Daily State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1864-03-03

To this class, which may be styled the conser-
vatlse party IA the Administration, tic President
himself naturally belongs. The other idea is
that OF the radicals of the Administration party
men who originate and lead and shape revolu-
Ton; men OF more robust intellect. clearer men
tai vision. more energy of will and drectness OF
purpose than the President and bis conservative
adherents; men of the stanp-if il may so say
OF the gentleman from Pennsylvania, Nj Ste
vens, whose amendment would sweep away at
once all The cobwebs of constitutional technical
iues by which more iimid and less clear sighted
men othis parry would stop the onward progress
oil guggernaut of confscation, whereof the negro
idoi sits enthroned. The timid men want alb
solute connscation. IL opens before them 4 wide
held where revenge. philanthropy. aud loyalty
can all get proht aud substantial reward. The
Constitution IS lion in their path: wall in
their Way; fortress and rock of defense to
rights OF States and rights of person and proper
~ bold man, revolutionist, like the gentle
man from Pennsylvania, would, if need be, at
once strike the ramparts of the Constitution. or
push II aside as an unwritten parchment it il lay
IN his pathway. The gentleman from Ohio, Nr.
Gatheld, with the elasticity Of YOUTH but the
discretion of age. would not rush dsliriousy
against the Constitution, but would overlap IL
AT bound. Conservative legislators here. less
bold than the gentleman from Pennsylvania, and
processing desire TO do nothing contrary to il,
would crawl over, under, or around the Consti-
tuition, into the elysum Of national salvation and
UNIVERSAL FREEDOM which they see beyond it,
herein Is the cardinal difference between the
two wings or divisions of the Administration
party, aud the President seems neither by nature
nor 10 Tact to be the leader of either but TO take
his color and his cue from one side or the other.
as the pressure need Of support from either
nj frDT fIfna e.. he
my utter adherence of the revolutionary pur-
poses OF the party. what little of respect | have
Tor Their methods, is with the radicals. With
them. we, whose duty il is 10 stand in defense of
the Constitution, krow we will have an open field
and fair battle From a man who openly curses
the Constitution We know what to expect. Not
SO as to him who would betray it with kiss.
The war power, the mail clad, slaughter
breathing. remorseless Mars is the divinity the
gentleman from Pennsy lvania Mr.. Stevens calls
TO his aid. This war power. which, in the form it
now assumes. was unseen and unsupported in the
placid, beautiful features of the Federal Consti-
tutIen, has suddenly sprang from il, full armed.
like Palas from the brain of Jove; or [ might
better say that Ike the little cloud no larger than
mans hand. which Elisha from the top of
Carmel coming up from the horizon of the sea-
the war power has grown and spread from a
misty, dimly seen nebnla until its deep dark
shadow covers the land like pail, and men gaze
on it
GAS men who watch the thunder cloud in fear,
Les 1t should break above them"
This war power as it is now sought to be ap-
piled to Jurisprudence is not a constitutional
instrument. but revolutionary invention o. rad
lca minds Ii is no legitimate child of the Con-
stitution; il does not bear its neamehts. Nor is
it the child Of the President it has in it nothing
OF his intellectual or physical conformation 1t
something whereon he might lean, and to some
extent he has used it He has used it to effect
the radical end of the emancipation of the slaves.
DE used II first for this purpose with hesitation,
with fepuenance aud great misgiving He
thought proca nation of emancipation under the
power would be thunder without the
bolt or the electric shock, or like the Pope's
bull against the comet. Bu, the Presi-
dents mind is changeIul What he thinks or
declares to-day he may not think declare
abide by Tomorrow. What the President
used doubtingly aud timidly at first, but now
with - Is growing enamored, boys grow in
love with their first firearms, be IL gun or pistol,
and as men grow pleased with power by using it,
the gentlemen from Pennsylvania has no fear
nor doubt in using. he marches boldly up to
the issue of cOntscstiOn, and claims il. not a
punishment for treason under the Constitution.
but as a beligerent right of the conqueror over
Against the theory of the iEviosbility of the
constitutional Federal Union, State rights, the
rights OF property end person under Federal aud
State constitutions. placed in one scale he
boldly throws into the opposing claim what Will
liam Pincknev once APPLY termed the ponderous
claim OF war" By secession and revolution. in
the view OF .:c .-.::: ivania.
rho Southern people have become alien enemies
We have invaded and conquered their territories,
and by the power of emancipated their
slaves within our reach. Their lands are our
property. and they and their slaves our subjects.
The Federal Government is sovereign over both
by the laws of war, and all that remains is TO le-
gislate to the division of the conquered lands.
and 10 organize and protect the new order of
freedmen and ireedmen's soce.y TO be established
there This is the theory and plan of the gentle
man from Pennsylvania, and i'm il the contscation
law pure and unlimited is to play its part 1t is
a bold plan, claiming the EXTREMIST principles
OF the law Of nations for its base, and not the
Federal Constitution: and. at the proper time,
hope it will be fairly and fully met in all its bear
ings, in the manner in which il has been met to-
day in the able argument of my trienl from
Ohio Mr. Finck when the various bills (that of
the gentleman from PENNSYLVANIA included) for
recOnstructlng States, or organizing conquered
provinces. shall come before this House.
CONCLUDED TO MORROW