The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-05-08
NORTH CAROLINA

Our readers have been informed that the MON,
bers of the Legislature of North Carolina vera
summoned by Governor Ellis to meet in sneciaI
session at Raleigh, on Wednesday last, the lst inst
They assembled accordingly, and promptly accom-
pllShed the main object for which they wera con-
vened. The following brief paragraph. from the
wilmington Herald announces the first davis
business:
"lhe Legislature met Yesterday at 10 o,cIocl-
NJ Ia ara at !. M both Houses unanimously passed
oi'i ealing an unrestricted Convention whose ST.
tioh is 10 be hnal. The election of delegates takes
pace on the 18th instant, and the Convention meets
on the 20th." ~ ee's
lhis is IN accordance with the recommendation
OF Governor Ellis, who, in his message submitted at
the opening OF this extra session. held the following
language:
:, 18th the view Of the secession of North Caro-
ma from the Northern Government and har pnjor
with the Confederate States at as esrIv a nori,d
as practicable, would respectfully recommend
'hat Convention OF the People be called with tuIl
a'a maj powers. The powers of the Convention
Shoud be tuil because the sovereignty of the neonIa
must be frequently resorted to during the war and
1t therefore becomes necessary that it shopld he
temporarily reposed in the Convention The action
Ot tne convention should be final because of the i'm
c, .aioe 81 sPseuy separation from the Northern
government, and the well known fact that nno
thls point our people are as a unit NPoN
Inc Governor also recommends .siho
he
war, and that appropriate bounies be offered to all
persons thus enlisIing." In reviewing Mr. Lin
coins position, the Governor says:
After a Government had been orpanizad ono
OF the earliest. as it was undoubtedly one of the
most important and delicate duties deyoIyinp IN
Congress, was to furnish the President with the
powers necessary to enable him to "take care that
the laws be faithfully executed" and to mass
such laws might be necessary to s.proyide for
calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the
OIlon, suppress lnsurrecti0n, and repel INVASION
Accordingly we fnd that as early as 1898 a law
was passed Tor the purpose. 1t having been found
detective, 1t was superseded by the act of 18th of
February, 1875, which, without addition or amend
ment, has remained the law on the subject down TO
the present time-enacted by Congress which TO
a large extent, was composed of the individuals
who bad assisted in framing the Constitution it is
the best Interpreter of the general language used
In that instrument; and from the day of its passage
down to the 4th OF March of the present wear no
President has ever construed it as giving him
power 10 use military force, except as posse conpi
totus, or otherwise in aid of civil process Ours
being Government of law and not military des-
potlsm, no other construction could be placed upon
that act. When, in 1888, the State of South Caro-
lima forbade the execution of the tariff law within
her limits the act of 1898 in force precisely as
it is to-day; but President Jackson knowing that
the act only authorized the of military force in
aid OF civil process and that there would be no courts
IN South Carolina to issue process called on Congress
tor additional powers. and that body enacted what
'FOrce
The act was in my opinion vioatve of the Consti-
tuition, but no attempt ever made to exercise
the powers conferred by and it expired by its own
limitation, in 1885. The political friends of the pre-
sent Administration, we'll knowing that there was
no law on the statute book under which the Presi
dent could use military force in the States from
which the Federal Judges, Marshals and other civ
II officers had been expelled, urged Congress at its
last session to enact laws comforting on him such
authority. The journals of that body will show
mat Dllls ter the purpose were pressed with the ut
most periinacity, and also that they were not
enacted into laws.
be usurped the coveted powers which Conpress
had refused to confer on him, and whilst Commits
sloners from the Confederate States were at the
seat OF Government urging peacefu settlement
OF all questions in dispute, and striving to avert
from the country the caamities of civil war-wbile
the people were being deluded by daily protesta-
tons from the President OF his firm pu rrose to pre-
serve the peace, and were in momentarv ev
| pectaton of hearing that Fort Sumter in Charlie
ston harb0r, had been evacuated, a secret exped-
non was lifted out and stealthy dispatched to COM
mehce the war, by an attempt to throw reinforce
ments into that fertilization. To high criminahty.
involving the country in civil war; was added base
pe'hdy IN exciting hopes and expectations to be
dashed at the moment of fruti0u.
Having thus commenced the war, the President
on pretence that the act of 1895 confers on him
power to do so, issued proclamation calling on
the States to furnish seventy-ive thousand men
ior carrying 1t on and the Secretary OF War Off
cialy informed me that North Carolina was ay
pected to furnish two regiments to aid the North in
subiugating her sister States-we might with pronr
ETY. say of some of them her ughters-nfthe South
promptly replied to that fuuctionary that q re-
gard levy ct troops for the purpose of subjugat-
ing the States of the South as in violation of the
Constitution, and an usurpation of power. | can
De no party to this wicked violation of the laws of
the country, and to this upon the liberties of a
Tree people. You can get no troops from North
Carolina" va
| The marriage of the daughter of the Rhode Is
land Regiment was very interesting ceremony
She was dressed in Turkish costume, made ofred.
| white an d blue. ~