Year: 1867

their State Governments and the reestablish-
ment of their political relations with the Cen
eral Government. under the provisions OF the
plan prescribed by Congress in the recon-
struction Act recently passed. The Legisla-
ture of Virginia is reported to have under
consideration proposition to call Consti-
tutional Convention to place the old Mother
of Presidents inside the political ring. so that
her sons may again have an opportunity OF
fulfilling their manifest destiny of presiding
over the distribution of the public plunder
in the Executive Mansion at Washington
City. 1t is hard to keep men who were born
to rule outside of the politics of the country,
and though they would of course prefer to
rule according to their own notions of pro-
priety and the natural fitness of things, yet
rather than have no part in the noble art of
governing, they would even agree to rule ac-
cording to your ideas of right, and sacrifice
their own private predictions. Weare afraid
however, for the sons of the old Dominion
State, that it will be q long time before any
of them are again permitted to dispense the
hospitalities of the nation in the White House
for the third section of the Constitutional
Amendment will bear rather heavily upon
the present generation of the noble descend
ants of Pocahontas, and it will not be until
new generation is upon the tapis, who can
take the test oath, that :he proud old Mother
can put her sons fairly upon the track for
Presidential honors. Twas an unkind cut
at the old stagers in Southern politics when
Congress insisted upon and passed that pro-
vision in the Amendment which proscribes
from all future office e-holding-except by the
consent. on two-thirds vote, of both Houses
of Congress-all the prominent men IN the
rebellion who assisted in firing the Southern
heart and precipitating civil war, and the
depth of the wound inflicted by the cut will
not be fully felt by them until they see their
young men filling all their offices and giving
them no help in their struggle to remove
their legal disabilities for official station. 1t
is in politics as in the barn yard, where the
young birds show no mercy to the old cocks,
but take advantage of lame leg or crippled
wing to put and keep the old ones under.
Should the Constitutional disability be ever
removed from the Southern leaders, it will
not be through the action or assistance of the
rising school of Southern politicians, whose
interest will dictate to them the policy of
keeping the old school out in the cold where
they placed themselves when they committed
treason against their country. They can
hope for no help from tine coming men, who
will want for themselves all the offices which
the discarded leaders pant after. When
high-toned Virginia accepts the inevitable
and begins to come around to reason, we will
not have to wait long to see the other 'erring
sisters" following in her wake. In Georgia
the subject of reconstruction is receiving
earnest attention. We have notice of large
public meeting being held at atlanta to con-
slider the condition of the country, where
resolutions approving Sherman's bill and the
course of Gov. Brown in favoring reorgani-
cation under the Reconstruction Act, were
introduced for discussion. Though the res
olutions failed to receive the endorsement of
the majority of the meeting, yet the minority
had the spirit to divide off and hold meet
ing of their own. That the majority allowed
the minority to do so, when we recollect the
former intolerance of Southern society, is
sign that they are not very determined in
their own position. That this is so is further
indicated by their resolutions counseling
submission to the bill, accompanied with the
old flourish about Southern manhood and
honor. The truth is, Southerners have said
so much about their honor that they really
begin to believe something in it, and while
they wish to come in again and take part in
national affairs, even under the restrictions
of the Reconstruction Act, yet they want to
be the victims of little apparent compul-
sion. They think that "funneling" them will
save their honor.