erning state rights rises a grave question, namely, the right of the whole
country to exist and to take precautions to avert the recurrence of a
bloody struggle.
What do we read, moreover, in the amendment abolishing slavery 
" Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate
legislation.'' Thus Congress is charged to stop at no obstacle in prevent-
ing any one from violating the constitution by annulling the liberty which
has just been promised the former slaves.
The objection is raised that this leads to centralization ! But the action
of the central power has always been necessary when the general laws of
the United States have met with factious resistance. When the South
refused to acknowledge Mr. Lincoln, it became necessary to practise cen-
tralization at the point of the bayonet, and to reduce the rebels of Vir-
ginia and Texas to submission. If to-morrow the Civil Rights bill should
not be executed by the South, it would be necessary to practise centraliza-
tion and overcome resistance. In the same manner, when the freedom of
the negroes is proclaimed, it is impossible to avoid practising centraliza-
tion in order to effect a colossal transformation throughout the whole
country. It would be puerile to imagine that such revolutions could be
wrought without the interference of Congress and the national govern-
ment.
A federal service exists, moreover, in the United States ; there is a gene-
ral legislation which is binding on all the states, and there are federal courts
which insure its execution) There is a national army, stronger or weaker
according to the state of the country, but which must always be sufficient
to assist the courts and the law by arms. There are mails, there are cus-
tom-houses. Well, there will be one more branch of the central public
servicethat of the freedmen ; there will be the interference of the law,
the courts, and the army, for the protection of the freedmen during the
trying period of their accession to the jurisdiction of the common law.
You will seek in vain to avoid this necessity. Try, if you will, to have
neither judicial nor military action when a civil rights bill has just been
passed ! Let it not be believed that the triumph of the presidential veto
has prevented this interference. It is in vain to propose not to interfere ;
there is an excess of violence and injustice, there is an outcry of defence-
less victims, which will not permit the most indifferent to fold his hands.
Mr. Johnson himself, it is known, is practising centralization, and far be-
yond what he imagines.
We say further, the only means of moderating federal interference, and
promptly putting an end to it, as we all desire, is to discourage resist-
ance ; to prove to the South that slavery has had its day, and that it must
resign itself to what is inevitable ; to beware of holding in reserve a
second negro question, destined to convulse the country like the first; to
finish what has been begun, and not to stop halfway on the road to
equality. Then the old masters will resign themselves to necessity, and
the freedmen will elevate their condition. Under the influence of clearly-
defined positions, everything becomes tranquillized.   In the South, which
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