Year: 1867

~


Opposes Reputation of the National


De5t--Defeads Negro Suffrage, and


the Northern Radica5s-Denouace8


Ae Doctrine Of Secession, and Urges


he South to Accept the Terms of


Congress.


We find in the Memphis Post of
June 29th, a report of a speech deliv-
cred on the 28th, in that city, by Gen.
J.L. Alcorn, of Mississippi, who, the
Post says, was ga prominent Southern
politician, and one of the gentlemen
selected by the Mississippi Legislature,
in 1866, to represent that State in the
United States Senate"


1t is evident from his speech, that
Gen. A. is a man of ability and of
sound, practical views. Having fought
against the Government; and been
fairly conquered, he believes in SUBJ
mitting gracefully to the best terms he
can obtain from the conqueror, and
does not regard the terms offered by
Congress as oppressive or unjust. Like
Gen. Longstreet, whose letter we pub
lish in another column, Gen. Alcorn
evidently understands the situation of
the South, and what her future welfare
and prosperity require. He repudiates
the idea of hanging on to the North
ern Democracy, who deserted them in
the war, after encouraging them to
rebellion, by promising that the war
should be made sin the North"


We make few extracts from his
speech, and commend them to the at
tentive perusal of our readers:


PRESIDENT JOHNsON's POLICY.


He then went on to refer to the
course of President Johnson, in attempt
ing to reconstruct the South, without
the consent of Congress. The South
ern people had done what the Presf-
dent required them to do, believing it
to be the will of the Northern people.
He led their representatives to the
doors of the Capitol, and said to Con-
gress: ait is for you to let them in"
He had assumed q very great respOns-
ibility, for Congress was the laW-mak-
ing power, and it was for them to say
what action was to be taken. When
the President sat the Southern Repre-
sentatives down on the steps, then the
departmental war began. Congress
refused to admit the South, because
they feared they would ally themselves
with the Democratic party, repudiate
the public debt, and plunge the coun-
try into state no better than that from
which it had just emerged. Some
Southern men had given strength to
this idea, by saying, when skillfully
worked upon by Radicals, that they
would consider it a disgrace if they
voted a single dollar toward the in
terest on the public debt, or towards
the paying of pensions to Federal sol
diers or their widows. Radicalism
took alarm from their fears of these
things, and required guarantees that
the public debt should not be disturbed.


He adverted briefly to the subject Of
pensions, and cOntended that it was
but right and just that the disabled
soldiers or the widows and orphans of
those who fell, should be provided for.
The Southern people should be just in
this matter. If they had established
the Confederate Government, who
would say that their brave soldiers
should not have been provided for by
the government they had established? :?
And is it not just that those who sus-
tanned the Federal Government, and
conquered in the war, should be pro-
vided for by the Government?


Another objection urged by the ma
iority in Congress against admitting
the Southern Representatives on Pres
ident JOhnsOn's plan was that they
would come in with a greater share Of
representation than they had before
the war. Instead of three-ffths of the
blacks, they would count all of them
as basis of representation, and while
not allowing this class any representa-
ton for themselves, and not recOgniz-
ing them in any apportiOnment, the
South would be politically stronger
than when they went away. Any fair
minded man would agree that there
was no logic in the position the South
assumed on this question. The Dem
Ocrats told them to stand firm on the
subject, and they did but what was
the result? He asked, did the Demo-
Gratis show more friendship for the
South than the Republicans ? He
thought they did not. The South was
simply a game for which the two par
ties were struggling.


Mr.. Stevens, Radical as he was, in
trOduced a resolution that the COnsti-
tutional Amendment should be con-
sidered finality, and that the South
ern members should be admitted if
they were adopted. Had the South
accepted them they would have had
the question of negro suffrage in their
OWu ldIllSs liz DGluUCIdlo NOlCu
against it because they were afraid
that under it the South would come in
and the Republican party become the
friends Of the Southern people. Mr..
Stevens voted for the admission of
Tennessee, which at that time had not
adopted negro suffrage.


He adverted again to the injury
President johnson had done the South
when he attempted to organize the
States without consultation with Con-
gress. By this all the evils now af-
ficting the South were caused. They
were caught in the quarrel between the
President and Congress. Now, the
President is shorn of his strength. He
is received with great eclat in the
Eastern cities, but it is because the
people no longer fear him they know
that he is incapable of working out his
purposes. The Democratic party also
has lost its pot0er. It must taU before
its yOI9lg and more dctire opponent. 1t
may be galvanized occasionally into a