The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1862-08-30
Speech of Hon. j. Harlan, of
Iowa.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, JULY
IL, 1852.
CONTINUED.

fla State government may be destroyed
by the people residing within Its own boun-
daries, we inquire in the next place if some
of the States of this Union have not been
destroyed. If these States have not, in
contemplation of law and the Constitution,
ceased to exist they are still States; and
if States. they are either in the Union or
out of the Union as States.
Now, what is State 1t is not, ap-
prehend, the land on which people may
happen to i've; nor is it the people that
may happen to live on the land. 1t is such
alegal organization of the people in one com.
pact community as will enable it to protect
the rights of each and all against all intru-
ders, usually denominated a government,
with such officers as will enable it to enact
laws and administer justice, and hold inter
course with other States or nations l in.
quire if, in South Carolina, there now exists
such Stateg If so, is it in the Union If
it is State still In the Union, where is its
Governor, where Is its Legislature, where is
its judiciary If you recognize it as a
State, you must recognize the organs through
which the people act. You cannot claim
that it is q State because the land is there
on which the people live, nor merely be-
cause there are people living on the land !;
but it must be because there is such polit-
ical or civil organization of that people as
enables you to recognize their existence
through their officers-exccutive, legislative
and judicial.
you admit that such State exists
within the limits of South Carolina, I hum.
bly, submit that it is out of the Uuion.-
There is no Governor there whom you can
recognize as Governor; there is no Legis-
lature there that you can appeal to as a
Legislature; there are no judges there be-
fore whom your people can claim trial Of
their rights, and whose adjudications you
can recognize as valid.
Ifa people exist there without an Execu-
tive, without Legislature, and without a
judiciary system which you can recognize,
is it a State? maintain that it is not a
State; and l. think am sustained in this
conclusion by the language of the Constitu-
tion itself. 1t says: d
"The Senator's and Representatives be-
fore mentioned, and the members of the sew
eral State Legislatures, and all executive and
judicial officers, both the United States
and of the several States, shall be bound by
oath or affirmation to support this Constitu-
tion +; and the Judges in every State shall be
bound thereby, anything in the Constitu-
ton or laws Of any State to the contrary
notwithstanding.
Now. sir, submit that there Is no such
Governor, that there are no such judges in
any one of the rebel States, that their State
organization has ceased to exist it has been
obliterated by their own wicked people
You oan no longer recognize the people
within those boundaries as State. You
haveno means Of reaching them through
any State organization and il there is no
civil organization through which you can
reach them as the people Of a State, the
State has ceased to exist.
/, submit in the next place. that the
President, in administering the laws in these
rebel districts, has assumed that no State
government exists IfTennessee and North
Carolina are still States Of the Union, what
right had your President to appoint Govern
ors for their people. II these rebel districts
are still States Of the Union, what Constitu.
tional right has the President to proceed to
suppress an insurrection unless requested to
do so by the Legislatures thereof, or, during
their recess, by the Governors. Again, il
these districts are still States ofthe Union
what right has tho President 20 commission
the officers Of their militia called into the
service Of the United States, the Coustitu-