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rTiiRER, Edltoiarid JPi-dprletor.
V5n iiiTTCIIIWSO, Publisher.
I WOULD RATHER BE RIGHT THAN PRESIDENT. Hkhbt Ciay.
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IS2.00LVADYASCB.
OLUME 7.
I 1
prlbed JLegislato
,r ITJf . B. CO&WAT.
r
if
.,.irLr,pd and defiled the human heart.
) leanest meanness, and the vilest vile,
est baseness, and the deepest guile,
t'.fer tinged the conscious cheek with
sme'. , A
ored character, ur uuiueu uiuc,
jimes of crimes is clearly that which
I., .r i, from violated trcst 1
Lib trusts are various, (as ah agree,)
extent impuu,
'till iho principle invoked in each,
rt not wnat uisaones j
ivekt fairly, delegated trust
. . ntnallv behfcveu,
uch imparted, and " sucn ki.,
pit? of all the arguments mai
scruples from the conscience of a knave,
ever deep in subtle tactics skilled,)
ID BK IJf TBCTH AND HOUJCSTT F CITILMD I
a ; the doctrine Equity proclaims,
lined by learned and venerated names,
this the doctrine to wnicn iruiu uas
broad, approving seal of righteous Hea-
J'thiJ sacred principle and then,
justice dwell amang me eoas ci men i
beace and order nere consent to aweiix
w,l no' Earth itself become a nell I
"iL'the tru3ts which can to men be giv'n,
i to include the Ministry of Heaven,)
, trusts are clearly greatest which relate
can considered in his social state ;
it public tecsts, which always mast em
brace or woe, of thousands of hi3 race
;e trusts are truly sacred, and as such,
uptions Tile, contaminating touch
. dnnt wit ri Atit cnfOoHIn rr til
noi pervert iucw, ' w MC
nd the basest purpose oi cis win :
ils&h3'. which in their scope muBt
urge
r dire ejects to the remotest verge
:t lociety through which they spread,
bitter waters from a fountain head.
Legislator who receives a bribe.
i-.'-or indirect though all the tribe
jistic euibblers ehould unite
( deepest skill "to prove that black is
white"
legislator violates hi3 trusi,
a-'st'eedv and ceases to be lust !
3 trie, ho man Can deem it very strange
a mere opiniont undergo a change :
irien opinions plainly manifest
."acts and PKisciPLEs on which they rest,
rscsTs are th-s confided clearly, then
ons test the honestt uf men!
: true, the bribed apostate may proclaim
;t of facts to palliate his shame,
i. well prepared, to meet his wrenched
case, -- - - -
mitigate he horrors of disgrace.
he mar provt-Hr try, in vain, to prove,
scruples rose, reluctantly, to move
truest mina wnicn naa r-aiasi 10 strive
nst the fact that two and two maXe five!
! to ''conclusions" he was "forced" to come,
iarkly wrote his artful letters home ;
ore his conscience :s not mad of flint,
:ods a slv oreliminarv hint:
.:v.t3 his "doubts," which finally prevail,
n he halts, in "matters of detail:"
:tjrecates the spirit of the times,
!peak?7 "party" as be should of crimes;
modifies his motions, day by day,
jr a total change he paves the way ;
itous still to justify his views,
Etill dfftnds himself, thoiigh none accuse ;
when he hears the bitine-. taualinc iibes.
)nt(ti'e recipient of bribes
rts and plunges deeper in the toils,
proudly bears his infamy and spoils
Jre h'ch hearen h nlva hi frftntlf."
V i r J
pranks,
rs corruption.' and supports the Banks ! j
for "democracfr" he rants and raves.
'.of hypocrites ! and worst of knaves
Us to his onstitntntt !" ah why?
iwconSrm his damning infamy!
'bat base man detestable appears,
-ornthe orphans' cries and widows' tears
impression from whose callous heart
7i of pity, or remorse, can start;
'burly cheats the mute, confiding dead,
or:ves the orphans forth to beg their
bread,
tow and tn wretchedness to roam.
f .e'ibyTBArD from happiness and home 1
;raud like this mu3t ever be desnLsed.
peater frauds though artfully disguised,
ij9 detested? Ies3 abhorred ? because
rorld mavViA j:
that base man the guiltiest of men,
1 flres some cottatre in i v
fe not baser, Equity exclaims,
...- - ui, m devouring flames ?
if jiTCBMAs-who bis guilt can tell.
'tv?rv if,Le?i6idt0r:--If h would
.,v !J l,,'.nd couutervailing good,
egbelow,
OBst wAM "umaQ weal and woe,
"si proclaim fho '
se act IVS1,' mo?t cursed,
on ?,., .i.' uirecte(l oy ns will,
bribed . the Ereatt weight of: ill ;
H aPstate, who on States would
5X.cuK-3e9'Mi,a-tbe.foms f iawi
rech ?hl? yiUlDJ Sparta
baVr lh0USftnd times tea thousand
th-tiot this ! in weighing public crimes,
Mri-JUr,e otber men in other times!
W t lhi9 'with jealousy and fear.
t . nuiuuir do err :
3 , ourrow, slavery, ana scorn,
3 freemen's children's children yet nnl
-bw p tr-fle3-ut"fl light as air,"
'Dlng Bank D rector. '
,t Vur,flS why did F"dom'8 on,
?ood.' Godhke Washington,
- me 10 vigilance and toil.
Whose high, and bright, and hallow-
flight find a shelter and a home
fVc 1 , . v.v a UUIU!
;t u ?, -Tcly v.utae m!eht aPP,
fyhere
cir nauve be&ron'a nn.i j
m uui,ivuuru
eace and Order
might protection
LrQth and .Tn.ti t:v J
u dreams, or trifle if :n
did Warren bleed on RnnVYrin ?
KribV' th Mtirtrftt w don't de-
Nor e'en the Editof who takes a bribe j
The difference only is, in this brief viewy
The evil each within his sphere may do.
The principle's the same, 'tis understood,' ; t
From libel-suits to gallant Cilley's blood :
Pure blood ! by bribes and base corruption
spilt.
Whilst bribing Bankers flaunt in pride and
guilt !
In pride and guilt whilst lo ! the widows
tear !
And hark ! the orphans' waitings strike the
ear I
Ah I who but God can estimate their pain ?
They cry to Heaven nor will they cry in,
vain ! . ;
.The man who takes a bribe would strip the
dead,
Or rob the orphan of his crust of bread
So lost to justice, equity and right,
This man would steal the aged widow's mite;
Is well prepared for every kind of fraud ;
Would sell his country, or betray his God ;
Pillage the palace of the King of Kings,
Or strip the gilding from an angel's wings)
On sad events, now passing, do reflect:
Freemen ! be firm, and stern, and circum
spect !
Let none be trusted who for office pacta
To pamper vulgar, artificial wants.
Let every idle, vain, and Vicious drone
Live, if he can but trcst not such an one.
Remember what Time's faithful record saith,
That Carthage fell and fell by "Punic
faith I"
The man who is unfaithful to a trust,
Rti'wever small, is vitally unjust ;
And he who is unjust in little things
Would be a villain in the courts of kings.
Present a bribe and down his virtue falls,
In courts, or camps, or legislative halls 1
The bribed apostate ! blot his hateful name
From each and every scroll of honest fame.
Let no man trust him, none forbear to shed
Contempt and deep dishonor on his head.
Let Scorn still point her finger and her jibes,
And say Behold the conseyuer.ee of bribes !
Let guileless children, as he passes by,
Shrink from his touch, and shudder at his eye.
Let lovely women loath him with disgust,
And shun him like the reptile in the dust.
And whilst he lives, let Infamy alone
Claim the bf ibed legislator as her own ;
Until he dies and sinks into the grave,
To poison worms that feed upon the knave.
There 'midst the storms let hideous Furies
foul
Hold nightly revels and in concert howl ;
Let hissing serpents make that spot their
home,
And be the watchful guardians of his tomb ;
And when he goes to hell, let devils stare,
And ask him who the devil sent him there 1
And feel the insult, deep, severe, and keen,
To see a fiend pre-eminently mean,
'Midst better devils rudely ushered in
A foul, appalling prodigy of sin 1
nd in helTs fiercest hottest "-furnace cram
med, Let him be damned superlatively damned t
And why not damned for such transcendent
crimes ?
Tea damned eternal!y ten thousand iimesi
Ebensburg, Pa., March 28, 1833.
"Why Letters Fail of their Desti
nation. The Albany Journal has an
interesting article on tho subject of "mis
sing letter," which we subjoin. It should
be premised rhat the- editor speaks
from knowledge derived from his official
position in the post office of that city:
"Whenever letters are missed, the fault
is charged upon the post office j but in
niue cases out of ten it lies with the par
ties sending the letters.
"A short time since a Government
officer in this city was notified that two
letters had been sent to him, one contain
ing a check for eighty thousand dollars.
He was, ot course, in great tribulation
when the letter failed to come to hand,
and supposed the delinquency to bo in
the post office. But the letters had been
directed to the city of New York, instead
of Albany, and were discovered in the
advertised list, and secured, all right-
"A day or two since a gentleman in
Syracuse notified Mr. ltoessle, of the
Delevan House, that he had forwarded
him $3,500 to take up a note.' But no
such letter came to hand. Search was
instituted and iuquiries made, but the
letter could not be found. It was' finally
discovered in the office at Syracuse, held
for postage. : ' -
"One of our citizens put a thousand
dollar draft in a letter directed to Buffalo
a few days ago. It did not reach its
destination, and the post office was duly
anathematized; when lo! the letter turned
up among those held for postage.
"A twenty thousand dollar check was,
the writer supposed, sent to Illinois, but
it did not reach ita destination. In due
time it was returned to him from the
dead letter office. It had been directed
to Michigan instead of Illinois.'
'Three members of a family in this city
own 6tock in a Western bank. One of
them received the regular dividend, but
the others did not. After a while it was
found that the two missing letters had been
directed to New York instead of Albany.
"Instances like these are occurring ev
ery day. The Post Office Department is,
of course, held' responsible censured
when the letters axo missed, but not re
lieved from the censure when the delin
quencies are found to belong to the par
ties themselves.
"The chief causes of mi3sing letters are,
first, misdirection, and secondly, neglect
to stamp them properly. Of tho latter
there have been deposited at the office in
this city, since the 1st of January, even
hundred and seventy-four-- Except in
cases where the writers are known (by
having their card upon the envelope,)
these are Bent to the dead-letter office.
"It should be known that a revenue
stamp is not recognized on a letter ; and
a great many letters - are deposited; with,
such stamps upon- them.- These- are all
sent to the dead-letter cfEce"
EBENSBURG, PA., THURSDAY, MAY
Reconstruction.
SPEECH OF HON. GLENNI W. SCOFIELD,
OF PENNSYLVANIA, IN THE HOUSE
' . OF REPRESENTATIVES, WASH
INGTON, APRIL 28th, 1866. .
The riouse, as in Committee of the Whole
on the State of the Union, having nnder con
sideration the President's annual message
Mr. SCOFIELD said:
Mr: Speaker: What is the whole
amount of disloyal population in the
southern States? I do not include in
this inquiry persons who have been stig
matized as "sympathizers" or "copper
heads," much less than any other portion
of the Democratio party, but only those
who sougM to divide the country into two
republics and who now regret the . failure
of their enterprise. The whole amount
of white population in the eleven confed
erate States is 5,097,524. Deducting
from this amount the estimated number
of loyal people in those States, and adding
the disloyal scattered through the other
five slave States, will give the answer to
my question. Making this deduction and
addition from the most reliable data with
in my reach, I conclude that the disloyal
population in the whole South will not
exceed, if indeed it will equal, five million
in all.
If the eleven confederate States were
readmitted now (the Constitution and
laws remaining unamended) what amount
of representation in Congress and the
lilectoral College would this five million
be entitled to claim r They would cer
tainly have these eleven States. There
could hardly be a doubt about Kentuekv.
For if the loyal men of that State, sus
tained by the power of the Federal Army
and the persuasion of Federal patronage,
with the young disunionists absent in the
South and the old ones disfranchised at
home, could scarcely hold their own,
what could we exoect them to do when
these young men have returned, the dis
franchising laws have been swept away,
the Army removed or palsied by orders,
and Federal patronage at least uncertain ?
This would give them twenty-four Sena
tors. There are tour more States that
belonged to the elaveholding class, Dela
ware, Maryland, West Virginia, and Mis
souri. Is it any stretch of probabilities
to suppose that two more Senators will be
picked up somewhere in these four States
by the confederate element ? I fear there
will be more. This will give them twenty-six
Senators;
In the House of Representatives this
population will have as large, if not larger,
proportionate representation. By the ap
portionment of 1861, fifty-eight Represen
tatives were assigned to the eleven con
federate States.- These States will be so
districted by the hostile sentiment of their
several Legislatures that not one true
Union man can be elected. To the other
five slaveholding States twenty-six were
as?igned by the act of 1861. If any one
will take the trouble to look over these dis
tricts, I think he will come to the conclu
sion that even if the laws disfranchising
rebels in Maryland, West Virginia, and
Missouri remain in force, not less than
half of these will be controlled by the in
fluence and votes of the late secessionists.
This gives them seventy-one Representa
tives in the House. But even tnis large
number must soon be increased. The
two-fifth3 of the four million freedmen
which were not counted in the represen
tative basis of the last census must be
counted in the census of 1870, ond (other
things remaining the same) add to that
number thirteen members more ; so that
the five million disloyal population, as
soon as their full power can be felt thro'
the elections, will have at least twenty-six
Senators and eighty-four Representatives
and one hundred and ten votes in the
Electoral College. This is a low calcula
tion. When we consider the earnestness,
or rather I should pay the fierceness of
these people, the ability, ambition- and
courage of their leaders, we may well ap
prehend that the number will be even
greater. But this number is their own
legitimate and certain under the laws as
they 6tand. Supposing the entire popu
lation of the United States to be thirty
five million now, this five million will be
just one-seventh of the whole, but will
have more than one-third the representa
tion in Doth. Houses of Congress, and
more than one-third of the Electoral Col
lege. The same amount of loyal popula
tion at the North is represented by only
about half that number. If by tactions
or party divipion among the loyalists of
the country, they would contrive to secure
one-sixth more of the representation, they
would have a majority of the whole, and
be able to control Federal legislation,
elect the President, and distribute his pat
ronage.
When these States 'are admitted and
these people come to have the unabridged
control of this twofold representation, how
will they desire to use it ? I do not in
quire how they possibly may use it," nor
even now bow they expect or intend to use
ie, but how,' if unrestrained by a united
North, it would be their interest and de
sire to use it.: For the perpetuation of
the Union? I fear not.: They have
come back to the Union, wa should re
member, only by coercion. To them it is
a forced bridaL They submit tc it, bat
they do notj because they eannot; embrace
it in their hearts. The soldiers maimed,
wives widowed, and children orphaned in
their bad cause, appeal to their leaders
for the promised support, but the Union
has no pensions for them. The fortunes
invested in confederate faith see no hopo
of realization in the Union. Hatred of
the north and its anti-slavery majorities,
the original motive for secession, is ten
times stronger now than in 1861, and is
backed up by 84,000,000,000 of debt,
damages, and pensions, which, as they in
sist, could, in a separate government, be
levied by an export duty upon the cotton
consuming world. The life-habits of
these people, their love of ease and dom
ination, their pride, aristocracy, wealth,
and power, were all the outgrowth of an
institution which might possibly be re
vived in a separate republic, but which is
forever gone in the Union. "Confedera
cy" is a word that must be long enshrined
in their Hearts by the tender memories of
their fallen kindred, but it must live, as
they well know, in the history, traditions,
and ballads of the Union, associated with
perjury, dishonorable crime, and cruel
war.- If they should profess to love the
Union we could not believe them. It is
so uunatural that it would be easier to
believe they were hypocrites than that
they wero monsters.
But they are neither hypocrites nor
monsters. They do not love the Union,
and do not pretend to. It is untruthful
men of our own section that prevaricate for
them. The same class of men that mis
represented the feelings of the North be
fore the war, and thus deceived the South
and goaded them into rebellion, now mis
represent the feelings of the South to de
ceive the North and lure it into irretriev
able surrender. Before the war they de
ceived the south and betrayed the north; but
now it is reversed, they deceive the North
and betray the loyal South. The same
perfidious breath that carried South the
untruthful story of northern hate, and
thus prompted the war, comes back now
with another story, equally ontruthful, of
southern love. They tell us that the dis
loyal South is a gentle bride, impatient
for the nuptials, when they know that she
submits to them with loathing. Have
they not laid down their arms ? is the ar
gumentative inquiry. No, sir; their
arms were taken from them. Have they
not submitted ? No, sir ; they were de
feated in battle. There is nothing in
their past conduct nor present attitude
that justifies the use of the word submis
sion. Prisoners of war have been taken,
but they wero released on parole j rebel
armies have been dispersed, but they havs
been reorganized as State militia; rebel
Stafe governments have been overthrown,
but- again revived and restored to the
old possessors j and forfeitures of life and
estates have been remitted, bat that isalK
Call this clemency, privilege, triumph,
victory, what you please, but do not call
it submission, with which it has not one
shade of meaning in common. We do not
need to call witnesses to prove that these
people are hostile to the Union and its
interests. The history of the human
race proves it. Whoever attempts to
prove the contrary must first show that
they ate unlike any other people whose
passions, struggles, and defeats are record
ed in the annals of the world.
But witnesses have, been called Union
generals and rebei generals, Union and
rebel citizens, without distinction of party,
condition, race, or color and all support
under oath the great historic truth, that a
purpose imbibed in infanoy, cherished
and stimulated by the rostrum, press' and
pulpit for a lifetime; upheld by large for
tunes, wrung from the toil of slaves, and
sanctified by the blood of sons and kin
dred, has not been and cannot be surren
dered to military orders. Such a purpose
surrenders only to time. I do not pre
sent this great truth now by way of re
proof or condemnation of these misguided
people, but only by way of caution and
warning to ourselves. I come to the con
clusion, therefore, that they do not desire
the perpetuation of the Union. If we
would remove all restraints and give them
freedom of choice, they would revive the
confederacy at once. They would take
advantage of a war with Great Britain or
France to secure their independence, and
they would take advantage of their doub
le representation here to promote puch a
war. If no opportunity of escape should
soon offer, would they not still live in
hopes of it and in -persistent hostility to
the country's obligations to the soldiers,
widows, orphans, and creditors of our war,
and friendly to the assumption of similar
obligations created by themselves in the
interest of the rebellion? Even m ad
vance of their own coming a portion of
their vast claims have reached' your files.
When my colleague (Mr. Randall) from
the Democratic side proposed that the na
tional faith pledged in war, should not be
broken in peace, there was one voice from
Kentucky against it only one by count,
but considering the quarter from which
it came, . multitudinous in omen. A bill
has also been introduced by a gentlemen,
sometimes called the Democratic leader in
this House, to repudiate in part the pub
lie debt under pretense of taxing it, in
violation of the laws by which it was cre
ated. These cannot be regarded as the
oddities of one or two men, but rather as
impulsive confessions of imprudent scouts,
too far in advance of the following army.
17, 1866.
The purpose will not.be generally disclos-
cva uutu tuo iorces are arranged tor its
execution.
I am speakinz now onlv of thn A
that will beset the Republic by the allow
ance of a representation unfriendly to its
prosperity and even its existence in such
uisproporuonate numbers. But we should
not forget that this act is also a rornrm;.
tion as republican in form of constitutions
we nave never seen (except that of Ten
nessee), and all, except those of Lincoln
origin, under rebel supremacy. The
white Unionists who have been looking
through five dreary years of persecution",
lynching, and confiscation to this as their
hour of deliverance, will find themselves
betrayed into the hands of their old,
unhumbled, unrelenting tormentors. It
also consigns the freedmen to the tyranny
of old masters, not .now as heretofore
bribed to humanity by a moneyed interest
in the preservation of their chattel estates.
Twenty-five per cent., says an honorable
gentleman who presents his hank offen
sively to the North as he makes his low
ooesianco south, twenty-nve per cent,
have already nerished. The wish nn
doubt was father to the thought with the
masters in whose interest the declaration
is made.
xhese, then, are my premises. I will
repeat them :
1. There are only about five million
disloyal population in the countrv. .
2. This population when fully restored
x - . r tt . .. . . ...
to me union, the Constitution and laws
remaining unamended, will hold more
than one-third of its rem-esentative nower
and the supreme control of at least thir-
x Oi.i
teen orates.
3: They will be interested to use that
power for the division of the Union; and,
failing in that, for the repudiation of its
military and financial obligations.
JNow, what is to be done? If these
States are denied representation, it vio
lates the fundamental principle of renub
lican government. If allowed a double
and hostile .representation, the Union
itself must be destroyed or preserved at
the expense of another war.
Three remedies are praposed :
1. Disfranchise pome portion of the
rebels. .
"JL. Allow all the rebels to vote, but
neutralize their disunion sentiments by
enfranchising the blacks in these States.
3. Equalize representation by taking as
its basis either the number of voters or
the population, minus tho disfranchised
classes; so that these States shall have no
more representation in proportion to their
represented people than the old free States
have.
Either proposition would require an
amendment to the Constitution, to Jjo
accepted by the rebel States as a condition-precedent
to their restoration. It is
also proposed to couple with either prop
osition a second amendment, prohibiting
the assumption of rebel debts and claims
either by States or the United States.
The third proposition has commended
itself . to much the . largest number of
Union members, and the amendments to
that effect have already passed this House
by more than a two-thirds vote. This,
then, so far as this House is concerned, is
the congressional plan of reconstruction.
All we ask of the rebel leaders who are
wrongly charging us with having no pol
icy at afl, but designing to exclude them
1 . ...
ior an maeiiuite period, is a little time to
put in form of fundamental law these
pledges of future peaoe. For five years
they have been out upon plague-infected
seas. Can they not tarry at quarantine
for a single session ?
Stripped of all disguises, herein lies
the main disagreement. Shall these States
be recognized at once in their present
temper, without guarantees of any kind
and with a twofold representation? It
is not whether they shall be represented
at all ; to that we all agree. There may
be a little question of time; a difference
ot a few weeks or a few months, and that
is all. Shalt they be represented twice
over, once in their own names and once
in tho name of the negroes ? Shall they
come in upon a representative basis that
clothes a white man of the South with
almost as much again political power as a
Northern man controls ? That gives two
white voters in South Carolina as much
voice in the selection of a President and in
the legislation of this House as five voters
in Pennsylvania possess? That practi
cally gives to one-seventh of your popula
tion, disloyal at that, more than one-third
of your power ? That, sir, is the great
question before this House and the Amer
ican public. It is an effort on the part
of the Opposition to carry into the poli
tics of the country the old problem by
which sixteen is made the majority of
forty-nine. In England it is called the
system of "rotten boroughs." It has long
been the subject of political strife between
the free and slave-labor counties of Mary
land, Virginia and Tennessee. And when
it is everywhere else abandoned as a per
nicious and anti-republican theory of
representation, we are asked to make it
the basis of reconstruction in the model
Republic
The enactment of these two simple and
brief amendments, or others similar in
DUrDOse. is so absolutely noceaiarv fnr the
preservation ot the Republic and the
uiouuaigu Ui no vuilgllunB -U 113 SOlUierS
and creditors and is so just and, ?fdn
NUMBER 31.
generous . to the insurgents, that they
ought to receive the assent of every Union
man, especially 01. every northern Union
man. The Ooooaition An rM rtrn iA 1Tj
cuss their merits. While SOm flpnir ffiof
we have any plan of reconstruction nth
assail it with insidious and ' deceptive
vuji.uua. juuio ui mese j. propose to
notice here. . - :
First of all, thev comnkin of tho con
sumption of time. Five months have
passed, and not a rebel admitted, is the
vu,j,.,uiu5 accusation, xne uppoaitioii
are impatient. Th6y cannot wait. Come
in at once, say they, to the "erring breth
ren, uo not wait to drop your Bide arms
or exchange your disloyal garments.
Bills to protect the Wal
South against your pretended violence are
pending now, come and help defeat them.
We will soon have bills to enlarge pen
sions and equalize bounties to the soldiers
you have maimed and the widows you
have made ; your advice and votes will be
needed. A bill to give bounty land tn the
"boys in blue" could not be defeated nor
the "butternuts" included without you.
A bill to lift the burdens of taxation from
the industry of the country and place it
upon your foreign confederates, through
exported cotton, will need your attention.
Hurry up ycur organizations. Do not
wait to heal lips blistered with a double
oath of broken fealty before vou kiss the
Holy Evangelists with another. We have
buried our sons and are languishing to
slasp the hands of their 'murderers. Wtien
once admitted, deny that you ever tried
to break up the Government, but swear
on all occasions that the Lincoln party
were and are the traitors.
The complainants have only themselves
to blame for much of this delay. Except
for their persistent opposition the amend
ments would have been submitted months
ago to the Legislatures then in session in
the loyal States, and been assented to,' no
doubt, by the constitutional number.
Except for their own onnositinn tV.Ar-
might now be welcoming back their lon
mourned friends to seats in these Halls.
But they would consent to nothing that
did not return them greater in numbers,
and more malevolent in purpose. Hence
the delay. Illnc ilka lacrimm. ,
Next wc are told that it conflicts with
the "President's policy." What is the
President's policy ? I aver, first, that tho
President, when last authoritatively heard
from, was in favor of the principle em
bodied in each of the proposed amend
ments. Of th6 first one, because ho
required the confederate States to adopt
it ; of the second one, because he has re
peatedly declared himself in favor of
making the number of voters the basis of
representation. I aver, second, that he
does not consider the ilaliu of the States
such, that their assent to constitutional
amendments cannot be required as conditions-precedent
to their restoration, be
cause he directed Mr. Seward to inform
these States that their assent to the
amendment proposed in the last Congress
was "indispensable" to restoration ; and
because he. has not himself dealt with
them as if they were States already
in the Union. When the confederacy fell
they were In full opetation under govern
ments originally organized ia the Union.
governors, legislatures, judges, and a full
set of county and township officers were at
work under constitutions once declared to
be republican in form by tho United
States. These governments were regular
unless you assent to the doctrine of for
feiture, for they had political continuity,
what the church people call apostolic suc
cession. Yet they were destroyed by tho
President's order and new ones extempo
rized in their stead.
From that time to this, in the States,
the breath of the President has been the
law of the land. Mn Johnson went much
further in this direction than his prede
cessor. Mr. Lincoln established govern
ments only ia States where he found none
existing before, but Mr. Johnson first '
destroyed existing governments and then
supplied their places with those of hjs
own creation. So, both by words, and
actions which speak louder than words,
the President assents to every principle
involved in the congressional policy. of
resonstruction. Indeed, the two policies
could not well conflict, because they re
late to different subjects. The one cre
ates or revives State organizations; the
other renews their Federal relations.
When these organizations were complete,
and the States ready to apply to Congress
for a return to the Lfnion, tho President'
policy was ended. His work was all
done. The rest was for Congress. So he
directed his Secretary of State to inform
Governor Sharkey, July 24, 1865, Gov.
Marvin, September 12, 1865, and so he
informed us in his annual message. If he
has changed his policy since then it ia
hardly worth while to inquire what it is
now, for his principles are written in. wa
ter. ...
Conclusion next week.
m m m
KK Tlin HMirf nf T?.
vsvvi. x;ma biiues a rumor
of an attemnt to nm.-,. T, 13 ti.
attempt is not iriputed to the party of
action, but to tn0 Jesuits and reactiouary
ianauco, wno tear tbat the Pope may re
turn to a liberal
understanding with Ital'ly.
Indi afro U one means of obtaining
competence.
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HI