases where
there has been anything to show a change of
heart-and there have been thousands of
them-Congress has promptly removed all
disabilities by special acts. The case of Gen.
Longstreet is one of the most conspicuous
examples of this kind, that truly chivalrous
gentleman having not only been clothed with
all the rights he had forfeited, bu. placed in
lucrative official position several years ago.
But this general amnesty bill lets loose tens
of thousands of men in whose hearts hate
and revenge are still the dominant passions,
and the few hundreds of exceptions from its
undiscriminating grace and free pardon are
toothless ldserpents, like JEFF Davis, Toombs,
Benjamin and Mallory, who are formidable
rather on account of the conspicuous posi-
tions they formerly held than any evil they
are now capable of accomplishing. The
young manhood, the bone and sinew, the real
vital force OF whatever disloyalty still exists
in the South has now been fully Incorporated
into the body polite. ...s ~. 4.. ..,s-,J
1t is to be hoped that this generosity will
bear no evil fruit. 1t has been decided to be |
necessary and proper act, not only by the
whole mass of the Democratic party and the
greater number of the disaffected Republi- |
cans OF Democratic proclivities, but also by
very many of the best of our Radical states
men. 1t seems to us to be hazardous ex-
PERTINENT but it meets with SO general an as
sent that dssenters are precluded from max
ing any further opposition at this late stage |
OF the proceedings, at least. 1t is gratifying
IN itself to find all those proscriptive meas
ures that were necessary in order to place the
South once more in practical relations with |
the Union SO speedily swept away, and all
tne people of the country once more homo
geneous so far as their political condition is
CONCERNED. At the close of the year from the
downfall of the Commune we find the French
govement still taking out squads of the late
insurgents and shooting them on the plain of |
Sartory. The crime of these French enthu-
siasts is incomparably less than that of our |
Confederates. The punishment of the latter
suppose that gratitude alone would make them
true and loyal citizens. At first, by the terms
OF the reconstruction acts, the more prominent
participants in the rebellion were deprived of
the right to vote as well as to hold office. But
1t has been long since any restriction imposed
by federal law kept any man from the ballot
box. The limitations on the right to vote en-
braced in the new State Constitutions have
also been removed from time to time, so that
in only one or two States at most is there any
on the franchise. At last we have
things restored as nearly as may be to the |
condition OF 1860, except that slavery class
privilege and the denial of civil and political
rights to down-trodden race are banished
from the land. This is matter for rejoicing.
but the government must be for four years
more In the hands of its friends, or the old
staggering, dueling, arrogant
aristocracy of the South will soon have the
upper hand again at Washington.
"THE war is failure'-"Grant is beaten'
How similar the Democratic ralying cries
eight years ago to-day. Yet the one was no
more false than is the other; as the rebel
crowd which gnash their teeth at Grant will |
lind out. Scarcely had the Democratic con-
vention adjourned eight years ago, before the
brilliant successes of the war proved how
false prophet it WAS. 1t will be the same
now.
n WE hear the name of Hon. Samuel E. Spring of
Portland mentioned as one of the Republican
electors at large. The selection of Mr.. Spring
would be an excellent one. We heartily com,
mend it to the attention of the Republicans of