rival in this city, received notices warning them not to return home. We have omitted the relation of acts of ferocity and barbarism too horrible to relate. We submit to the impartial judgment of the American people, if these State governments, thus ruled by a disunion oligarchy, and based on the political disfranchisement of three millions of colored citizens, and the social disfranchisement of the entire loyal white citizens, are republican in form. Of doubtful legal existence, they are undoubtedly despotic, and despotic in the interests of treason, as we of the South know but too well. "We affirm that the loyalists of the South look to Congress, with affectionate gratitude and confidence, as the only means to save us from persecution, exile, and death itself. And we also declare that there can be no security for us and our children, there can be no safety for the country, against the fell spirit of slavery, now organized in the form of serfdom, unless the Government, by national and appropriate legislation, enforced by national authority, shall confer on every citizen in the States we represent the American birthright of impartial suffrage, and equality before the law. "This is the one all-sufficient remedy. This is our great need and pressing necessity. This is the only policy which will destroy sectionalism, by bringing into effective power a preponderating force on the side of loyalty. It will lead to an enduring pacification, because based on the eternal principles of justice. It is a policy which finally will regenerate the South itself, because it will introduce and establish there a divine principle of moral politics, which, under God's blessing, will, in elevating humanity, absorb and purify the unchristian hate and selfish passions of men." According to the Constitution. if two-thirds of the members of each house of Congress agree upon any amendments, those amendments shall be submitted to the approval of the several States. If three-fourths of these accept them, they become a part of the Constitution. The views of a large majority in both houses of Congress were not in harmony with those of the President. Congress took the ground, that, before the rebellious States should be allowed to assume their former privileges in the councils of the nation, certain guaranties should be exacted of them as a protection for the Union men of the South, and to protect the nation from the repetition of so terrible a wrong. With this view, they presented to the States Terms of Reconstruction, to be adopted as constitutional amendments. Whatever may be thought of the policy or the impolicy of these terms, their wonderful leniency no man can deny. The Rebellion was a terrible fact, as terrible as earth has ever known. It cost thousands of millions of money, and hundreds of thousands of lives, and an amount of misery, of life-long destitution and woe, which never can be gauged. A greater crime was never perpetrated. Its responsibility lies somewhere. If we regard it as merely a combination of individual citizens, then these insurgents merit severe punishment on the charge of treason and rebellion. If we regard it as an international war between the United-States Government and independent Confederate States, then is the victorious Government entitled to the rights of a conqueror as defined by the laws of war. Prussia annihilates the governments of the provinces and the kingdoms she has conquered, and compels them to pay the expenses of the war; and not a cabinet in Europe utters a word of remonstrance. With magnanimity never before in the history of the world manifested towards a vanquished enemy, the National Government calls for no punishment in the dungeon or on the scaffold, for no conscription or exile, for no political or personal servitude depriving States or individuals of any of their rights: it simply requires a few easy terms as a slight security against another war. These terms are as follows: Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two thirds of both houses concurring), That the following article be proposed to the legislatures of the several States as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States; which, when ratified by three-fourths of said legislatures, shall be valid as part of the Constitution; namely: ART. 1, SECT. 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the States wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or happiness, without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. SECT. 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons, excluding Indians not taxed. But whenever the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and VicePresident, representatives in Congress, executive and judicial officers, or members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twentyone years of age in such State. SECT. 3. — That no person shall be a senator or representative in Congress, or elector of Pres. ident and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid and comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each house, remove such disabilities. SECT. 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations, and claims, shall be held illegal and void. SECT. 5.- The Congress shall have power to enforce by appropriate legislation the provisions of this article. This amendment allows each State to decide who of its citizens shall enjoy the right to vote; but it declares that those who are not allowed to vote shall not be counted in the basis of representation. If any State chooses to limit the elective franchise to a favored few, it can do so; but that privileged few are not to have their power augmented by representing large bodies of citizens who are permitted no voice in the selection of their representation. But for this provision, a rebel voter in South Carolina would represent a power in national affairs equal to any two loyal voters in New York. With slavery re-instituted under the guise of serfdom, and with their representation in Congress greatly increased, by counting in their basis of representation each serf as a man, the rebel States would have gained by the conflict in political power. These terms of reconstruction appeared, to many, moderate and conciliatory in the extreme, and as the very least, which, in justice to its patriotic Southern defenders and the future safety of the country, the nation could accept. But those who were in sympathy with the Rebellion declared them to be "too degrading and humiliating to be entertained by a freeman for a single instant." President Johnson opposes them. Congress advocates them. The conflict agitates the nation. What the result will be, time only can tell. We must wait until the close of President Johnson's administration before it can be decided with what reputa tion his name shall descend to posterity. Never was there so brilliant a career opening before any nation as is now opening before the United States of America, if we will but do justice; if we will but be true to our own principles of "equal rights for all men;" if we will but inscribe upon our banner "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity." Then shall the song rise from all our hills and vales, and be echoed back from the skies, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men." INDEX. ADAMS, JOHN. His birth, 57. His noble am- ADAMS, MRS. JOHN, expresses a truly noble Adams with marked favor, 192. Offers to APPEAL from loyal men from all States of the BATTLE. Of New Orleans, 230. Okeechobee, 303. Monterey, 316. Molino del Rey, 347. BRANDYWINE, Americans defeated at, 41. CEREMONY observed by Gen. Washington, 90. COMPARISON between the American presi- CONSPIRATORS. Their designs, 432. DEBATE. On the admission of Missouri into DESCRIPTION of the "White House," 131. DIFFERENCE between the Federal and Repub- DIVISION in President Jackson's cabinet, 248. EFFECT of a protective tariff upon the South ELM TREE in Cambridge immortalized, 31. ENGLAND claims the right of search, 136. Her EXTRACTS. From "The British Quarterly," 164. CASS, GEN. LEWIS, nominated for the presi- His early life, 325. Elected to the House ! FLORIDA purchased of Spain, 180. His facetious- HARRISON, BENJAMIN, incidents in his life, 254. 205. His mirthfulness, 266. Member of IMBECILITY of President Buchanan, 371. INDEBTEDNESS of the American Republic to INEXPLICABLE complications of party, 277. INFLUENCE of the news of the treaty of INHABITANTS, President Buchanan's definition JACKSON, ANDREW. His ancestry and early character, 208. Commences teaching, 212. His diligence and acquirements, 99. gles for education, 437. His rapid rise in 465. His present views regarding vital KANSAS. Its political troubles, 349. Resolu- for its possession, 359. His LINCOLN, ABRAHAM. Great poverty of his inaugural, 429. His calm courage, 430. Is MADISON, JAMES. His birth and childhood, MARCY, Gov., upon party removals, 249. MEETING of the First Congress, 88. MONROE DOCTRINE, its history, 183. 184. MOTIVES which led France to ally herself with MT. VERNON, history of a day at, 53. |