The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1862-05-08

Scenes Of fraternal bloodshed similar
to those which are now occurring in
the slave States were enacted. These
measures were all war measures, hay.
ing each and every of them for their
object the enfeebing, the expulsion,
and destruction of the enemy. And
they were just, for common prudence
suggested their necessity. So plain
was this, that in after times, when peace
was restored, and the bitterness Of feel.
ingspodified by the lapse of years, the
States refused to relax their rigors, or
TO any considerable extent suffer the
confiscations to be removed, or their
former domestic foes, now driven into
exile, to return to their homes. These
measures were not acts of ordinary leg
islation In time of peace. They meant
not peace, but war, civil war; and by
their plain intention, as well as their
terms, were but instrumentalities in
waging and conducting an actual, ex,
listing war. The coniscations were
leveled against enemies. enemies i'm the
sense of the recognized code of war
and of nations, and were obviously as
much means of carrying on the war
against them as would have been the
seizure of their property on the high
seas, or shooting them down on the
field of battle. No argument can divest
them of their real character as war
measures. There is no room for sub-
tility or sophistry as to their kind
or quality. No ingenuity of argument
can remove them rom the category in
which We find them; and unless we
deny that our Revolution was ,oar, we
cannot deny that these measures were
among the means of prosecuting it on
the part of the colonies.
come now to the question of power,
the great question whether under our
written Constitution, we AS Govern
ment have in law the right to declare
and enforce the forfeiture and confisca-
tion contemplated by the bill.
l admit, that if we have not this
power under the Constitution, we can.
not forfeit and confiscaie the property
of rebels, real personal, and that any
title We might assume to give, would
be void in law
| There is no clause in the instrument
expressly comforting the power, and
unless it is implied as means of car
rying into execution some one of the
powers expressly granted and enumer-
ated, or some other power not so ex-
pressed or enumerated, but nevertAe,
less "vested Ito use the terms of the
instrumenD by this Constitution in the
Government Of the United States, or
in any department thereof" we are un-
able to exercise it. | need not say to
candid and rejecting men that the dan.
gers arising from too broad an interpre-
lation of the Constitution are by no
means less to be dreaded and avoided
than those proceeding from one too
narrow and illiberal. The instrument
must be construed with reference to the
state of things existing at its formation,
and the purpose had in view by its
trainers. Those purposes are plainly
announced in the comprehensive Lam
guage of the preamble, and no one can
misunderstood them. They were " to
form more perfect union, establish
Justice, insure domestic tranquility,
provide for the common defense, pro-
mote the general welfare, and secure
J the blessings of liberty to ourselves
and our posterity." The insuring Of
domestic tranquility is thus expressly
indicated as one of the prominent obs
jects of the Constitution, and nothing
can be palmer than that it means, not
f mere family or neighborhood tranquil
ty, not the tranquility of the ireside.
but the internal tranquility of the na-
ton as a nation, and of the States a.
political bodies and constituent parts
of the nation. 1t was political trans
i guilty, as opposed to political disturb-
ance, as opposed TO anarehical and In.
surrectionary movements of classes.
districts, or communities, tending to
disturb the internal peace of the nation,
, and to overthrow law and order. .a'g
|, Such is one OF the ends for which
the Constitution was made-an impor-
tant end /; one without which the Gov
ernment itself would have been but
vanity and vexation of spirit, and the
liberties it was to secure a chimera.
| Now, there is no clause expressly an.
thorizing the Government to wage and
carry on war with foreign nation,
whether offensive or defensive, and yet
to pretend that because of the absence
of such grant of power the Govern
ment, though expressly authorized to
raise and support armies and provide
and maintain navy, is destitute Of all
power to use and employ them in de-
Tense of its own existence. would de-
serve and receive the ridicule Of all.
But, as if to take away all cavil, and
all grounds of cavil, AMI distinct
ly and expressly to insure domestic
tranquility, the convention OF 1887 au-
thorized Congress, in terms, to call
forth the militia to suppress insurrec-
ton that is, an armed rising of many
persons, acting in concert, with the
purpose of overthrowing the Govern.
ment, or of resisting its authority by
concerted armed violence. This is pre-
oisey the form of public disturbance
which now exists; the same violation
of domestic tranquility, against which
it was one express object of the Con-
stitution to guard. And the means
J which it, by express terms, place in our
I hands to combat and subdue this vio-
. lence is the employment of the militia.
say in terms, for do not mean TO be
10.Ht.nu bo y,orfaok