it’s out of Andy’s hands now
150 years ago today a Republican newspaper responded to Democratic charges that the new Congress would only re-admit Southern states to the Union if the Republican party was assured of winning the 1868 presidential election. The Republican paper said that if a Southern state ratifies the Fourteenth Amendment, it will be re-admitted.
From The New-York Times
The Elections and the South.
[The Times quoted a paragraph from the November 9th edition of the World about devious Republican intentions]
The old story over again. Detected and defeated, the Democrats raise the cry of false pretences, and impute to the victorious party purposes wholly at variance with the truth.
On the part of the Republicans, of this State especially, the professions put forward on the question of Southern restoration have been in harmony with the action of Congress. There has been no reserve, and most certainly no deceit. The Syracuse Convention presented the Constitutional Amendment as the basis of restoration, and the address put forth as from the National Union Committee, explicitly avers that the admission of qualified members will at once follow the ratification of the Amendment. On this ground the battle was fought in this State, and in every State which was heard from on Tuesday. Massachusetts has elected at least one member who demands more than the Amendment; but we anticipate that that member will not be more potent at Washington than he was at Big Bethel. With this exception, every State in which the Republican banner has been borne in triumph has committed itself to the Amendment as a compromise, the acceptance of which will entitle the South to immediate admission. Even Mr. FORNEY, speaking for the extremists, admits this to be the case. “Such,” he says, in a letter over his signature in the Press – “such undoubtedly was the determination of a large majority of Congress when that body adjourned on the 28th of July, and such would, I believe, be the response of the triumphant people of the North and West at the present time.” Such has been their response. And the responsibility of [rejecting ?] an overture made by the Republican Party in good faith rests with the South.
The South may be ruled out at the next Presidential election. But it will be because the Southern people refuse to avail themselves of the terms of admission submitted for their adoption. If they refuse the Amendment which is declared to be the condition of immediate restoration, they will, of course, remain out of the Union. And being out of the Union, they will have no lot or part in the choice of its next President. The matter is in their hands, and as they mould it so will it be.
The same issue of the Times quoted an Atlanta’s paper endorsement of James P. Hambleton in a special election on November 28th for U.S. Congressman from Georgia’s Seventh District: “True, the member elect may not be permitted to take his seat, and in all probability will not be.” But since there were candidates running, the people should vote their preference. James P. Hambleton served the Confederacy during the war “and suffered long imprisonment for the active part he took in it [the Confederate service], and for his opinions as expressed when publishing and editing, in this city, the journal favorably known as the Southern Confederacy.”
