The North has passed a final Act of Indemnity for
the South,— that is, has abolished the "ironclad oath," which compelled every person actively engaged in the rebellion to decline office. The effect of this will be, first, that the old politicians of the South will again enter Congress—Mr. Stephens, for example, having taken his seat as Senator—and that if they can attract the Negro vote they may again rule in their own States. It was quite time that this Act of Grace should be passed. It is possible to govern revolted provinces well under a stern, but just military rule ; but it is not possible to govern them well through universal suffrage, crippled by enormous proscriptions, or rather by the demand of impossible tests from the most competent candidates. If the Southerners will but do their duty, that is—lead instead of persecuting the Negro—they may yet regain their place in the Councils of the Union.
Previous page
