Year: 1868

legacy, and VINO nave Hlleu tno Aauo


with mourning, and untold suffering and


sorrow And now we are charged with


being cppressors and tyrants because


they have not been admitted to full


political rights because they have not
been welcomed into Congress, and be
cause they are not allowed to butcher
| and drive into exile the Union men In


their midst It is contended that these


rebels in the act Of being conquered


were remitted to all civil and political


privileges; that the moment their arms


were wrested from their hands upon the


battle field they had right to run back


to seats in Congress-, and take part in
the adjustment of all questions growing


out of their rebellion, and to take charge
Of the several State governments the


same as if there had been no war. All


these pretensions proceed upon the


principle that the rebellion was right;


for, if it be admitted that the rebellion


was wrong, they are destitute Of all sense


whatever. 1t is only by ignoring the


fact of the rebellion, or by treating it as


rightful that any man without shame


facedness can stand up and say these


things. If it be acknowledged that the


rebellion was a crime, then the demand


that the criminal shall without delay,


punishment, condition, or security, be


restored to political power, and put on


level with loyal men, is to put vice


and virtue upon an equality, and make
nonsense of notions commonly received


that there is an essential difference be-


tween the good and bad actions of man


kind. So you see that these questions
of reconstruction all turn upon the origi


nal question as to the rightfulness of the
rebellion. In the Congressional plan of
reconstruction, Congress has gone to the
extreme of mercy and conciliation, by
proposing to divide the power in the
rebel States between the loyal and the
disloyal, so that each shall have protec-
ton against the other. But a small
number Of men, not exceeding forty five
thousand, have been disfranchised; and
they, not because they were in the rebel
army, but because they had once sworn
to support the Constitution Of the United
States. and aeterward committed perjury
by going into the rebellion. The Presi-
dents decree of disfranchisemen in his
plan of reconstruction was far more
sweeping, for it included fourteen class
cs of persons, numbering not less than
two hundred and fifty thousand men,
who were excluded from the polls in the
election Of delegates. The present State
governments, which it is said Congress
intends to overthrow, and which were
formed under the Presidents plan, have
no right to be regarded as legal govern
ments whatever. They were formed by
conventions of delegates elected in 1865
by not more than one third of the white
men who had right to vote under the
Presidents proclamation. These dele
gates represented only small minority
of the white population, and the consti-
tutions they formed were never ratified
or accepted by the people, but were put
in operation by the Presidents authori-
ty, and are in that condition to-day.
They were never submitted to Congress,
never received its approval; but on the
contrary, in the reconstruction acts were
pronounced illegal and unauthorized.
In these constitutions there are clauses
prohibiting slavery and the payment of
their several war debts, but when they
are restored to their representation in
Congress, and thus made secure in the
enjoyment of political power, they will
throw them off as impositions which
they have only tolerated for time, and
make new ones, leaving out the obnox-
ious clauses on the subject of slavery
and their war debts. Congress, in con-
ferring suffrage upon the colored men
of the South, has been governed not
only by high principles of equality and
justice, but by an overruling necessity.
A bitter and bloody experience under
the Presidents plan of reconstruction
had demonstrated that the rebels we're
and unrelenting, and that
loyal State governments could not be
erected on the basis of the white popula-
ton, and that new loyal voting popu-
lation must be raised up by enfranchis
ing the colored men. So that whatever
views the people of the North may have
had upon the pripriety of admitting men
who were SO recently slaves to the i'm
mediate exercise of the elective fran
chise, they had no choice or discretion
upon the subject left, but were driven
to it by the conduct Of the rebels and
their Northern allies.


Wrapped up in this issue and in the