Columbia Democrat and Bloomsburg general advertiser. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1850-1866, 1864-02-13
The Confiscation Act,

AC AOAhAAoCUgAOA AAOsn
The joint resolution emandotory OF the
resolution explanatory Of the Con6scstion
act was passed by the Federal House Of
Representatives on Friday last, The vote
was close, being eighty-throe to seventy
four; but that small majority of nine was
sufficient to place that branch of Congress
OH record as the deliberate vioalors of an
express provision Of the Constitution. |!
has thus been demonstrated shat the Abo-
lition faction in Congress is numerically
strong enough to carry the most infamous
and unconstitutional measures. 1t is fear
ful to contemplate the condition Of anarchy
and chaos to which this wild nd unsoru.
pulous Legislation may bring the country,
The fanatics who sway the Federal coun-
ellis bid defiance to all law, all right, all
constitutional restraint that stand at all in
the way of their desperate purposes. or
course when returning reason exposes the
illegality OF this act of stoiaten and re-
venge, and when cur courts of justice shall
have resumed their functions, ,unnhuenced
by despotie power, the Confscation bill
will be no more than so parchment 70
battle-dores" But,meanwhilo, the course
OF robbery by legislation will have been
run, and questions appcrtaining to titlesin
Southern real estate will have become
so complicated and confused that the en-
tire country will be Involved in litigation,
and years of judicial inquiry will be re-
qured to unravel the tange of conflicting
claims.
We do not design to comment on the
unconstitutionality, injustice and impolcy
OF the act. The question argues ITSELF
We need but to point to the emphatic
statement Of the Constitution and the eyi-
dence is there of crime of those foresworn
legislators, who have, in their off cal seats
torn into shreds the bond by which the
States were united. A covenant broken
il one of its provisions is canccled.-
The House of Representatives have
officially made null the stipulated
obligations betwoen the sovereign ties
that composed the Union, for they
have morally destroyed, in their charact-
ers as Representatives, the instrument by
which that Union was created. We pre-
sumo that now the Constitution will be set
aside completely, and that the country
will be hencelorth ruled by military die
tatorship. Executive procamations, mill
tary commissions, courts martial, and de-
crees at the caprice of the Abolition ma
jorities in Congress will hereafter control
our political system.
The joint resolution passed on Friday
is no less ridiculous than illegal, for the
argument by which it was supported in
substance was that those who shall be
tried for treason and convicted shall not be
punished beyond the conditions OF the Con-
stitution but those who shall be convicted
ac'th0W trial shall be punished without
regard to the provisions Of the Constitu-
ton. Thus, the heirs of Rebel, who
has been denied the right of trial, shall be
disinherited; but those of his felow.rebels
who is arraigncd before a justices tribunal
shall forfeit no part of their inheritance.
This is absurd, unless it M cans that so far
as treason is concerned, our courts Of JUS
ticc are to be suspended, leaving the Fed
eral Executive to accuse, to try aud to
punish by proclamation.