Year: 1866

Congress and their Proposed


Constitutional Amendment.


1t has been 80 often repeated that the
Thirty-ninth Congress was body thirsting
for the blood of our amiabe brethren of the
South, and determined upon wholesale
measures of punishment which should re-
late not only to persons but to the lands
and estate of every blessed repontant sim
ner among them, that respectable old ladies
of both sexes have felt impelled to hold
up their hands in horror, believing that
Congress had determined upon nothing
short of annihilation of the South 1t was
supposed by some of the most excitable
::"d .nerT""", of. these =, feqble-minded
individuals. that it was tho intention of
"Old Thaddeus Stevens" and other diaboli-
cal Jacobins, to not only destroy every
living person of masculine gender, but to
apportion the female population among
frightful Yankee mudsills, with view to
material notifications of the race in the
next generation. In this proposed arrange
ment the inclination of the mudsills had
had not been consultcd-an omission
which we fear would have proved fatal to
the scheme, on closer investigation.


These charges against Congress, of
bloodymindedness and all uncharitableness,
were so often repeated aud so strenuously
insisted upon, that even the demasogues
who set them afoat seem finally to have
almost believed Them.


We are not inclined to dispute that there
was not some color of just objection of this
sort to some of the speeches of the more
extreme men in Congress. These men,
being Enthusiastically the most active
and boisterous, may have done more
than their share in giving a seeming
character to the whole body. The fro!h
always comes to the surface, and some.
times hides what is beneath.


But froth never hoated a ship nor broke
an embankment.


Congress should be judged by what it
did; not by what windy, uninhuential
individual members may have said. 1t
should be judged by its sound, able inhu-
ential men. aud the fruits of their states
manship as shown by it's acts not by the
frutless appeals and efforts of persons who
accomplished nothing in the way of plac-
ing measures upon the statutebook.


The appeal to the country may be said
to be made solely upon the constitutional
Amendment Where are the signs of blood
thirstiness in that proposed measure 7
Where, in the whole history of the world,
on tue contrary, can be found more noble
and magnanimo1s forgetfulness Of the
bloody sacrifices which were made neces-
sary by the act of the public enemy, than
is TO be found in this scheme of complete
restoration of public enemies to all the
privileges of citizenship SO complete
and entire was this noble generosity, 80
unparalleled this magnaDimity, that the
Opposition journals, on it's first promulga'
ton, could only cry, "Cougress has backed
down l"--too much bewildered by such
liberal scheme to object to it's details, and
yet too mean TO acknowledge the SANDER.
GUS nature of their former attacks upon its
authors. Then they sought TO appropriate
the credit to the Executive, by claiming
every one of the propositions in detail
as the exclusive property of the President.
A little later, when the President Tepudia.
ted the whole matter by his brevet veto. the
whole pack, with the facility of ungov-
erned principle, opened in full cry against
the Constitutional Amendment denouncing
Congress with ten-fold bitterness, as more
sanguinary and revolutionary and Jacobini-
Cal than ever.


1t is well to remember that the President
did, time and again, advocate every prop
position involved in the Constitutional
Amendment. That measure simply puts
in permanent, irreVerslble form what he
has repeatedly proclaimed as proper to be
done. 1t can scarcely need this addition
al proof to show his utter insincerity.


Let us repeat, once more, the propositions
contained in this proposed Constitutional
Amendment; thoy should be kept con-
stantly fresh in the minds of the people.
Every citizen of the Commonwealth, before
he deposits his vote in their favor, should
assure himself that their Intention is not
to punish, not to take vengeance. not to ex-
cite or perpetuate hatred or malevolence
towards the late rebels. bat to take such
fair and humane precautions for the future
peace and prosperity of this Nation as we
may deem fit; that these terms are not
terms OF conquest, nor sigus of humiliation,
but simple. and just irreversible guarantees
ol security for the future. Every citizen