Year: 1866

and controlled by Thaddeus Stcvens,-
have at length agreed upon what they
are pleased to term plan of Recon
struction. After four months of wrang
ling, the country is gravcly told that
the Radical majority of the Rump
Congress, now in session at Washing
ton, will only agree to the restoration
of the Union at some future time and
on certain conditions, The time is
indefinite and nnascerfained the con-
ditions determined and fixed arc these:


A new article is to be added to the
Constitution OF the United States con-
taining the following sections:


1st. A section providing that the
negro shall be made the equal Of the
white men in every State in the Union.


That is precisely what is meant BY
the following initial words:


"No State shall make or enforce any
law tchich shall abridge the privileges or
immunittcs Of any citizens OF the United
| States"


BY the Civil Rights Bill, recently
passed over the veto Of President
johnson, negroes are declared to be
citizens Of the United States Hereto
fore they have not been SO regarded. All
white citizens have been on an equal
ity in all the States Of the Union. No
one of these has enjoyed privileges or
immunities superior to or different
from those enjoyed yany other white
citizens. Only negroes have hereto
fore been denied the privileges of vot-
ing, and of certain other privileges,
and what the Committee OF Fifteen are
pleased to call immunitics If the pro-
posed amendment TO the Constitution,
on the adoption ofwhich the restora-
ton of the Union is made to depend,
does not mean that hereafter the negro
shall be allowed to vote in every State
in the Union and to enjoy everywhere
every privilege and immunity enjoy
cd by the white man, it can have no
meaning at all.


ID A section imposing penalty
on every State which docs not allow
, negroes TO vote.


Tho penalty thus provided isto con-
sist in lessening the representation in
Congress and in the Electoral College
of any State which does not confer the
right of suffrage upon the negroes
within its limits. The second section
of the proposed new article is so PLAIN
upon this point that its meaning can
not by any possibility be mistaken or
misunderstood. 1t is so worded as to
apply to all States alike. Pennsylya-
MIA is to be affected and bound by it
as fully as South Carolina. Unless
we confer the right of suffrage upon
every negro within the limits of this
Commonwealth, we are to lose repre-
sentation both on the floor of Congress
and in the Electoral College From
that penalty we cannot escape, should
the proposed amendment be adopted.
/ Until il is adopted, the Radical Dis
unionist in Congress boldly declare
that the Union shall not be restored.


Sd. A section providing that, while
negroes are to be made voters at once,
almost the entire white population of
1 the South shall be prohibited from
voting until after the next President
ial election.


Such is clear and honest statement,
in as brief compass as we can give 1T,
of what the infamous Committee of
Fifteen are pleased to term plan of
reconstruction. There are some furth-
er provisions of minor importance, as
the reader will see, and among others
ono to render all the prominent citi-
IONS of the South ineligible 10 Office ,
but tho main features of the plan are
embraced in tho three sections to
which we have alluded. Opposed to
this disunion scheme stands the wise
and statcsmanlikc policy Of President
johnson. 1t is forthe people of Penn
sylvania TO say which they will sus-
tain by their votes in the coming clco.
ton.


The Radical dis-unionists hope to
carry out their infamous projects, by
appealing to the prejudices of the
masses. The whole burthen OF thcir
song, during the present campaign,
will be denuneiation Of the Southern
people. Their constant cry will be,
.. are you oilling to dllo,r rebels to uote 7
Upon that the changes will be rung
continually. Thus, through prcju-
dice, which they. suppose to be all
powerful IN the North, they expect 10
succeed in forcing the adoption of the
= odious doctrines of negro suffrage and
. negro equality upon every State in
. the Union. Arc the masses of Penn.
! sylvania such consummate fools az to
aid in carrying out these radical rev
/. olutionary schemes We do not be-
: licvc they are. We expect to sec the
white men of this great State laying
: aside party prejudice and rally as one
, man for tho Union, the Constitution
and tho interests of tho whito race.