Year: 1866

anxiousy what Congress is going to do to put
an end TO the existing state of doubt and un-
certainty. But beyond Mr.. Stevens North Caro-
lima bill nothing has been done which looks
like, or foreshadows, plan to be carried out
should the amendment fail of adoption, Mr..
Stevens bill which proposes to call a fresh con-
vention in North Carolina, to be elected by all
males able to read and write or owning 500
worth of property, exclusive OF those who aided
or abetted the Rebellion, for the purpose of
forming constitution for the State, would,
year ago, have looked horribly radical; but
there is now little question that it is, supposing
the amendment to fail, the most sensible and
conservative plan yet submitted to the public
and we may add that it, or someth hing ike it, is
according to present appearances, pretty sure
in the end to be adopted not for North Caro-
lima only, but for all the States. We believe
il is not entirely Mr. Stevens own; at all events,
it embodies the views OF the North Carolina
10y yalists, and would satisfy them. No matter
what the true theory of the position of the re.
volted States may be- no matter whether they
are in or out Of the Union, or in limbo which
is neitherln nor. out, a convention elected by
the male inhabitantsi of each State, without
distinction OF race or color, excluding Rebels,
is the proper instrument for the reorg inizatIOn
OF the Government.


Neither Congress nor President can devise
any other halt so good or halt as well suited TO
the habits OF the people and the spirit of our
institutions. There is now no use whatever in
arguing against the participation of the negroes
in such a work. To permit their exclusion from
such a convention would be TO surrender the
principle of equality before the law which the
North has set its heart on establishing and the
South may as well make up its mind that there
is no likelihood of anything OF the kind. As the
freedmen are the class most in danger of oppres-
slon they are the class, OF all others, which has
the best right TO be consulted in forming the
whom thew chose p
present them in the Convention would 60 there
charged with the duty of opposing the insertion
in the Constitution Of any distinction or dis
elimination based on color. On all otherpOiuts
the whites would probably have their way; and
if an educational or property qualification were
established by such a Convention, there are
very few people at the North who would offer
much opposition to it.


The horror OF sitting with negroes in con-
Ven,ion, or of seeing them voting, has its
root in the imagination. 1t is no greater or
more substantial than the horror of seeing
negroes free was few years ago. To submit
to the presence OF negroes in the Legislature
or at the polls would be- no doubt to most
Southerners cold plunge; but the first shock
over, the experience would not seem very
unpleasant after all. Finding that nothing
dreadful came OF it, they would soon get used
to it, as they have to seeing negroes working
for wages and testityng in courts of justice.
In fact, we have no sort of doubt that there
are thousands of sensible Southerners wishing,
in their secret hearts, that Congress would push





False pride, and various other things quite as
unsubstantial, restrain Southerners from taking
active measures to do what the North wants
done; but the mass would submit gracefully
enough to whatever we did for them without
asking their leave. 1t ought to be well under
stood, however, before any such convention
meets, that no constitution will be approved
of which does not make the provision of O
system of free popular education compulsory
upon the State Legislatures.


Beyond this, Congress has, as yet, done little
or nothing. Mr.: Sumner has introduced string
of resolutions into the Senate, tracing out the
principles on which the work OF reconstruction
should be based; but though strong, sensible,
and well drawn, they contain nothing new, and
carry us, for all practical purposes, no further
than we were last year. Besides this, nothing
has been done beyond appointing a committee
to inquire into the murder of certain Union
soldiers in South Carolina and into the New
Orleans massacre. The only result of these
inquiries will be the production OF great guam
tity of evidence which nobody will read, and on
which no action will ever be taken. These Con-
gIessonal inquiries all end in smoke. Long
before they are finished the public is tired of the
whole matter and knows all about it, and after
furnishing subjects for editorials to the news
papers, the testimony goes to the waste-paper
dealers.


There never was an investigation of this kind
undertaken with more solemnity than that into
the massacre of Fort Pillow, but nothing ever
came of it. 1t did not even prevent Forrest
from being paroled, and does not prevent him
now from attending Johnson meetings and up
holding ''the policy.n OF late years several OF
these committees are fitted up at the beginning
OF every session, and launched and sent off on
voyages of discovery amidst the huZZas of both
Houses and of the Washington correspondents
of the daily papers. The public holds its breath
! for about month, and then, hearing nothing,
goes about It's business, and IN about six months
! the explorers turn up with few well-known


facts wrapped up III recommendations which
nobody heeds


Next to the condition OF the South, the most
important questions to be considered by the


present Congress are the currency and the tariff.


larger than our needs, that industry Is languish-
! ing, our commercial marine almost extinct, our
| agricultural products falling behind the wants
! Ofthe population, and prices of every commodity,
| in spite of the recent decline, enormously high.
! The advantages enjoyed by foreigners in CON-
| peting with rs in our own markets are so great,
! in spite of the heavy duties and the premium on
! gold, thae in many branches OF industry
! books for instance-they have driven, or are
! driving, us out of the field. One set of political
! economists who are represented by the Tribune


in the press and by Mr.. Stevens iE Congress,


and who invariably open the discussion of this
| driest OF all subjects by heaping abuse and exc
! crations on their opponents are satisfied that
| the only remedy for this state Of things lies in


the raising of the tariff; or, in other words, in


the total, or all but total, exclusion of foreign
| commodities.


Mr.. McCulloch is evidently disposed to ac-


count for the present depression of trade partly


by the horrible confusion OF the internal reVe-


nue. law, and the absence of all fixed relation


between 1t and the tariff on foreign imports.


Mr.. George Walker in the clearest bit OF reason


ing which has yet appeared on the subject as


cribes it to the condition of the currency. Gold,
| he says, having been totally "demonetiZed," has


fallen below its natural price, or is, in other


words, extraordinarily cheap,iwhile the paper


currency is nearly treble what the country


requires. Prices in paper are, therefore, terribly


high. and foreigners who come here and sell