Year: 1868

Yesterday the State of Arkansas resumed her


place in the Union by the admission of her


representatives to seats In Congress by q strict


party vote, all the Republicans voting for and


all the Democrats opposing her readmisson
| This glad and grateful news of the beginning
of this work of restoration, soon TO be con-
summated will send a thrill of patriotic pleas


uTe to every heart in the land which beats


with love for the American name and people,


and for a free and united government. 1t will


inspire in all parts of the world fresh conf


dencc in the stability and peunanence of the


triumph of our Government over its late enc


mics, and will thereby strengthen our national


credit abroad and perfect our peace at home.


Above all it fixes in the public mind the ire


veIsible nature of our reconstruction upon
the basis of equal rights to all
and loyal supremacy in each state. The fact
that the great work of restoration is thus hap
ply drawing to a close, that one more grand
triumph of Republican principles is so rapidly
passing into history, seems to have fired the


Democratic party in Congress with a final
spasm of rage as frantic as 1t was Intellectual.
They find that the awful chasm which opened


between the North and the South seven years
ago, at the command of Democratic leaders,


with huge flourish of Democratic trumpets,
is about to close again. 1t opened with the
prediction that it would engulf forever the
Union, the National Government, and COnsti-
tuition, ana all the hopes of the mil
lions who loved freedom, not only for
themselves, but for all men. 1t closes
with the National Government stronger than
ever and buries in its deep abyss only Slavery
with its chains, and the false prophets, fallen
leaders, and shattered platforms of the Demo
cratic party.


The incoherent anger Of the protest entered
by the forty five Democratic members against
the readmissiOn of Arkansas leads them to for
get the facts of history, and pour out stream
of falsehOOds as if the American people were
destitute alike of memory, patriotism, and com
mon sense. They denOuDce these constitutions
as formed without the authority of law, when
we know that they possess all the lawful
authority an act of Congress and a vote Of
the people of each State could give them.
They forget that, apart from these, we have
no alternative but the Johnson Governments,
which were sanctioned neither by any law
of Congress or vote of the people,
and the Rebel State Governments, the reten-





party, irresponsible and reckless as it is. has
never had the hardihOod to recommend. They
assert that the Supreme Court would have de-
cided these Reconstruction acts unconstltu-
tional, forgetting that Congress has the sole
power to admit new States, and that the opin-
ion of the Supreme Court on a political ques
tiOn is not of the least consequence. They
allege that the Alabama and Arkansas Consti-
tutiOns exclude Democrats from voting, for
getting that they exclude only those who dis
obey or violate the laws designed to secure
the right of suffrage to all. Southern States
have the same right to exclude Democrats who
violate their suffrage laws as Northern States
have to exclude, as they do, Democrats who
steal, or forge, or murder. When univer-
sal suffrage has become part of the
Constitution and laws of State, those who
disobey it are not Democrats merely, but Grim
lnas. The Democrats are forbidden to dis
franchise the Republicans, and the rage they
manifest at such prohibition proves their
desire to disfranchise the Republicans, and the
wisdom OF preventing such an outrage. They