The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1864-04-13

al Government, claiming for himself the now
i er to dictate the form and the character of
the governments, the creation of which, by
what is called the process of fsreconstruction,
will be permitted by the Exeeatiye, and also the
terms and conditions upon which such gov
ernments may be formed and become States
of the Union. They arezto3 be governments
not, in the language of the Declaration of In
dependence, deriving their Jus. .pawers from
the consent of the governed" !" butAgovern.
ments imposed upon the people by the omnip-
; otence the President The President CON
sents that the new States thus to be produced
may take the rames and geographical limits
of the old States, but the plan and principle
of their formation proposed is as thorough
ly anti-republican as it is absurd and imprac-
table. Percieyeing that no considerable por-
tion of the Southern people will voluntarily
4 comply with his proposal to them to abandon
their constitutional rights in reference to
slave labor, and take oaths to sustain his
emancipation proclamatioas, the President
] announces the strange purpose of sustaining
and enforcing such governments when ever a
small minority one tenth of the voters of a
seeded State-shall elect to comply with the
aforesaid terms. Such a scheme is subver-
sive of all our ideas of popular REPUBLICAN
government, the sovereignty OF State being
committed not to the people to be exercised by
the voice of majority, but the inconsidera-
] BILE fraction of one tenth of the people. 1t
would of course require huge.army in every
such State to preserve such fagitious gov
ernment, and its maintainapce, ifit were pos
sible, which it clearly is not, would be a sac
rifice of every principle of the Constitution
and human liberty.
| That there may be factions of men in the se-
ceded States, consisting of the original inhabi
! tants and corrupt Northern miscreants who
will betake tEemselye thither to share in the
mighty pluuder of Commonwealths, who will
consent to the revolving scheme, is rendered
probable by the eagerness with which great
predominating party seizes upon and cherish
es the elements and policy of disorganization
and ruin. And is such, to be the fruit of ex
ecutive proclamations Why, sir, there was
time when proelamations from the highest
authority called upon us as people favored of
| Heaven to assemble to express our thanks to
benefcent Providence for His blessings, to
! observe the solemn ordinances of fasting ard
prayer, or to perform some high political du-
/ ty involved in relations to the State; but
| now they come careering in their wild course
| through the political frmament like comets in
! the heavens rushing through the consultations
without any fixed orbit They come to her
aid the disorganization and crash of our polit
| ical system.
What has occurred of late, 1 ask, to confer
upon the President, or any other citizen. this
enormous power to deal with the very frame
work Of our Government as he pleases lie
has declared, on divers occasions aud in the
| most solemn manner, since his inaug guration
and during the war, that he had no legal pow
er to abolish slavery, and pledged himself to
the faithful execution of the fugitive slave
law We are obliged from his own words to
take it as admitted by him that he has nc
| warrant of law for the late edicts which he
has proclaimed. l knew that certain class
of higher-law men, more inventive. than the
President, harp and carp about what they call
a war power, which, as they claim, relieves the
Administration from all the in5unctions and
restrictions of the paramount law of the realm,
and that by the force of extreme pressure, ac
mplished by persuasions and menaces, they
have misled the President to depart from the
constitutional policy which he promise to OBJ
serve. To their influence we may impute the
suspension, or rather the annihilation, of the
habecs corpus, the trammeling and overthrow
of the jurisdiction of TIE courts, the suppress
sion of the freedom of the press, the denial to
private citizens of the protection of their own
laws, their arrest without process or charge,
even, of treason or other crime defined by law.
their cruel imprisonment and Punishment
no other cause than the exercise of free speech
in criticising the policy and conduct of the
agents in whose hands the people have tempo
rarily confded the defined powers of the Gov
eminent That extravagunt sentiment is oft
en- expressed on this floor. The gentleman
from Pennsylvania who represents the great
manufacturing city nf that State, and who has
maintained high standing in the legal pro-
fession, in speech recently delivered in this
House, said
"Thc war power of the Constitution IS equiv
alent to the Roman dictatorship. It is, how
ever, here as there, the extreme medicine of
the Constitution, and not its daily bread The
mission of republic is peace war is state
of violence. To conduct an army upon the
principles of republican equality would be fa-
tai to all subordination and discipline. sFor
such an exigency as this the normal condition
of the Republic will not serve. Its very or
ganization would forbid it. War is anti-re,
publican in it's effec's, and can only be sue
cessfally waged on anti-republican principles.
While it prevails, the la,0 itself must almost
nccessarily be silent"
If these words have any significance they
mean that the Constitution invests the Fesi
dent in time of war with unlimited dictorial
power-power over the lives, liberties, and
property of the people. 1t is wonderful how
the heated furnace of party politics operates
upon mems opinions. If a student, three
years ago, under examination by a committee
of lawyers, had expressed such an opinion, he
could not have been admitted to the bar Of
any county in the United States.
In answer to- these extravagant and illogic-
al assumptions which, once admitted, would
transform an officer of the Government of
strictly limited powers into despot of unlim-
tied powers, it is only necessary to refer to
that Constitution which is authortatively de-
clared to be the paramount law in war aud
peace, and which declares that no power be-
yord the letter of its grant exists in or can be
exercised by the Federal Government or its
! officers.
of article one of the Constitution declares
that
sTbe Congress shall kave power to declare
war, grant letters of mnrque and reprisals and
make rules concerning captures on lend and
| &