Franklin Repository

Congress having failed to provide a way whereby the seceded States could return to their places in the Union, President Johnson said to them--nullify your ordinances of secession, repudiate the rebel debt and ratify the amendment to the Constitution; by so doing you will place yourselves in a most favorable attitude to the nation.

A decent regard for the honor and safety of the government would not have permitted him to require anything less of them, while simple justice would have warranted him in exacting a great deal more. The fact is, these terms must have been suggested solely by a prudent and patriotic consideration for the future peace and unity of the Republic. They require no indemnity for injuries sustained, nor do they exact any penalty for offences committed. The past is lost sight of and security for the future only is contemplated.

Ordinances of secession deny the binding force of the federal compact. This was an open question once, but an unsuccessful rebellion of four years' duration settled it. This decision must be accepted or the history of the last four years might repeat itself; hence these ordinances must be declared null and void. The assumption of any portion of the rebel debt by any of the States would interfere with their contributing to the payment of the national debt, and might seriously impair the national credit; hence this debt must be repudiated. Painful experience has taught us that Slavery is an element of discord, that our government cannot exist half slave and half free; consequently the amendment to the constitution must be adopted. Thus it is evident that in prescribing this action for the seceded States President Johnson had but one object in view, and that was to secure the government against future trouble and difficulty. It would have been well for the South if she had honestly and promptly acceded to these terms. The results of the war were so obvious that she could have done so without sacrificing any of her material interests, or doing violence to her convictions, for Slavery had long since expired, and the amendment simply seals the mouth of the sepulcher, and the doctrine of States' rights, as defined by her, had exploded with the last feeble charge of powder used in the service of her Confederacy.

But rather than look at things in this light she perversely groped about in the dark, and stumbled and blundered when she could have walked erect. By her own obstinacy and false pride, which are yet to be repented of, she defeated the generous scheme of the President, and has carried the matter to Congress, where she must expect more justice and less forbearance.

We judge of the temper and disposition of the South from the action taken by her different Conventions and Legislatures on [illeg] President's terms of reconstruction. It is to be presumed that they were representative bodies. The work of reconstruction was especially confided to them, and the people seem to be satisfied with the manner in which they performed their duties.

The President's terms were submitted to them in good faith, and they were asked to accede to them in order that the work of reorganization might be perfected without delay, and their representation in Congress be secured. Their action has not been uniform, except so far as it is characterized by an arrogant and disloyal spirit. Some have declined to nullify their ordinances of secession, some to repudiate the rebel debt, others to ratify the amendment to the Constitution, just as though their compliance was not a matter of necessity, but of grace. They are evidently very anxious to have their State governments reorganized, but it is equally clear that they are planning and scheming to have it done at the smallest possible cost.

There has been a time since the close of the war when they would have gladly accepted any terms the government might have offered. They were supplicants then, and were trembling in anticipation of the vengeance of an outraged government. But things have changed since, and emboldened by our kindness, they now demand as a right what they would then have sued for as a favor. They have become crafty as well as bold. They practice chicanery and fraud, and imagine us too stupid to detect it. We doubt if a single State has accepted in good faith a single one of the President's terms, that is, accepted it with an honest purpose to abide by it in the future, both in spirit and in letter. There is not one of them but professes to have accepted at least one of these terms, and yet when their action is looked into, it appears that what they call acceptance amounts to a virtual repudiation. Take South Carolina for instance, and consider her course in regard to the amendment to the Constitution. She is neither better nor worse than any of the others, and can fairly be used as an example. From this one, learn all; It was long before she would believe that the adoption of the amendment was necessary to her reorganization. She knew she was in a bad way, but seemed to think that she could recover without taking this pill that the President had prepared for her. She learned better in the course of time and at length professed herself willing to swallow it. Instead however of taking it as it was prepared she coated it over with sugar. Thus coated, it went down and South Carolina fondly imagined that her ruse had been successful, and that her recovery was certain. But it turned out that the coating destroyed the virtue of the pill, and that she was injured rather than benefitted by it. South Carolina professed not to object to the amendment, because it would drive Slavery [illeg] system, but because it would give to Congress the right to legislate for the freedmen. The President assured her, on what grounds we can't say, that this provision instead of enlarging the powers of Congress in this respect, restricted them. So having fixed by her own legislation the status of the freedmen, she adopts the amendment and asks to be rewarded for it. Now the amendment to the Constitution provides for the extinction of Slavery. South Carolina ratified it, but turns right around and adopts a Slave Code which establishes a system of servitude as infamous and cruel as that which she has abolished. Her course is insulting to the moral sense of the country. Her adoption of the amendment is a sham; it is a trick upon the government and a fraud upon the freedmen.

No wonder the pill has no virtue. It will be a long time before the American people will assent to such a reconstruction as this. They demand a fair and honest reconstruction and reject all such rotten material as this that South Carolina offers. They want a fabric large enough to accommodate all men without reference to color, and strong enough to hold them securely. They have committed the supervision of the work to Congress and we doubt not it will be finished acceptably.

That model paper, the Patriot and Union, regularly reproduced through the columns of the Spirit, is much exercised about the designs of Northern and foreign capitalists against the peace and well being of the negro. It charges these capitalists with desiring to share with Southern slaveholders, the solid advantages of negro labor, and terms it a dishonorable project. Its bowels of compassion yearn largely with sympathy for the poor negro himself. He is now to have not one, but many masters. The humane attentions he formerly received of good food, first class medical attendance, not too much work, and a careful scrutiny of his mental condition, are now to be lost to him forever--as a freeman he is to serve those who have no sympathy for him nor interest in his welfare or longevity. In short he is still to be a hewer of wood and a drawer of water, and may well ask what has he gained by the war for the African and his race.

The stupidity which could suggest such a question as this is only equalled by the unparalleled impudence which at this late day, would insult the intelligence of our people by claiming for the condition of slavery a character for beneficence and humanity, superior to that of freedom. A base assumption which the southern people are themselves repudiating as State after State adopts the Constitutional amendment, and which is now only advocated and defended by the toadies and dirt-eaters of the North.

We are however heartily glad that the Negro can give in one word an answer to this question, which will be satisfactory to himself, to civilization, and to christianity, and which will effectually reply to and silence the mock sympathy manufactured by the Patriot and Union and kindred papers in his behalf. That word is [illeg] for the Union, or as copperheads love to call it, the "war for the African and his race," has given the African freedom, and in giving him that has given him everything. It is true he has not immediately realized all the fruits of freedom, but he has now the same opportunity as the white man to work out his destiny untrammeled and unshackled. If he is still to be a hewer of wood and a drawer of water, he has the glorious privilege of every white man, of choosing for whom he will work, when he will work, and how hard he will work, and of receiving for his own comfort the wages he has earned by the sweat of his brow. If those for whom he works have no sympathy for him or regard for his comfort, he is not compelled to stay a privilege it will hardly be contended he possessed under the old regime. Being thus to all intents and purposes his own master, it is hardly possible he will fail in those humane attentions to himself, which were so generously bestowed by his former master, and the loss of which are so feelingly deplored by our Copperhead friends. In all things it is highly probable, having the money in his pocket for his labor, he would act very much like a white man and not deny himself anything it was within his means to provide, except perhaps that careful moral scrutiny which in the good old days it was the pleasure as well as the duty of every master to furnish to his slave. He will probably neglect the moral tone of those laws, now alas no longer binding, which made it a penal offence to teach a slave to read or write, and made him ignorant and degraded as a brute, with but little more knowledge of the here or hereafter. It would be hardly safe for the master now to exercise the beautiful morality which prostituted his female slaves at will to his lusts, and which beside was of profitable morality to his pocket. The loss of this careful moral scrutiny the negro may regret, but we hardly think he will. On the contrary, we think, he looks back and regrets nothing in the bondage which oppressed him, however humane and beneficent it may have been in the estimation of our Copperhead brethren. Nor does he look to them now for sympathy or encouragement in his new condition. All he asks now that they stand by, and let him, a free man, work out his own salvation, without let or hindrance.

In regard to Northern and foreign capitalists engaging in great enterprises in the South and employing largely both capital and labor, even if it is negro, we confess we cannot see anything discreditable or dishonorable in the matter. Judging from the condition of the South and the tone of southern papers it is just what is needed. We say God speed to all the energy and enterprise that capital can pour into the South. It is that which will give employment to both white and black, and so restore prosperity to a part of our land which in progress is now 100 years behind us, and but for the curse of slavery would have been equal with us. It is that which will build school houses and churches, spread learning and piety, and finally give to the South that prosperity which we of the North enjoy.