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Southern representation.
--The
House to-day accepted, without debate, the Senate modification of the
House resolution for the appointment of a joint committee of fifteen on reconstruction.
Mr. Stevens, after due consultation with several
Senators this morning, determined to accede to the position assumed by the Senate.
It was, therefore, on his own motion that the
House took it from the
Speaker's table and passed it
nem con. in the form heretofore given in my dispatches.
The joint committee therein authorized will probably not be announced before Monday next.
Horace Greeley still talks on for reconstruction, but it is of that kind which may be practicable without peril to the
Republican ascendancy.
Considerations of party are the misfortune of this whole matter.
A distinguished Republican, of the rank of major-general, recently said to me that if the thing were left to soldiers of the
Union and rebel armies, who fraternize everywhere, they would settle it at short order.
Caucussing in quiet is the leading business now of Congressmen and other politicians.
Thaddeus Stevens stirs around among the members, which fact indicates that he is not having things all his own way.
The contest between
Schenck and
Sherman for the Senatorship in
Ohio is understood to be close.
It may be affected by the reconstruction question.
It is understood that on to-morrow both branches of Congress will adjourn over until Monday, and from that day until after Christmas.
It is also understood in Republican party circles that the credentials and other papers of Southern
Senators and Representatives are to be referred to the joint select committee, to sleep until the end of the session.
Mr. Forney sticks to his text on the question of taking the oath.
His last letter to his paper dwells upon this point so much that, if he is to be accepted as authority, we may assume that those members who can take it will be admitted.
But we incline to the opinion that this is a sort of middle ground that he is occupying between the
President and the majority in Congress, and from which he can hereafter go over to either side.
He says:
‘
"Now that it is clear that no party can stand up against the irresistible doctrine that the States are all in the
Union, the admission of
Senators and Representatives will be a personal question; whether the individual applicant has borne arms against the
Union, or whether he can take the above-printed Congressional oath?
Thus, a State like
Alabama may send six applicants for admission into the House of Representatives, three of whom can, and three of whom cannot, take the oath.
The first three will be received, the last three returned to their constituents, who, if they choose, can perform the farce of
John Wilkes to their own satisfaction as often as they please."
’
The New York
Evening Post, always a radical paper, advocates the
President's policy openly — a good indication.
It thus speaks of some of its party friends:
"The whole subject of reconstruction would have been, we have no doubt, wisely disposed of by the standing committees; but unless the special committee is constituted with more discretion than the movers of it have yet displayed, we fear the question will be treated in a spirit of extreme partisanship rather than of statesmanship.
There are unfortunately a few men in Congress who would like to see the present abnormal condition of things protracted; they do not scruple to speak of the late
Confederate States as conquered and air of the Austrian bureaux; and they express a willingness to hold them in vassalage for an indefinite period of time.
The influence of such on the committee could only be deleterious. "
--Considerable surprise is manifested here at the receipt of a letter from
Governor Peirpoint, of
Virginia, addressed to the
President of the Senate and the
Speaker of the
House, enclosing a copy of an act passed by the General Assembly of
Virginia repealing the assent heretofore given to the division of the
State by the formation of the
State of West Virginia.
The letter was printed and laid upon the desks of members, and attracted much comment.
It seems that the question first came up in the Virginia Legislature on a bill to settle the status of the two counties of
Jefferson and
Berkeley, in the Shenandoah Valley, which have been in disputed jurisdiction.
This act was so amended as to repeal the assent given in 1863 to the formation of
West Virginia.
In order to be effective, the assent of the latter State must be had, as it has been recognized by all the departments of the
Government, legislative, executive and judicial.
Mr. Segar, of
Virginia, a Senator elect, has unlimited privilege to a seat on the floor of the Senate, and of course the same would be conceded to the
Tennessee Senators should they wish to avail themselves of it.
Ex-Senator Clingman, of
North Carolina, appeared on the floor of the Senate this morning, and received the congratulations of friends.
He is rapidly recovering from the severe would which he received during the war.
Quite a number of gentlemen called and had a conference to-day with the
President.
Senators Conness,
Sprague and others spent a short time in consultation with him.
Rev. Henry Ward Beecher was also present at an interview, which was quite protracted.
General Butler was awaiting to communicate with the
President.
It is stated that the
General, being now out of the army, and not liable to the charge of insubordination, intends to launch a violent philippic at
General Grant for his strictures upon his military career.
When the doors closed, at three P. M., there were about one hundred and fifty persons, including a good many ladies, who had not obtained admission.
The Senate full — almost.
The arrival of
Senator Cragin, of
New Hampshire, makes the attendance now complete of the
Senators from all of the States at present represented.
There is a vacancy from
Iowa, caused by the appointment of
Mr. Harlan to the
Cabinet.
Senator McDougal, of
California, is in the city, but he has not yet appeared in his seat.
The members elect to Congress from
Tennessee, so far as they are present, to-day availed themselves of the privilege yesterday accorded to them in the
House of occupying seats on the floor.
Universal (negro) suffrage in the District.
A large number of memorials in favor of universal suffrage are being presented in the
House under the rule.
Senator Morrill, of
Maine,
Chairman of Senate Committee on District of Columbia, is preparing a bill for enforcement of qualified negro suffrage in the District of Columbia.
It is proposed to have it take effect at the next June election.
So many intimations are heard in intelligent and influential republican quarters of the certainty of the passage of an act authorizing negro suffrage here, or the alternative of the repeal of the city charter, that the public are satisfied that one or the other will prevail in Congress.
The mass of the citizens desire the latter.
Henry Ward Beecher delivered an address to-night in the
Hall of Representatives, before an immense audience, in favor of immediate universal suffrage, including women.
A colored minister opened the meeting.
This evidently excited the fire and indignation of a female among the audience on the floor, who, while
Mr. G. was praying, turned her back upon him, and after giving vent to her indignant feelings in sundry mutterings, she remarked, loud enough to be heard in various parts of the hall, something to the effect that it was an outrage and a disgrace for a colored man to pray at so large an assemblage of white people, and then hastened away from the hall.
Mr. Beecher argued, without the right of suffrage a man did not possess true liberty; that liberty was a natural right, and that the right of suffrage to protect that liberty was not a prerogative but an inalienable right; and he claimed that right for the black man.
And not for the black man only; but he would go further, and claim the right for woman also.
[Applause.] We would never emerge from barbarism until we cease to make these odious distinctions between man and woman.
Politics will always be barbarous until men and women give their votes together.
Woman is the great civilizer; and when woman stops at home and man goes abroad, the man begins to be animal.
Mr. Beecher said: I protest against the
Southern State wearing liberty as a badge of disgrace instead of a badge of honor; and though they may not be in a state of mind to receive it as a gift of priceless value, we should give it as a gift of mercy, not as a stigma and a yoke.
The speaker then referred to the condition of the
South, and urged all kindness and consideration for them consistent with duty.
Mr. Beecher then referred to what he believed would be the glorious future of the
South under the new order of things, and drew a glowing picture of the prosperity, wealth and happiness of
Virginia as a free State, and said he expected to see the time when the greatest champions of liberty would be the fleury men of the
South, and not those of the
North.
His faith in God him hope well for the future.
The New jury bill.
The Senate to-day, just before adjourning, passed the
House bill regulating the selection of jurors in the District of Columbia.
It merely relieves the present difficulty of an exhausted panel.
The Monroe doctrine.
General Banks has called a meeting of the Committee of Foreign Affairs for to-morrow, to consider the
Mexican resolutions lately referred to it, but no immediate action is anticipated.
General Logan has handed in no official declination of the
Mexican mission though the indications lead almost to a certainty that he will not accept it. The conference going on may possibly induce him to change his views.
The veteran Reserve corps.
The resolution passed to-day in the
House will probably pass the Senate to-morrow.
A tremendous pressure is being made to make this corps a part of the regular army.
Senate reports.
The Senate to-day passed a resolution directing an inquiry into the expediency of the appointment of a reporter to procure the reports of the Senate proceedings for the associated press.
A similar proposition was introduced in that body during the preceding Congress and discussed, as was the resolution to-day, but without, at that time, any result.
It seems to be the opinion of some of these gentlemen that they can be best represented to the country through such arrangement by a reporter responsible only to themselves.
Sentence commuted.
Edward Lambert, of the Twenty-eighth Louisiana infantry (Confederate), who was sentenced to be hung, for murder, on Friday next, had his sentence commuted to-day by the
President to ten years imprisonment in the penitentiary.
The United States Supreme Court Test oath.
It is believed that
Messrs. Garland, of
Arkansas, and
Marr, of
Louisiana, are the only two who have applied to the United States Supreme Court to be re-admitted to that bar without being required to take the oath of loyalty as prescribed by Congress.
The question as to the constitutionality of the oath will be argued on Friday.
