Year: 1866

The Tribune of the 9th contains an article
from the editor, over his signature, concerning
his views of reconstruction Here are the
main points:


About to start for some weeks Soiourn in
the W est, whence | cannot readily and con-
stantly confer with the general public, | wish
to leave my contribution to the general mass of
suggestion and criticism touching the true ba-
seS OF national restoration and concord so plainly
set forth thet 1t cannot be misquoted nor mis-
apprehended


! That have long held the main foundations
OF genuine, enduring resettlement of our dis
turbed and upturned structure to be universal
amnesty and impartial suffrage, must be toler-
ably well known. 1t only remains to be said
that commend them, not as reciprocal cOnceS-
Sl0ns, but as common benefits trust our
great differences are to be composed and ended
by no grudging, higgling COMPROMISING pea
nut dicker. 1t is essential to the North that
the South should be thoroughly tranquilized
and reassured it is essential to the South that
her principal body of agricultural laborers--her
peasant cultivators-should live and labor in
cOntentment based on perfect trust that their
rights OF person and property-their earnings
and their homes-are as secure and inviolate
Is those of the prOudest magnate of the' land
There is no Northern, no Southern interest in
the premises, but common interest to the
whole American people.


! am for tnlcerSdt dnenese3t-SO far as in1nu-
nity iron, fear Of punishment or cOnfScdtiOn IS
concerned -eren though impartial suffrage
should for the present be resisted and defeated.
| did think it desirable that Jefferson Davis
should be arraigned and tried for treason; and
1t still seems to me that this might properly
have been done many months ago. Bu. it was
not done then; and nO,c believe It uDouH re-
suit IN far more era than good 1t would re-
klndle passions that have nearly burned out or
been hushed to sleep; it would fearfully con-
vulse and agitate the South; it would arrest
the progress of reconciliation and kindly feeling
there; it would cost large sum directly and q
far larger sum indirectly; and, unless the jury
were packed, it would result in a non-agrec-
ment or no verdict | can imagine no good
end TO be subserved by such a trial, and hold
ing Davis neither better nor worse than thOus-
ands of others, would have him treated as they
are.


hope to see impartial suffrage established
by very general consent. Many will favor il
because they hold it as eminently wise and Just;
others because they are tired of contention
about negroes, and wish to put an end to it.
And the one simple, obvious mode of taking
the negro out of politics is just to treat him as
man. He will cease to be an object of special
interest or championship from the hour that


the law disregards the immaterial circumstance


OF his color and treats him only as human


being


I trust the States 1cM generally accord Il
= = blacks the common rights of manhood irrespec
s tive of the nation and of each other; and


trust they wM agree to place those rights unde
the protection of the Federal Constitution =


This may not, in one sense, be necessary; ye
i is best to leave no loop to hang upon.
q The whole country needs absolute peace an


rest. | am very willing that each State shoul


impose moderate pOll-tax on every citizen


and allow no one to vote who shall not hav


seasonably paid this tax. | hold that lunatics
r Idiots, criminals, vagrants and public pauperi
- have no natural right to vote, and that the


ought not to be enfranchised If there be ne
groes.-as presume there are-who choose t
=" prowl over the country, begging and stealing
. think these should not be allowed to vote
g But every honest, diigent, industrious, useft
- citizen however lowly, ought to be a voter
- and that State is weakened and imperiled whic


excludes any such from her electoral body.


DISLIKE the suggestion of On "ntsLLtqence
- basis for suffrage. Let US not be deluded


false analogies and vague distractions. In


State where each child grows up within sigl


of free school houses, wherein he is more tha


welcome as pupil, ii IS perfectly reasOndb
= to prescribe that those only who can read ma
\ vote. Where half the people have not on


been denied all public facilities for education


bnt have grown up under laws which mac
e- teaching them crime, the case is very difFe
IA ent Establish common schools in the Sout
OF and vou may fairly prescribe that no one she


rote after 1876 pl.o does not knOU hor TO rea


But Do not put out mans eyes and then pu


ish him for blindness.