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THE WEEKLY CONSTITUTIONALIST
WEDNESDAY MORNING. JUNE 26, 18G7.
TO OUB SUBOBIBEBS.
*Ta« Weekly Constitutionalist will here
after be mailed on Tuesday instead of Wednes
day morning. We make this change to accom
modate many subscribers. It is oni aim and
purpose to make the paper a first class news and
family journal, and we confidently hope that
the influence of our subscribers will be exerted
to aid us in doing so by extending its circu
lation.
THE ATTOBNEY GENEBAL’S OPINION.
* The Opinion of Attorney General Stanbkrt
on the power and limits of District Comman
ders is much more intelligible and satisfactory
than his former opinion on the duties of regis
tration—a summing up of which accompanies
the present document.
He shows very conclusively that the Military
Commanders have transcended their powers
under the most liberal construction of the Act,
and excuses them, to some extent, on the plea
of ignorance and bad training.
He recognizes two distinct conditions of gov
ernment in the South: the one military, the
other civil. Tbc civil existed at the time the
Military Bill was passed : the military author
ised by the Act; both provisional and limited
to the inauguration of a State Constitution ac
ceptable to Congress.
civil government, recognized by the Ac t
itself, is only chadded U3 td <jualifictitious ol
voters, the eligibility of persons io office, the
mode ol elections and the routine of forming
a Constitution, Congress having the sole au
thority to make further modifications or
changes and no power of the kind allowed
the District Commanders. All other power not
given to the mMitary remains with the civil
government *
Each of the ten States is subject to the “mili
tary authority of the United States,” and not
to the District Commanders, save and except
that the said Commanders are enjoined to pro
tect the rights of person and property.
The power to protect is simply the power to
defend existing rights and not the power to
create new rights; or, in other words, a police
power; the exercise of which can only be al
lowed in case of general or formidable insur
rection or violence, and then through the Stale
Courts or by Military Commissions.
The establishment of courts for the trial of
civil coses is not pci mitted by the Ajt.
No civil officer of the State can, by any ex
pressed or implied interpretation of the Act,
be removed or appointed by the Military Com
manders.
As the concluding clause of the sixth section
recognizes the officers of a provisional govern
ment, all vacancies must be supplied by the
people, and by them alone.
All such offices tilled by military appoint
ment are illegal, and the incumbents are acting
without-legal warrant or authority.
The military commanders are independent of
civil authority in cases of insurrection, and in
the trial of criminals can supersede the civil
jurisdiction, but, in a time of quiet they must
remain passive.
The power of altering, amending or abolish
ing the laws is reserved for the “ paramount
authority of the United States.” Hence, the
Military Commanders not being the “ para
mount authority,” have no coloring of justifi
cation in interfering with the established laws.
Every military commander having violated
tl« law thus construed is responsible to the
President for such infraction of duty.
The supplementary portion of the Opinion
regards the qualification of voters, and is ex
planatory of his first opinion on the duties of
Registration.
Two conditions are combined to work dis
qualification : Ist. The. holding of office re
quiring an oath to support the Constitution of
the United States. 2d. Subsequent participa
tion in “ rebellion.” Both must exist to'jiause
disqualification. For instance : All who have
participated in “ rebellion ” and yet never held
such offices as are enumerated, are clearly enti
tled to* register. Under this construction,
comparatively few are disfranchised, and the
title of the great majority to register and vote
is legally indisputable.
It must be borne in mind that this opiniou
has no binding force unless backed by the Pre
sident and by him publicly proclaimed. Mr.
Johnson has hfeard his law officer and pre
sumably intends to be guided by his construc
tion ol the Military Act. We refrain from ex
pressing any decided opiniou as to his probable
action, hoping for the best results.
His prompt execution of the law, as laid
down by the Attorney General, • may cause a
July session of Congress. If the principles of
Thad Stevens prevail in such an assembly,
we eftn Jook out for anarchy. Mr. Steybns has
addressed the following letter to the editor of
the Washington Chronicle , which is worthy of
attention in this connection:
Lancaster, Pa., June 13,1867.
I think it proper to suggest the propriety of
having a quorum in Congress on the Ist prox.
The opinions of the Attorney Qenerai seem to
require some explanatory or supplemental acts.
I need not point the errors in favor of the re
bels, as there are many of them easily seen.
Tor instance, it is provided that to entitle to be
registered requires one year’s residence in the
State. Every man can see that this means con
tinuous residence immediately before the elec
tion. The Attorney General bolds that the
“party may take nine months wbeu he was a boy
and three months uow. Andrew Jonson, by
going a month before' the election to North
Carolina, where he lived thirty years ago, could
vohs. So with regard to clerks, military and
a** l the holding of Confederate
t" reWUio °- But l wiß not l*k®
£ miitake more objec
tionahle than either is the fact of usurpation by
ofllcis’ly. The Attorney 8 binding
right to inter farethan the2°J?
construct, which pretension
tied, since it has been adjudged ***'
SfflWlKW-SS
sssß^«^viSß
pretend to acf-utfder the Constitution. milu
well decided that, admitting new States and
of coarse, rebuilding conquered territory, docs
not come within the provision of that instru
ment. His opinion is just as good as any good
lawyer’*, and no better. It is the attempt to
treat it as official that is objectionable. When
he rules what shall be evidence, if obeyed,- he
does great wrong. He has p fair excuse, how
ever, uuder the invitation of the commanding
gene .-"Is. I have said this much with great
Instance'; but, finding my colleagues indiffer
ent to the question, I have not been able to re-
•V
fr.iiii. I feel painful fear least it should be
thought I obtrude my opinions too oft<-n in
public matters, but my anxiety, possibly, my
over excited anxiety, relative to reconstruction,
must be my excuse. With great respect, your
ooedient servaut,
Thaddecs Stevens.
Commencing with “mild confiscation,” for
the benefit of his negro pets, and to compen
sate for the destruction ol his iron mills, he
has ended with the desire for a July Congress,
Iq order to emasculate the Btanbery Opinion
by “ explanatory and supplemental acts.” He
is evidently frightened at the chance of a finality
and dissatisfied with the present rigors of the
unconstitutional, revolutionary and tyrannical
edict now under experiment.
If Mr. Btaxbeby’s Opinion is “no better
than any other lawyer’s,” why this trepidation
and alarm ? The malignant old man does not
say it, but he fears that the Opinion may prove
a great deal bettsr than any other lawyer’s, if
Andrew Johnson backs it like a great and
granite man.
Should this July Congress be convened, we
will probably have the conviction thrust upon
us that the Solons of America have determined
to compel ns at the edge of the sword to voic
the Radical ticket. Something of the sort
seems necessary to convince a considerable
number of mou who swear, like one of the
country editors, that they “will not believe a O3
thing of the k'lid ol Congress until they have
tire bayonet at their very breasts.”
Should Mr. T. Stbvbss have his way, the Mili
tary Commanders will be protected by “sup
plemental acts” enabling them to fill every
office with “ unqualified members of the Re
publican party.” The papers arc al
ready sounding the key note of recons- uction
by just 6uc]i declarations.
Commenting upon (he policy now being
brought more fully to light by the Attorney
Geficral’s Opinion, the New York Wodd pays
“it is nothing HCW.” It adds:
Butler testified before the Committee on the
Conduct of the War that he seut Gen. Weitz<d
on' a murderous raid through the Lafourche
district for no other purpose than Jto eltct a
Radical member to Congress, smee it was in
timated to him that two members of Congress
from Louisiana would be desirable. We need
not recall the Olustee slaughter in F'ov'da,
which wa6 confessedly for the same purpose.—
The Radicals do not forget the purely political
uses which were made of the army during the
war. Kelley went so far as to say in Mobile
that the whole United States army was at h?s
back, while he was peddling Radical tinware
through the South ; and it is not at all surpris
ing that Mr. Btcvens 6hould think that the dis
trict commanders are only party tools, and that
Congress should come together to officially an
nounce this construction of the Reconstruc
tion act.
It seems to us that the crisis is upon the
couutry. President Johnson must move soon
er or later, and the sooner the better. If there
is a sufficient number of Constitution lovers in
the co’antry to sustain him, he will not 6uffer
from Radicalism long. It such adhereuts are
in a hopeless minority, the fhree of Republican
ism is on the eve ot being played out and
Philip Sheridan, Lord Protector and Czar,
looms up above the wreck of liberty. .
What consolation, then, shall we offer the
unhappy South ? We know of none so grand
as that given by a devoted Unionist ol East
Tennessee and once our bitter foe, T. A. R.
Nelson. In a jrecent speech at Andrew
Johnson’s old home,* he had the boldness and
honesty to acknowlege that he-and thousands
of others had been deceived by the perversions
and bad faith of the Republican party, and that
the Constitution and the Union for which the
war was ostensibly wuged, were infinitely more
endangered by'a rump Congress than the bul
lets and the cannon of the Confederacy. Ami
thus asserting and still clinging to the Union
theories of 1861, he uttered these terrible words
of warning to the North—these glorious notes
of consolation to the South;
Let the North remember that there is a just
God, who • rulelh in the armies of Heaven and
tipan earth, who governs nations as well as men ;
that He used the Assyrians as instruments to pun
ish the rebellious Jews; but when the Assyrians
persecuted them from year to year, when “ they
showed no mercy," when upon them they “ laid
very heavily their yoke," He raised up Cyrus 'to
take Babylon, and punish the conquerors, who
had been His instruments , most severely. Let
them remember that although the South is con
quer sd and subjugated, . helpless and powerless,
bound hand and foot and bleeding at every pore;
though her rich men have beco.ne poor men. and
her great men have been humbled in the very
dust; though her “ servants are now upon horses
and her princes are walking as servants upon the
earth though famine broods over the last mur
mur of complaint; though she has “ drunken the
dregs of the cup of trembling and wrung them
out "—yet her shrieks of agony will go up to
Heaven , and, sooner or later, will be heard; and
in some form, now hid from mortal ken, He.
“ who forgetteeth riot the cry of the humble ” will
be ha friend and her avenger.
AT IT AGAIN.
Senator Henry Wilson must have a poor
opinion of the South, for he went about, distri
buting falsehoods right and left, or, if uot false
hoods, he could not help being convicted of
gross ignorance unbecoming a Senator from
the Slate oi Massachusetts. The first falsehood
or piece of ignorance, was about the introduc
tion of slavery. Hewas bold enough to charge
it upon the South and then recaut and de
clare the South unblamable on that score.
The second falsehood or piece of ignorance
was in the broad assertion that Mr. Calhoun
was responsible for the Mexican , war and the
evils entailed by it. General Clanton effectu
ally demolished thia declaration by proving
that Mr. Calhoun was sternly and persisently
opposed so it, that he stood almost alone in op
position and hence could not be held amenable
to the slander or ignorant assumption of Hen
rv Wilson alias Jeremiah Colbaith. Jere
miah has been prophecyiug again and with the
same success. On the 18th of May he spoke at
Huntsville, Ala., and among other things said:
“We have some mean Yankees up North ;
and when a Yankee is mean, he can go deeper
and stay longer than anybody else. They call
themselves Democrats, but why, I don’t know.
They encouraged the rebellion; said there would
be no war; they would hold all the blood that
would- be spilt in the hollo# of their hands, and
that men of the South could whip the Yankees
with, a broom-stick. VaJiandigham is one of
their leaders. He boasted that ir any Northern
army attempted to march over Ohio soiTagainst
the South, it would have tp march over bis
dead body. The war came on, and an Ohio
regiment approaching his house, was halted by
its colonel, who told them: ‘ Boys, we are now
going to pass over,Yaliaudlgham's. dead.bo«k>
Hold your noses! Forward, march!’ These
®*n did not dare even .to pray for the rebels <
wh«a the war began.”
The editor of the Huntsville Democrat for
warded to Mr. a copy efl his_
paper containing a report of the jeremiad. Mr.
V allandighaji replied, and gave Mr. Col- j
b.aith Wilson better than he sent. He writes: j
r _ Dayton, Ohio. June 8,1557.
J. Wuhert C.ay, Bag., Huntsville, Ala.:
Sir : In the speech at Huntsville, of Henry j
Wilson, nee Jeremiah Colbaith, as published in '
your paper (the Democrat) of May 31, 1857, are i
ilirce deliberate falsehoods relating to myself,
in just twice as many lines.*
1. I am not one of those “ who encouraged
the rebellion, 6aid there would be no war,” etc.;
but just the reverse. I never expressed or held
the opinion that Northern or Western Demo
crats would assist the South in a war for seces
sion and independence. So far as the war was
waged on part of the Sooth, tor this purpose,
she never had my sympathy. As waged by the
North, I was opposed to it at every point from
beginning to end, for reasons which Time is
now vindicating every day.
2. I never said that the Northern troops
should “march over my dead body.”
3. The pretended incident related by Wilson
about an Ohio regiment passing by my house,
never had an existence, nor even a shadow of
foundation.
My crime during the war was, that I consist
ently and persistently loved and defended con
stitutional liberty and the Old Federal Repub
lic throughout.
I beg your, pardon, and my own, for con
descending to notiee anything from this vulgar
itinerant changling. My only apology is, that
he is the successor of Daniel Webster in what
remains, of the United States Senate—and has
lately “ experienced religion.” .
Very truly, etc.,
C. L. Vallanwgham.
So much for Jeremiah! We respect'ully
suggest that when Gen. Linostrket’s let ers
are puMished in Pennsylvania, as campaign
documents, the speech of General Clanton
and the letter of Clement L. Vallandigham
have an appropriate plaoe in the picture. Ver
ily, we have proof of Wilson's pudding in
VriL-ON’3 self. He is a mean Yankee, and
gone deeper, aud stayed longer than anybody
else.
GEN. LONGS PBSET’S LETTER,
The different Radical journals published in
the South are delighted with Gen. Lpngstrekt's
latest effusion, aud, following tlsJk*ad of the
New Orleans Republican, pray that 14 Congress
will evince its appreciation of the frank aud
manly stand taken by Gen. Longstreet in sup
port of the reconstruction plan, by restoring
him to the fall rights of citizenship.”
The Philadelphia Press— Forney’s villainous
sheet—publishes the Longstreet letters with
a lusty crow, and thus speaks of them.. The
italics are ours :
These letters of the ex-rebel leader are the best
campaign documents yet issued. If they had been
written for the very purpose of being used in
Pennsylvania this fall they could not be clearer
or more telling.
**##* * . # *
We hope to s ? the Longs'reet letters published
prominently in every Union paper in Pennsylva
nia, and let the Republican journals in each
county never rest until they have forced their pub
lication i:. the trembling sheets ot their Demo
cratic contemporaries and neighbors. They will
: q like hot shot into the camp of the Democ
racy. They convict that time-serving organiza
tion ot cowardice and bad faith.
How puerile and piliful reads the Harrisburg
platform beside the fresh, fearless utterances of
the honest soldier! How contemptible the rear
guard of rebellion contrasts with the devoted
columns that charged all along the Confederate
lines from Richmond to Chattanooga!
It may yet be expedient to invite Lieutenant
General James Longstreet to Pennsylvania as a
campaign orator this coming election. We know
of nothing that would more advance the interests
of our party and cause.
To be praised by Forney and welcomed so
emphatically into the ranks of Radicalism are
distinctions which ought to make General
Longstreet blush. But the man who pro
claims as an axiom that “ the highest of human
laws is the law that is established by appeal to
arms,” can stand even the eulogies of a Forney.
There are very few, even among the Southern
journals favoring reconstruction, who can swal
low the Longstreet letter at a gulp. Among
these we find the Charleston News and Colum
bia Phccnix. We had some hope ot the tormer
paper when it wavered about the finality dog
mas, as interpreted by the Congressional Com
mittee; but that hope has suffered extinguish
ment. The latter paper, after endorsing the
entire Longstreet programme, says:
Such are the view’s, in brief, of one of the
moat gallant leaders o! the Southern armies,
and such, in letter avid spirit, have been the
views expressed through this journal since the
passage of the reconst: uction laws, as they are
1 caPori. enacted by Congress. And to-day, we.
would ratutr have the endorsement of such
men as Longstreet, Hampton, Lee and others
as to the "Argent necessity for reconstruction
and prompt restoration to the Union, then the
honest, but* i!!-judged advice of disappointed
politicians, and the impulsive outgivings oi the
brave men.who gallantly followed those noble
leaders, offering their lives as a sacrifice'for the
maintenance of those principles now extinct.
We had trusted that the old report about
General Lee's endorsement of the Congres
sional policy had beeu abandoned by every can
did man, after an authoritative denial in the
Richmond Enquirer . The Phccnix, however,
drags him forth again as a witness and endorser,
when he has made no sign, and given no mor
j tal man the right to quote him in authority,
j Will General Hampton allow bis/ name to be
| thus paraded ? Does he really believe that the
j “ war was fought upon Radical issues, and by
| them ought to be decided ?" If the great men
j of the country have really come to such a pass,
, and carry the multitude with them, it will not
I be wondered at that the Southern cause failed in
war and Republican institutions are now pretty
well annihilated. Shame rfjaon us! We may
have to go to the Yankee for a scrap of liberty,
some day, as mendicants go to the Freedman’s
Bureau for bread. Shame npon ns ! if we
postpone the day of deliverance by fawn
ing upon and strengthening the very
party which has forged chains for us
and for our-children, and which cannot hold
us in thrall without the assistance of our breth
ern at home. We cannot believe that General!
Hampton endorses any such theories as those j
of General Longstrt bt, and bis name is pro
bably nsed with much gratuity as that of !
General Lee. General Longstreet confesses j
himself a Radical. Is General Hampton pre- ,
pared to go that length ? Longstreet sees ]
that his logic forces him to that confession. A \
great many men, and several papers, have ibe j
same logic or the want of it, bat not the same
frankness. They scorn the impflthliOD of Radi
calism. But if to endorse Gen. Lokgstrtet, a
Radical deemed worthy to stmnp Fennsylva
pia and have his letters sown broad-ca6t as
campaign documents—if lifts'be not Radical
ism, the English language has become a deln- i
sion, and men are all “ little jokers,” like the j
Hon. W. H. Seward.
Governor Brownlow.— The following para- j
graph has rs-appcared, and is again going the \
rounds of the papers :
Brownlow is reported to be in such wretched
health that recovery is next to impossible. Is
Satan about to foreclose his mortgage ?
If old Nick does foreclose what a b—ll there
ill be! Let sinners be warned. i
A GOOD DISTINCTION.
The Attorney General makes a binding argu
ment against the Military Commanders. He
shows, beyond cavil, that although there might,
up to this time, have been some doubt as to the
right of removal of civil officers, the Sherman
bill has given them no authority to make ap
pointments. This settles the hash of Messieurs
the so-called Mayor and Common Council of
Augusta. We invite their attention to the fol
lowing article from the National Intelligencer.
We commend the italicised portion to their
special reflection and remind them that if the
satraps have “appointed them at their peril,”
they have accepted the appointment on similar
conditions. The Intelligencer says :
“While the whole country, and especially
the bayonet-driven and satrap-trodden people
of the South, are looking with mournful and
anxious interest for some instructions from the
authorities at Washington in regard to the
powers and duties of the military commandants
and their subordinates iu reference to recon
struction, the military officers who have been
sent there lo execute the law are, from the force
of circumstances, impelled to interpret its pro
visions, each one only according to his own un
aided judgment or caprice. Au impending aud
gathering storm of popular indiguation among
the loyal masses at the North is meanwhile ma
turing on account of the patent outrages per
mitted or perpotratedTiy some of these district
commanders in (he absence of positive and un
equivocal instructions in the premises. There
is no question that this anlhodtutive interpre
tation of the law should be promulgated with
out delay, and ‘in such shape that no military
officer on duty in the South will dare to treat it
with contempt or indifference, as lifts in some
instances been done with the recently published
opinion of the Attorney General, upon the
ground that it is simply an opiuion of the legal
adviser of the Executive, and not a biudiug
order upon the subordinates of the constitu
tional Commander-in-Clnef of the army ami
navy of the United States.
“It is true that the preparation of such or
ders requires time, but it should be remember
ed that they are of paramount importance to
any other pending public business, and involve
directly the highest and best and most exten
sive interests of all parts of the country. To
the unsettled, condition of affairs in the South
may be attributed in great part, indeed, for the
most part, the fearful gloom that is settling
into deepest darkness upon the commerce and
industry of the North and West. The people
want to know the worst. They are waiting
anxiously, trembling to know what is to be ex
pected. They have a right to be informed
without unnecessary delay what are the powers
of the military satraps in tbfc South, and how
far they will be permitted by the Government
to proceed in the programme Which appears to
have been marked out, at least, by some of
those who are exercising plenary authority in
the Southern States.
“ In the meantime, these gentlemen are left
to pursue their own course, to interpret the
law each one for himself, and to execute it only
in accordance with his own will, judgment, pre
judices, or caprices, or whatever influences may
be brought to bear to guide bis actioo. There
are some points, however, iu which a few of
these autocrats have, in our opinion, manifestly
exceeded note-only the letter, but the spirit of
the law so manifestly that their conduct is
utterly indefensible and inexcusable. For in
stance, however, it may be mooted whether the
reconstruction laws confer upon them the power
to suspend or remove from office any civil
officer under any pretext whatever ; it canno t
for a moment be contended or even pretended that
there is in any part or passage of the reconstruc
tion statutes, a single paragraph , line, or syllable
conferring upon them the authority to appoint any
civil officer. In making such appointments they
have clearly and unquestionably transcended any
power conferred upon them, and have done so at
their peril. Even if it were conceded, for argu
ment’s sake, that they are clothed with authori
ty in auy case or under any circumstances to
suspend or remove, it cannot be shown that
they have any power to appoint. Although it
may be claim id that they have the right under
the statute to nullify or destroy a State govern
ment, no allegation can be sustained to the
effect that they are authorized to create or build
up a civil government in anv Stale or Territory.
This is the peculiar and inalienable right of the
people themselves; it is exclusively a popular
function—a popular right, of which neither the
Executive nor Congress can ever divest the
people.”
A GOOD BEGINNING-
By reference to our telegraphic columns, it
will be seen that the President agrees with the
Attorney General, and will issuea proclamation
accordingly. So lar so good. The issue is made.
The Ulcer Spreading.- -Sercno-Howelsm
is spreading in New England, aud has even
reached the virtuous colored class who are now
candidates for suffrage in Connecticut. Last
Thursday a negro was tried in N w Haven for
no less than fifteen cases of Howeisin, eleven
ofnis victims being boys, and lour more were
little girls. As he was convicted in every case, he
was promptly sentenced to pay SIOO and to go
to jail six months for each offense. Hid this
happened in Massachusetts these severe sen
tences would have been considered an “ invidi
ous distinction on account of color,” and the
criminal would have been advised to leave the
Btate between two days, with the understanding
that be must never be a member ot the Legisla
ture. The really singular feature, however, in
this negro’s case is the published fact, that five
years ago he was sentenced for the same offense
to thirteen years’imprisonment. Last Septem
ber he was released, and instead of going away
he seems to have remained and immediately re
sumed his old business. Massachusetts may
well congratulate itself that the Reverend Sereno
Howe has sought fresh fields and pastures hew.
f New York World.
The Nation is ventilating some political opin
ions which, if not novel, are “ as good as new,”
so long is it since they have ceased to pass cur
rent, and which are likely to affect its political
orthodoxy very seriously in the judgment of a
good many people. It declares its belief that
“no political opinions, however sound, can
make knaves and charlatans anything but a
curse to the community*” If that isn’t revoln
tionary, we should like to know what would
be ? Wliat does our Common Council think
about it ?. What has Congressman Ashley to
say on the subject ? Is Gen. Bailer Indifferent
to such knave-defying radicalism as
this ? We mast have a meeting of the Loyal
League.
Hon. Garnett Andrews, of VVilkes county,
has been appointed Register in Bankruptcy lor
the sixth Congressional District.
TEE GAEB OF INFAMY.
We give prominence to a philosophical and
inexorably logical argument, taken from a
recent number of the Cincinnati Enquirer.
Much wisdom is crowded into a brief space
without the sacrifice of lucidity. The article
in question is specially appropriate at this
juncture of affairs, and should command the
attention and reflection of every conscientious
man. The Enquirer says :
«* The Northern Congress has constructed a
peniteutiary uniform for the people of .the
South; and the people of the South are dis
cussing the question whether or not they shall
put on the penitentiary uniform. It is true that
it is the garb of infamy. It is true that voluntarily
to put it on is to plead guilty to an infamous
offense. But it is also true that to entertain and
discuss the question whether or not to put it on is
almost as shameful as it would be to get into it
without discussion.
Admitting that the state of things under
the military governments is hard, it is not dis
honorable. A people may dishonor themselves
by accepting an infamous place when it is
offered to them ; but they can not be dis
honored by the act of another, which they only
endure, not having the means to resist. It i
- the worst imaginable condition for a people
o be in, when they have lost every thing except
honor f It is worse when honor is gone,
though many oilier tbiugs may have been re
tained. The distance between the two extremes
—rising iu .arms to vindicate a right, and after
a defeat voluntarily accepting a wrong—is very
wide indeed ; aud the moral condition of a
people who show themselves able to span t-hi*
space will be likely to set the rest of mankind
to thinking, aud to excite considerably more
surprise than admiration.
“ It, is true there is, by implication, a bribe
offered for compliance; but a bribe is not a
thing calculated to add to the respectability ol
the transaction into which it enters. Iu reality
there is no promise by the party iu power that
tbe representatives of the complying States
shall be admitted to seats in Congress on their
compliance. The man is, politically, more than
half an idiot who imagines that Congress can
confer upon the States of the South a title to
Federal representation superior to that which
they now possess, and he who infers that by
the act of compliance the States will establish a
claim upon the party in power which will in
sure the admission of their representatives, will
find in the result no reason to set himself up as
a miracle of sagacity. There is enough in it to
seduce those who want to be seduced ; but the
Souther n man who goes before the people and
asks them to put faith in a Northern promise ,
which the tforth has never made, and which J
only infers from an act of Northern wrong and
injustice, should have a face of brass, warranted
not to blush under any circumstances,
“ There is also, by implication, an appeal to
the interests of the wealthy. It is true that
Mr. Stevens does not 6ay, reconstruct and I
will not press ray project of confiscation : but
there are, doubtless, mauy who have so much
faith in Northern honor and magaaDtnity, that
they are ready almost to swear that, if they
only put on the striped uuiform of political
felony with sufficient readiness, and kiss the
reconstruction rod with sufficient ■ show of
alacrity, the cup of confiscation will be re
moved. With such it is of little use to remon
strate. The notion that there are human bodies
in the world , is probably the most absurd idea—
the one most utterly at war with facts and phe
nomena—that was ever entertained.
“The journals and orators of the party in
power do not even pretend that a compliance
on the part of the Southern people with all
that is required, will release them from further
demands, impositions and exactions. On the
contrary, they make no secret of the fact that
the party mind is at work, at work industrious
ly and vigorously, to contrive new burdens and
new forms of humiliation. The problem to be
solved i6 how to put down the South so that
it 6hall remain down, subservient and subordi
nate, for all time to come. And if the almost
universal rule is operative, the more the peo
ple of the South concede, the more the party
power will demand ; and having made the first
concession and given away* the principle, there
will be no suspension of the process until they
are trampled into the earth.
“A government of military satraps, silly,
conceited, ignorant and domineering, may not,
in the [abstract, be' i pleasant thing to contem
plate, and may have ils practical disadvantages;
but the party that is unable to resist, and sim
ply endures, has this source of consolation,
that the wrong under which it suffers is the
work of another, not its own. The institutions
which a people pul on und r restraint , remain
badges and memorials of the ignominious servi
tude after the durance has been removed. It is
not the encroaching spirit on the one side that
constitutes slavery; It i6 when that spirit is
met by a spirit of craven subordination on the
other.
“It may seem to many in the South a very
easy solution of all difficulties, to comply with
the terms proposed and put on the uniform ;
but this seductive appearance of comfort will
pass away as soon as the garb is fairly on ; and
the decision made irreversible. Then the dis
comfort will be perceptible, and the dishonor
of all things most plain and palpable. He who
supposes that in any respect the new condition
will be practically better than the present, will
find himself grievously mistaken. Political
servitudes grow worse continually. Volunta
rily accepting the fact of political slavery is to
proclaim its principles. Once established and
sanctioned by principle, the slave is in the
hands ot the master; and it is not the abstract
rights of the one, bat the interest of the other,
that constitutes the law of the relation.”
University of Virginia.— This great insti
tution, notwithstanding the storms of war
howled around it for four long years, is again
in successful operation and dispensing its bless
ings to large numbers of young meu from all
parts of the South. From the annual cata
logue of 1866-67, now before ns, we perceive
that the students at present in attendance num
ber four hundred and ninety, and are distri
buted geographically as follows : Virginia, 219;
Maryland, 39; Tennessee, 36; Alabama, 33 ;
Georgia, 31; North Carolina, 24; Mississippi,
18; West Virginia, 15; Texas, 14; Missouri,
15; South Carolina, 13; Kentucky, 12; Louisi
ana, 10; New York, 3; Arkansas, 3; District of
Columbia, 2; Florida, 1; Pennsylvania, 1; Illi
nois, 1; Nevada, k Total, 490.
The La Crosse Democrat says Senator Yates,
who joined a temperance soc iety in Washing
ton last winter, was brought before the police
court of Chicago, on the stb, and fined $3 and
osts for drunkenness..
AGRARIANISM.
Mr. Benjamin Wai>e, President of the United
States Seuate, has made a very remarkable
speech at Lawrence, Kansas. Having run
through the gamut of abolition, he declares
for agrarianism:
“ He said that the shadow of another strug
gle was over us; that Congress, which bad
done so much lor ,the slave, cannot quietly re
gard the terrible distinction which exists be
tween the laborer and employer. Prop- >-ty is
not fairly divided, and a more equal distr.bu
tion must be wrought out. If yonr dull he .ds,
he said, can’t understand this, the women will,
and canvassers upon the eve of an election will
have to tell tbe laborers what they will do for
them.”
It does not require an amazing amount of
acumen to understand that, for party purposes,
these desperate Radical gamesters are attempt
ing a wholesale bribery of the poorer classes
at the North, just as they have corrupted the
Southern negro by promises of forty acre lots.
Mr. Wade has caused a sensation and the peo
ple at large are beginning to comprehend that
the rule or ruin taction, having finished their
war upon slavery, are about to inaugurate a
desperate onslaught upon property and there
must be “ a now distribution, not ouly ol lauds,
but of all property everywhere.”
Wendell Phillips and Wade are in per
fect accord, as will be seen by this ex act irorn
:»recent lc;ter in the A iti-Slavcry Standard.
Phillips says,:
Again, conti c -tion is mere naked justice to
the lor met* slave. Who brought the land into
cultivation ? Who o sweat aud toil arc mixed
with it forever ?• Who cleared those forests?
Who made those roads? Whose, hand reared
those bouses V .Whose wages are invested in
those warehouses and towns? Os course, the
negro’s. Does the nation call ii justice to
turn out such none penniless, ignorant, nak- and
to begin the world ? Why should he not have
a kli.<i*c ol bis inhci ilaucc ? We used lo hear
much ot compensation. I am in lavor ot it—
“ Pav ransom to the owner
And till (he to the b-im.
Who i- the owue ? 'lhe s ave is
And ever was. Pat him."
Compensate ihc slave. Divide with him what
the past generation of blacks aud whites have
accumulated. The master’s ill desert, the na
tion’s need, security lor the future, and justice
to tbe negro—all demaud coufisea ion.
Ti never seems to strike Mr. Phillips that
tbe rule he applies to the South is equally ap
plicable farther North. ludeed, in the matter
of wholesale agrarianism, Mr. Wade is ahead
of Mr. Phillips himself; for, while W endkll
Phillips —an immensely rich man, enriched
by slave-trading ancestors —hopes to keep con
fiscation at the South, Mr. Wade intimates
that it must take a wider sweep aud extend
even to Kelley’s national flag 6taff, the North
Pole.
The Baltimore Gazette takes Mr. Phillips’
argument and gives it back with interest. It
says:
“ Let us adapt it to Massachusetts, for exam
ple. Who brought the land there into cultiva
lion ? Whose sweat and toil arc mixed up with
it forever? Who cleared Us forests? Whose
band 6 reared those gigantic manufactories ?
Whose wages are invested in those warehouses
and towns? Os course the laboring white
man’s. * Why should he not have a share of his
inheritance ? Divide with him what the past
generations of white laborers have accumula
ted. The Puritan owner’s fanaticism and ava
riciousness, the nattou’6 need, seemity for the
future and justice to the white laborers, all
demand that all this property should be con
fiscated.
“ As Wendell Phillips is himself a large pro
perly holder, and as he has made it bis boast
that for thirty years he labored to destroy the
Union whilst, the laborers who built tbe houses
he owns and who aided to increase the wealth
lie inherits were loyal, why not make his the
first case of confiscation and partition? And
Butler, too, the justice of stripping him of hi s
ill-gotten wealth is even 6till more appareut.—
He is said to possess a roilliou ol dollars, all or
nearly all of which was wrung from the plant
ers and merchants of the South. As this
money wu?, according to the theory of Phillips,
the product of negro labor, it belongs “of
course” to the negro. So that Builer, whilst
imagining be was piundcring the Soul hern white
man, was, in point of fact, guilty of the ineffable
meanness of robbing tbe slave. The doggerel
quoted by Phillips applies, therefore, with
peculiar force to the great 'bottled up
“ Tav ransom to t l.e owner
And fil tbe bag'o the brim.
Who is the ow nr? Ti c slave is
And ever was V* Y N im .”
“It is a boomerang argument. Hurled at
others it returns to smite the thrower. It ad
mits. however, of unlimited extension. Just
think ofit! All the railroads of the country
were built by Irish laborers—therefore they are
owners of the railroads. It is our duly to con
fiscate the railroads so that every Irishmau
should ‘ have a share in his Inheritance.’ Go
on, gentlemen, it is an easy course you are sail
ing just now, blit the mariuer who whistles lor
a wind may conjure up a tempest.”
Beesons entitled to register.
According to Ihe Attorney General’s con
struction of the Military Art, which has author
ity by the endorsement of the President, every
male citizen, native-born hr naturalized, who
will be twenty-one years of age on the day of
election; no matter how much aid or comfort
he gave to the Confederate States, either by
force of arms, subscription to loans, or iu any
other way, has the right to register and vote :
Unless he held, before the war commenced , a
military or civil office nnder the United Slates
Government, or was Governor of a State,
Member of Congress, Member of the Legisla
ture, United States Senator, Judge of a Court,
or holder of a county office which required an
oath to support the United States Constitution,
or has been convicted of felony.
Such exceptional cases disqualify. All other
persons have the right to register and vote.
Female Suffrage.—John Stuart Mill
got 73 votes in the House of Commons in favor
of female suffrage. The New York Timet thinks
many of this number thus voted for mere Bport.
It is notoriously true that the English working
classes oppose it, and so, too, do the negroes in
this couutry. The Time* says the negro is hos
tile to any further extension of suffrage and
will give it neither to foreigners nor women.
The Albany Evening Journal takes-a novel
view of the case. It says:
“ Women at the ballot-box will be followed
by women in the jury-box. How delightfuttt
will then be to serve one’s country. The das*
of professional jurymen will increase wonder
fully. And there will be no objection to stay
ing out all night ou a knotty and interesting
case, either.” •
A French agency for international marriages
adds to its advertisement, “Bonhev; garaute
tm on "—happiness guaranteed lor one year.