Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1864-02-01
INDIANAPOLIS, IND, MONDAY, FEB. |, 1864


make the executive practically the government,
and even the state, and to open the door to
wholesale political corruption. and to force the
PEOPLE TO cheat themselves out of their honesty
aud their liberty" This absurd scheme of re
organizing with one tenth of the legal voters
leads the writer TO suggest that the President
seems to have inherited from his old English
Whig ancestry something of the doctrine that
government can only be carried on by trckery
and corruption" But what he most insists on is
the logical absurdity of the scheme, not its cor
rupting tendency. Ii is so utterly Inconsistent
with the idea that the seeded States ssi exist
States, that those who maintain it "are capable
Of maintaining, in spite of the logicians, that of
contradctories both may be true" Here is
detached scrap Of bis argument.
The General Government caDnot interfere in
the internal affairs of State recognized to be
State in the Union, and is as much bound TO re
spect the State constitution and laws not repug
nant TO the constitution and laws Of the United
States. as the State is bound to respect the con
stitution and laws Of the General Government
LII the President denies the seeded States have
ceased to exist. he has right te institute either
military governments or civil governments for
them, to prescribe the conditions on which
they may become States again, and be restored
to their rights as States in the Union, for they
are, on the supposition. already States in the
tyro, and ought to be clear even TO our radical
conservative friends OF the Times -But if the
seeded States have ceased to be States. and he
come simply population and territory belonging
to the Union. then again the President has no
authority either to reorganize them or to pre-
scribe by proclamation or otherwise the conditions
on which they may reorganze and be recognized
rs Srates. In either case. the executive action is
revolutionary and indefensble, as much so as the
action of secession itself. There is no principle
known to our Constitution, written or unwriiten,
on which the action of the executive can be justi
fed or even palated."
DIR. Bsownson portrays the beauties of the re
construction scheme with great boldnes and
felicity of touch No person will object to the
length of the following extracts:
"A State with nine tenths Of its population
disloyal and excluded from the ranks of lis pot
ical people, evidently could not sustain itself and
discharge its proper functions a State in the
Union. Ii would have to be held up and nursed
by the government, and thus would be opened
the door to political intrigue and corrupon ex
ceeding ANYTHING we have yet known, even in
this city. Its representatives in Congress would
be virtual nominees of the Administration, aud
the Congressional Districts would be only so
many "rotteu boroughs" owned by the govern
ment. No election would or could be free. Be
sides, with here and there individual excep
ton, the men who would take the oath and be
allowed to vote would be the weakest and least
energetic portion of the population. The portion
OF the Southern people who have the most char
acter and are the best fitted to govern and look
after the interests Of the State the Union. are
precisely those who would be excluded by the
test oath. The majority of the voters would be
composed OF government employees, a1venturers
from other States, with very little honesty or
principle of any sort, aud without any permanent
interest in the State, or connection with it. Here
Is grave consideration.
I'VE cannot understand why one Union man
in South Carolina, Tennessee or Louisiana,
should count for ten in Massachusetts, New
York, or Pennsylvania We know 10 reason
why they should have any vote at all, while the
great, the overwhelming majority of the popu-
lation are in rebellion. "But that majority are
politically dead" Then do not count them as
basis OF representation. Abstract them from the
whole population given by the census of 1850,
and take only the remainder as the representa-
| tive population. You canyot do that legally
The State is the State. aud you must count its
Whole population or none Then do you not see
the gross inequality and absurdity of pretending
that they are States in the Union. with all their
Federal rights unimpairel? Moreover, the Union
men in the eleven seeded States ere not citizens
of the United States. They enemies, aud are
declared to be by the Supreme Court in the
Hiawaha case, and have been since the 18th of
July, 1861. and their territory is enemy's terri
tory, otherwise the President could never have
placed il under military governors or bleckaded
the Southern ports. The Supreme Court have
decided that the war we are carrying on is not a
simple war against insurgent individuals, but a
territorial civil war. which makes every man,
woman, and child in the rebellious territory an
enemy. The interdict must he removed from
| that territory before these Union men cease TO be
enemies. and that cannot be removed so long as
the law of Congress of the 18th Of july 1861, re.
mains unrepealed. and the gre 1t majority are still
hostile, without gross abuse of executive power.
We do not know that even these Union men in
| the seeded States any better than the Union
men in the organized territories under the gov
ernment of the United States. And why should
they, any more than these, have federal repre-
sentation and an electoral voter"
The relentless logic of Dr. Brownson does ex
ecui;on like the kuife of disSectng surgeon.
| Ii there was any life in the victim at the begin
Mag OF the operation, it is cut into too small
1 pieces for any to remain at Us close.