Year: 1866

terly silent and blank is the federal con-
stitution touching the treatment of in
surgent States, whether during their
fragrant hostility TO the Union or after
their discontinue. Consider with how
many embarTassments and difficulties
the problem is beset, and you will not
wonder that months were required to
devise, perfect, and pass, by two thirds
vote in either house, just and safe
plan of reconstruction.


Yet that plan has been matured 1t
the House by l38 to &c. 1t is now
fairly before the country, having already
been ratified by the legislatures Of
the several States and rejected by none,
Under it the State of Tennessee has been
formally restored to all the privileges
she forfeited by rebellion, including rep
resentatiOn in either house of Congress.
And the door thus passed through stands
invitingly open to all who still linger
without.


Are the conditions thus prescribed
intolerable, or even humiliating ? They
are in substance these:


l. All persons born or naturalized in
this country are henceforth citizens of
the United States, aud shall enjoy all
the rights of citizens evermore; and no
State shall have power to contravene
this most righteous and necessary pro-
vision.


IL. While the States claim and exer-
else the right of denying the elective
franchise to a portion of their people,
the weight of each State in the Union
shall be measured by and based upon it's
enfranchised population. If any State
shall choose, for no crime, to deny politi-
cal rights to any race or caste, it must
no longer count that race or caste as a
basis of political power in the Union.


III. He who has once held office on
the strength of his solemn oath to sup
port the federal constitution, and has
nevertheless foreswOrn himself, and treas
onably plotted to subvert that constitu-
tion, shall henceforth hold no political
office, till Congress, by two-thirds
vote, removes the disability.


". The national debt shall be nowise
repudiated nor invalidated and no debt
incurred in support of the rebellion shall
ever be assumed or paid by any State;
nor shall payment be made for the loss
or emancipation OF any slave.


V. Congress shall have power to en-
force these guarantees by appropriate
legislation.


Such, fellow citizens, are the conditions
of reconstruction proposed by Congress,
and already accepted by the loyal Legis-
Of Arga h0 rel fp
degrading Do you discern therein dis
position to trample on the PROSTATE or
push an advantage to the uttermOst
Do they embody aught of vengeance, or
any cOnfiscation but that of slavery
We solicit your candid, impartial judg-
ment.


What is intended by the third section
is simply to give loyalty fair start in
the reconstructed States Under the
Johnson policy, the rebels monopolize
power and place even in communities
where they are decidedly outnumbered
Their generals are governors and mem
bers elect Of Congress their colonies
and majors FIJI the legislatures and off.
ciate as sherffs. Not only are the stead
fastly loyal prescribed, but even stay-at-
home rebels have little chance in com.
petition with those who fought to
subvert the Union. When this rebel
monopoly of office shall have been bro
ken up and loyalty to the Union shall
have become general and hearty, Con.
gress may remove the disability, and will
doubtless make haste to do so.


We do not perceive that the justice OF
fitness of the fourth section-prescribing
that the Union debt shall be promptly
met but that of the rebel cOnfederaCy
never-is seriously contested.


There remains, then, but the second
section which prescribes in substance
that political power in the Union shall
henceforth be based only on that portion
| of the people of each State who are
deemed by its Constitution fit deposito
ries of such power. In other words:
State which chooses to hold part of its
| population in ignorance and vasalagut
-powerless, uneducated, unfranchised-
| shall not count that portion to balance
the educated, intelligent unfranchiseC
citizens of other States. We do no
propose to argue the justice of this pro
vision. AS well argue the shape of s
cube or the correctness ofthe Multiplics
tion Table. He who does not feel tina
this is simply and mildly just would ne
be persuaded though one rose from tn,
dead to convince him. That there ar,
those among us who would not have i
ratified sadly demonstrates that the goo(
work of Emancipation is not yet com
plete.


"But," say some, " this section is de
signed to cocree the South into accordin!
suffrage to her blacks" Not so, we re
ply; but only to notify her ruling es
tate that we will no longer bribe then
to keep their blacks in serfdom. An al
istocracy rarely surrenders its privil
eges, no matter how oppressive, from alb
stract devotion to justice and right. |
must have cogent, palpable reason
for so doing. We say, therefore to Soutl
Carolina, If you persistently restric
all power to your 100000 whites, we mus
insist that these no longer balance, il


Congress and the choice of the President
100000 Northern white freemen, bu
only 100000. If you keep your black
ever more in serfdom, it must not be bt
cause we tempted you so to do and II
| uardod Won for On doipu