National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1875-02-18
CONSISTENCY OF THE RECONSTRUCTION
ACTS

llG OEbGluGHl ql'1 LudLlll spun "AASA
shows itself in the acts of the majority of
the Republican party in the House has
evoked deserved praise wherever Republi-
can principles are revered and honestly
supported. At the same time the weak
kneed and pusillanimOus policy pursued
by a minority of that party as regards
Southern affairs has only been commended
by the Opposition press, which represents
10th the Democratic party and the non
descript Discrimination which is supposed
to exist as the scattered remnants of de-
tunct Liberal Republicanism. We refer
particularly to Southern affairs, because on
other points the differences existing in the
party ranks are not fraught with such i'm
minent danger, either to the party as an
organization or TO its principles as the basis
of safety Tor the Republic. Meanwhile We
cannot ignore the Cheap Transportation
problem, and we cannot too earnestly
denouncp the inactiOn or the want of cour-
age which has resulted in its disastrous
neglect, but we maintain that the Southern
question is of paramount importance. Not
only is it the duty of Republican leaders to
consider this question in this light; but it
should be their pride, and particularly
should it be the pride OF Republican leaders
Of the North, who were responsible for
the reconstruction of the Southern States
at a time when the Southern people, having
no voice in Congress- were without direct
representation in councils in which their
vital interests were being considered. We
say these leaders should have a pride in
this question, and add that it should be a
pride based upon record for consistent
adherence to principle. History will show
this record, as it now discloses to US the
records of men who, like Judge Bingham,
receive the credit of having reported to
Congress important amendments to the Con-
stitution, and who subsequently were called
upon to cOnstrue their meaning, and to
explain their intent. That Judge Bing-
ham did this, and did 1t in such a way as
to entitle him to the credit of having been
consistent in all his connection, from be-
ginning to end, with these questions, no
one conversant with recent history will
deny. But he was a man among men, who
even now, while filling a place Of honor
abroad, and before his career on earth has
been closed, is remarked as a conscientious
leader. How many of his associates in the
House-men who bore the brunt of many
a harl-fOught parliamentary battle with
him-can now lay claim to the same hon
Orable distinction? We prefer to treat of
the living, and of cotemporaneous leaders,
because the issues at stake are living
the memory of the merest political tyro.
We might, with propriety, revive memo
ries of the career of Thaddeus Stevens, who
was also associated with Judge Bingham,
Mr.. Speaker Blaine, Gen. Garfield, Sena-
tors Dawes and Boutwell, and others who
are yet alive, and with whom the rcspon-
sibility rests to carry out the great ideas, to
the support of which Mr.. Stevens devoted
his last breath. But, as we have said, we
are satisfied vita our allusion to the living.
1t happens that Minister Washburne was
also in Congress at the time referred to,
tency of record. 1t may be said that if
either of these gentlemen h ad remained in
public life at home they would have been
amenable to the peculiar influences which
have proved so powerful with their cotem-
pOraries, and it may be whispered that the
Presidential maggot might have crawled
into their ears to breed a more fatal disease
than trichin8. But we have nothing to do
with such suggestions. They do not dis
pute the facts involved. Perhaps Messrs.
Bingham and Washburne have been fortu-
nate in escaping those influences, but, at
any rate, they have been fortunate in es-
Gaping a we'll founded charge of inconsis-
tency. There are many instances of this
latter escape to be found in the records
of other prominent Republicans-notably
Gen. Logan, who was also one of Thad-
deus Stevens trusted lientenants. We can
make but one deduction from these per-
sonal illusions, viz That those Republi-
cans who have lost pride in their record as
regards the reconstruction acts, If any
there be, are not to be excused on other
grounds than an abandonment of the belief
that those acts were wise, or an assumption
ludI luG AdNC LAA1CA W OOO444pllSH Tic puI-
pose for which they were enacted.
Let US examine into this last suggestion.
The reconstruction of the South was not
so hurriedly attempted and accomplished
as many writers would have us believe
1t was virtually begun before the war
ended, when Virginia, West Virginia,
Louisiana, K ,ntucky and Tennessee either
presented remodeled constitutions or prsc-
tically asked Congress to protect their old
ones from threatened violence. The wisest
statesmen in the land, both in and out of
Congress, were called upon to give their
views on the subject. No other question
of governmental policy in this country
ever received such absorbing attention.
IRnumerable propositions were submitted,
and the conflict of ideas regarding them
served to protract their discussion through
four legislative years. Finally it was
solemnly agreed that the right to vote
should be guaranteed to every citizen. In
short, the enfranchisement of the blacks
ignorant freedmen, just released from the
bondage of slavery-was made the basis
upon which rested the entire fabric.
There is no Disgusting this fact, and no
rubbing it out. 1t remains as palpable to-
day as it was when first preached. The
agreement was followed by honestly-in-
tended pledges that the right to vote thus
extended, and eagerly accepted, should be
protected against the expected violent 3D.
position of the white citizens of the South.
who had fought for years in the Confed.
crate armies TO keep these same blacks in
slavery. 1t was argued that their enfran-
chlsement would to some extent compen-
safe for the northumberland of white
men who had forfeited all right to recogni-
ton as citizens. The suggestion was made
that the whites would never accept re-
Mobilization under such circumstances, and
the result was the placing in the recon-
structed constitutions of the Southern
States clauses explicitly designed to pre-
vent the whites from depriving their col
ored fellow citizens Of the right of suffrage.