New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1862-03-15

! the State OF South CarOiina ID 'o'""J "
lion against the Union. The whole Dooy y,
her State officers, without an excePtion' anu
all but an inappreciable fraction Of her peopio'
ara rer.onallv traitors. Tho General Govern
ment has not information that single 'o!a'
citizen lives within her borders; out sui Inc
Pos, declares South Carolina is State ana
bsr ,ov,l people. who no longer exist save IN
tbe merest fraction of the population If at all'
are entitled to all the rights of State In the
Union. "One.haf," The Post tells US, "or
d" nine. tenths Of the people might be carried
" off by pestilence, and yet the remainder
" vould constitute the State Of New-fork.
We only need to carry this logic step or two
further to make its falacy conspicuous. If
nine -tenths of the people might be carried oil
without impariDg the rights OF q State, IL any
fragment remaining would possess all the I'M
munites of State under the Constitution,
we have only TO ask where the process ends
What sort Of arithmetic is this which accounts
the whole TO he undiminished by the secesslve
subtraction of its parts, and the mnutcst irac-
ton of q remaining part to be equal 10 'ne
original whole 1t is not in the schooi oi
practical reason that such conclusions can DC
reached, but only in that of abstruse 'cons''-
: " tutional." that is, purely theoretical views
of State organization and rights.
The worst abuses must ever result from inns
refusal TO admit into our reasoning any modih-
cotion which the actual state Of facts would
imposs upon our theories. Under tho unre-
| formed Constitution of England, Old Sarum had
been entitled TO a representation in Parliament;
and. though the population had dwlndled, III
successive generations, to single family, II
was impossible for the blind adherent Of vested
rights to deny that the single mhabtant OF The
locality was entitled to full representation OF
q borough. And this system OF reasoning, when
act, ND a theoretical view Of the State against
all the realities Of the case, is grayely pro-
pounded for our adoption; and We are told that
any conceivable fraction Of State Is entitled
to all the privileges of State, no matter how
vast and tremendous are the changes which
NAV sweep over either the SOIL or the minds
Of its people.
\ IL is somewhat curious to compare with this
view tic recent expressions of another article
of The Post on the same general subject. One
week earlier in its impression OF the 9TH, that
journal contended for great distinction be-
tween the de jure and the de taeto conditions
of State. We were then told that " Inc
Z" Southern States are de jrc part OF the
q" Union: they cannot take themselves out OF
- it,; but de faoto the constitutional State or
" carnations do not exist They cannot exist
until the loyal people shall breathe the
" breath of life into their comatose bodies
4" But who these loyal people are is to be as
certaned in a formal manner. n Proris-
A" ,onei GorfrHment must occupy The States, sup
=" ported By N, requisite military authority until
" The instruction is suppressed, and duly dn'
" hori.ed Commissions shall hare deferm'nee'
under authority Of Congress, the status Of the
4" Inhabitants"
This distinction OF de .fae,o and de jure COW
era all the ground Of Senator Summers resolu-
tion,. 4 Government de Jdcto is, by every
legal principle real Government, aud Gov
erument which is merely de jnre is ono purely
thcorctica-one which in theory ought to e1-
ist. but in reality does not. Tho most that the
obnoxious resolutions affirm is, not that there
is not theoretically loyal State Of South Car
olina-ior our theories have not 20. c Go. Sa=
! L Liit that the sioert rejection, by the whole
BODY, of her officials, and her population alike,
of every tie which could bind her TO the Union,
il practical abdication" of oil her functions
/ in that Government. Whatever, therefore, may
be our views OF the theoretical relation Of
State Government TO the Union, that Govern
ment in South Carolina is at an end. 1t does
not exist, and this is simply what Mr.. Sum-
ner's resolutions recognize and affirm.
I On the ground of this state of facts, the re-
cent bill Of Mr.. Ashley proposes to do precisely
what The Post here suggests should be done,
/ that is, to organize provisional territorial Gov
ernments TO determine the status of the in
habltants, md TO prepare for re-ostablisment
of them in the Union whenever their attested
loyalty shall lit them to exercise the functions of
citizens and members of our political organiza.
/ ton. II this view of The Post IL corrsct-if
practically and really there are no existing
State organizatons--if the breath of life is to
| be breathed into bodies which do not exist, aud
cannot exist" until Congress shall have de-
/ termned the status of the loyal inhabitants,
who does not see that in the interval there is no
constitutional authority over tho area of those
recent States, but that of the General Govern
menti Who does not see that il is the duty
of Congress TO recognize the condition Of the