The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1864-08-12
DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSIONAL
ADDRESS.

DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSIONAL
~ ADDRESS.
Concluded
! RECONSTRUCTION.
The propositions which should obtain
in the reconstruction of the Union are
not difficult of statement, and when con
tras,ed with the policy of the adminiatra-
ton will appear to peculiar Advantage
The first is that the States shall stand as
before the war, except "a to changes
which may be agreed upon between or
among them The Constitution Of the
Uni,ed States is the rightful and only
bond of union for the States COMPOSING
the confederacy, and it is to stand as it is,
in its full integrity. until the parties who
are bound by it shall change its terms, or
add to it new provisions. Any other
doctrine is revolutionary aud destructive
and to be utterly rejected, whether found
ed upon Presidential proclamations or
statutes enacted by Congress. The pow
ers Of the Federal Government in all its
branches are confined within the provis>
ions of the Constitutions, and cannot
transcend them therefore the Consti,u-
ton as it is, Including its power of regu-
lar amendment, is the leading doctrine of
the great party which proposes TO save
the nation in this the day of its sore trial
Let the false and guilty doctrine that the
President of the United States bv procla-
nation or the Congress thereof by stat
ute, can prescribe alter, add to or dimi
nish the conditions Of union between the
States, be discarded at once and forever
and mos, of the difficulties which appear
to attend the question of reconstruction
will wholly disappear. Those depart
mems Of the government are confined to
particular legislative and executive duties
and cannot touch or determine the rela>
tons of the States with each other. That
field of power is sacred to the great or
gained committees by whom the Union,
was formed and bv whom alone it can be
subject to modification or change. We
have fought 10 restore the Union, not to
change it, much less to subve.s it's funda-
mental principles, and the accomplish
ment Of its restoration is the compensa
ton we propose TO ourselves for all the
costs and sacrifices Of the struggle.
But what is impossible to the President
or 10 Congress it is competent for the
States, in their sovereign capacity, by
free mutual consent, at the proper time,
to perform
The American States required a CON :
pact OF union to 90 through the war o:
the revolution, and il was made Subse
quen,!y they required an amended com
pact, creating more intimate union, to
secure to them the fruits Of independence.
From their deliberations on TIE latter oc
casion there resulted that mos, admirable
instrument, the Constitution Of the Uni,
ted States, under which the republic has
existed and prospered for more than seven
~ years. And now under our experience
Of revolt, and war and disagreement,
we may conclude that additional secur-
ties for liberty and union should be es
tablished in the fundamental law. Blu,
these securities must consist Of limitations
rather than extensions of Federal autho-
rity, and must not invade those fields OF
power which were left sacred to State ju-
risdiction in the orig inal scheme of union
The &C Institution should provide against
the uncontrolled domination of sectional
parties, South or North, in the Govern
ment of the United States, as the most
indispensable and vital regulation possible
for our safety and continued existence as
8 republic.
We are at war, and blood flows, and
wealth is wasted, and fana,icism runs rio,
and the Constitution is broken, and we
are bowed down by bitter grief and sor.
row in all our homes, because Il sectiona
faction rules the government of the Uni
ted States, free from restraint, or curb, OF
Limitation Of its powers. And it should
be made impossible tina; this condition OF
things can again exist after we have once
extricated ourselves from the grasp o:
calamity. 1852
There should also be judicious limi
tation upon The distribution of Federal
patronage. A change by which
the grea, body of public officers would
hold for fixed terms, and be removable
only for lawful cause, would be one Of
great merit and wisdom, and is among
the most desirable objects to be sought in
our public policy.
AMNESTY.
Another proposition pertaining to re.
construction is, that as to individuals
there shall he amnesty, except for particu
lar offences. All the excuses Of state o.
war cannot be visited with judicial pun.
ishment. Both necessity and policy re-
Quire that, at the conclusion Of such =
struggle. the mantle Of oblivion shall COW
or the past. A nation torn by civil wal
demands repose at its conclusion, shat so.
ciety NAV be reorganized, and that the
passions and decentralization produced by
war may disappear before the renewed ac-
ton of moral forces Laws Of conf.cation
&c. may be polite and necessary to pre-
vent instruction or to check it in the on,
set; bu, they become inapplicable when
revolt has ripened into public war, and
one entire people are organized agains,
another. Penal enactments, when direct
ed against whole population, are odious
and useless, and their tendency is 20 pro-
long and intensity war, and to embarrass
or prevent its just conclusion. Their Of
n