The South- The Presidential Election.

Dispatch editors claim that everyone is aware of the Radicals' harsh measures to ensure exclusion and disenfranchisement of the South, only for securing their own political advantages. The Radicals want to exclude the South until their preferred Presidential candidate is elected.

Friday May 4th 1866. The South- The Presidential Election. Of course everybody understands the Radicals- understands that no such harsh and unconditional measures of exclusion and disfranchisement of the people of the South would be thought of or proposed but for the securing of political advantages, which would be surrendered were the South admitted to constitutional equality in the Union. The motive of the Radicals is to exclude the South until alter the Presidential election, knowing as they do that if the South Is allowed to vote in that election her vote will be inevitably cast against themselves, and thus probably result in the defeat of their candidate. The constitutional amendments proposed by the Committee of Re. construction, should they pas Congress, will never be adopted by the States. The Radicals will, however, then contend that the eleven Southern States are still out of the Union.

“The South- The Presidential Election.,” Reconstructing Virginia, accessed March 29, 2023, https://reconstructingvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/135.