Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1864-08-12

4. a. - :
and it is to stand as il is in its full integrity until
the parties who are bound by il shall change IT'S
terms or add TO it new provisions. Any other doc
trine il revolutionary and destructive and to be at
Ierly rejected whether founded upon Presidential
proclamatious or statutes enacted by Congress
The powers of the Federal Government IN all us
branches are confined within the provisions OF the
Constellation aud cannot transcend them: therefore
the Constitutions it is including its power etreg
ular amendment is the leading doctrine Of ne greA1
party which proposes to save the nation IN tins tne
day Ct its sore trial But il the false and guilty ooc
trine that the President Of the United states oy
proclamation or the Congress thereof by statute
can prescribe alter add to diminish the eohdlon
Of union between States, be discarded at once ana
forever and most Of the difficulties which appear 10
attend the question of reconstruction will wholly
disappear Those departments of the government
are confined particular legislative and executive
duties and cannot touch or determine the relations
Of the State With each other That field OF power
is sacred to the great organized communities by
whom the Union was formed and by whom alone 1t
can be subjected to modification or change. we
have fought to restore the Union, not to change IT.
much less to Subyert its fundamental principles and
the accomplishment of its restoration is the compen
sation propose to ourselves for all the costs and
sacrifices of the struggle. .-.- 60
But what is impossible to the President or to
Congress it is competent for the States in their SOW
eregn capacity by free mutual consent at the prop
er tlnfe, to perform. '.a...
The American States required compact ofunion
to 20 through the war of the revolution, and It was
| made. Subsequently, they required On HIAeHdso'
contract, creating more intimate union, to secure
to them the fruits ofindependenee- From their de-
alterations the latter occasion there resulted that
most admirable instrument the Constitution OF the
United States, under which the republic has existed
and prospered for more than seyegty years. And
now, under our experience of revolt, and war ana
nl,Ao ehnk- adj m
securities for liberty and union should be estao-
ished in the fundamental law But these securities
must consist of limitations. rather thanof extern
Sions of Federal authority, and must not invade
those fields OF power which were left sacred 10 State
jurisdiction in the original scheme ofunio
The Constitution should provide against the I'M
controlled domination of sectional parties, South or
North in the Government Of the United States, as
the most indispensable and vital regulation possible
for our safety and continued existence as Republic.
We are at war; and blood flows, and wealth is
wasted and fanatieism runs rot and the Constitu
| ton is broken, ard We are bowed down by bitter
grief and SORROW in all our homes because section.
al faction rules the Government Of the United States
free from restraint cure or Limitation OF its pow
| erS. And 1t should be made impossible that this
| condition Of things can again exist after we have
extricaed ourselves from the grasp of calamity
There should also be o iudicieus limitaEiou upon
the distribution of Fedora! patronage. ~
| change ny Wnlcn the great OOuy OF puOnc Officers
| : ould hold fer fixed terms, and be removable only
for lawful cause, would be one of great merit and
wisdom, and IS among the most desirable objects 10
| be sought in our public policy.
O. AMNESTY.
| Another proposition pertaining to reconstruction
| is, that individuals there shall be amnesty
cept for particular offences. AL the excuses Of
! state of war cannot be visited with judicial punish
ment Both necessity and policy require that, at
| the conclusion Of such struggle, the mantle of ob
| liVion shall cover the past nation torn by civil
demands repose at its conclusion, that society
may be re organized and that the passions and dc
mOrsli2ali'm produced By war may disappear before
the renewed action Of moral forces Laws OF conhS
cation apd treason pay be polite and necessary to
prevent resurrection TO cTeck it in the outset
| but they become inapplicable when revolt has
ripened into public war; and one entire people are
organized against another. Penal enactments,
when directed against whole poPuatiou5 are odoos
and useless and their tendency is to prolong and in
tensiy war, and to embarrass its just conclusion
Their Office is to chsstse individual offenders with.
in Government jurisdiction, and not entire cOmnu-
mites eontending for independence other public
Objects The laws of war necessarily and properly
| obtain between the parties to pending the
contest, and displace or supercede those of munich
| pal enactment Amnesty, therefore, within the
limit Of public safety, follows Of course the termi
nation Of such q contest that in which we are now
| engaged
IL may be added that clear justice requires that
UninniSts who have 6ed from the reyolted country
should be restored TO their estates, and that the
particular wrongs inflicted upon them should as far
| as possible be redressed.