Year: 1866

Dilemmas of the South


From the close of the war the south has been in
state OF dilemma. Within that period every graS
political step taken by southern State has been til
result, IN greater or less degree, of duress If
was not the compuson of force, it was the compu


sion of menace and of imminent though indeGuit
peril. Having passed through the ordeal of scrfe


of diemmas, at pace visbly accelerated by the ssl


OF martial law, in the first stage of State re6rEat


sation and of national reconstruction in accordant,


with the views and the requirements of the executis


department. congress took up the work and the cxcl


ded States have been since in the torncnts OIL


new problem cruelty complicated and uncertain Tn


government divided The legislative and the execsl


tive departments have been struggling for ascending


in the matter of restoration. The South has betI


meantime very much in the position of a slave who i


claimed by two masters and who is required to obt,


both. 1t is true, to continue the analogy that tat


heart, for which it is needless to repeat h5
/ yeafned towards one claimant aud revolted aganF


the Others ard yet it has felt the chill and the gloom


of increasing shadow of doubt as to ultimate q;


cape from the dominion of the latter The prepon


derance of political signs in the north is in favor Of
congressional aScendency 1t would seem probable


that the results OF the late and of the coming cee


tons will have the effect of making the next congress


more radical in composition than the present. IF So,
and supposing it to be settled that congressional poi
icy in future to prevail, the excluded States woull
still be in the throes OF dilemma, and one more
painful from being more indefinite and mpractcable
than any before experienced. So desponaent are
some of the conservative journalists in both NORTH
and south at the political prospect that they are dis
posed to consider this dilemma as already present,
and to discuss its various alternatives possibilities
and contingencies as matters demanding nmcdiatt
attention.


With regard to congressional policy to all the de.
tails of which it is unprecedented that .hc excluded
States will have at last to conform the first difficulty
is to know what it is We have so often in these col
+,St FL,


sttutional amendment a plan of restoration that
we may be pardoned for emitting go over the same
ground in order to show the uncertainty of the att
tude of that body to this to any other precisely
specified plan, 1t is certain however that congress
on its records Is not in any form specifically pledged
to the admission Of Southern members on the fati,
fcation by their States of the constitutional ahcnd
ment. 1t is certain, moreover that some Of le rost
influential leaprs of its radical majority utterly REL
fuse to recognise the amendment as the congressional
plan Of restoration 1t is also that many of the
republican members elected who will doubtless vet
be elected to seats in the congress- have openly
repudated such plan that OF congress or of the
republican party Nevertheless the central committee
OF the pary3 in IN address signed by Horace Greeley
along With 6tfer3 declared the amendment to contain
the reconstruction policy of congress- by prompt
compliance with the conditions of which, the address
stated the excluded States could be restored +


Yet the voice Of Phillips Butler Boutwell,, Forncy,
even Beecher, to judge from his late campaign speeches
in and out of the pulpit, and many other radical and
not the less leading republicans against the commit
tai Of congress or the party to any plan that does not
leave the door open to the imposition Of further
dtons on the excluded States precedent to the ad..
mission of their representatives. Some of these insist
on general dislranGhisemenh others hint at general
conhscation, as gentle pfeiminaries TO smooth tie
path of the south blssful restoration and all OF
them point to negro suffrage part of full and final
programme of reconstruction. But however repub-
II,
crate, may differ to what should constitute inatv
o the reconstruction question, they all agree that the
adoption of the constitutional amendment must be one
If its indispensable antecedentS They all unite in
threatening punishment in predicting dire disasters
o the States which may refuse obstnatey to ratfy
he amendment. Even senator Sherman, of Ohio,
who has had the reputation of being one Of the most
Moderate OF republican senator's has declared that in
ase Of such refusal he would then call on the bittcrest
adca to state the sevcres conditions which have vet
conceived aud he would impose them as the best
erms to be meted to those who had rejected the mild
OF the amendment Hence it would appear
hat the of the excluded States in respect to con
5ress and the republican party is about this; They
re not permitted to know what precise terms of re-
toraton may yet remain outside of the amendment
hey are only required to ratify that as speedily as
ossble, with the amiabe admonition that they will lie
ahmed ii they don't; but it is not added chat they
ill be saved if ther do.





mot of the reconstruction difficulties which seem
onstantly thickening, is that of the spontaneous Il
oncessiOn OF negro suffrage which about year
90 broached by NJ. Reagan, Of Texas ex-Confederate
ostmaster general, then held in a federal military !
rison, and which he again urges, it appears in let
,r recently published Galveston 1t is worth re- q
arking that almost simultaneously with the publica
of this letter, Gov. Orr of South Carolina who i
understood to coincide with NJ Reagans views cf -
e policy in respect to negro suffrage when first an +
ounced declared his opposition to the constitutional q
neDdment. If Gov. Orr still agrees with NJ Reagan ~
this subject it be supposed that both may con
der that the cheapest and speediest way oil getting
of radical persecution is for the excluded States to
Ike "near cut to what seems to be the final pur J.,
,se of radical policy, and thus weaken the preceding
rts by dehriving thent of the chief motive The il
pertinent would be full Of peril. Perhaps nothing i
ort of desperation could justify it. Yet it would be b
ing what the malignant portion Of the radicals do N
It want the south to DO spontaneously. They are e
mt or negro suffrage in the south last but they i
sh to organise it to suit radical purposes-feariug
1T the States if spontaneously adopting it, would
ganise it to suit their own interests. til