Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1864-01-24
The NuIIificatiOn Proclamation Of
General Banks.

General BANKS issues his proclamation
for an election in Louisiana on the 22d o.
February for Governor and other State Off
GERS under the Constitution and laws o
Louisiana, EXCEPT such portions thereof as
relate to slavery, which General BANKS de-
Military Commander sets aside State Con-
stitutiOn and laws made in pursuance there
of and not only that, but violates the United
States Constitution and the oath of Office he
has taken to support it; for the National
Constitution guarantees to Louisiana and
every other State her Constitution and the
laws made pursuant thereto. o'tl sges ~ ~
1t may be said that Gen. BANKs's procla-
nation is made to suit state of things in
duced by the so-called Emancipation and
Amnesty proclanations of President LIN
colin. But that is no excuse or apology for
him. Neither Presidents, Generals, Con-
gress nor Judges, nor the whole people of
all the other States combined, have any
right to set aside any portion of a State
Constitution not in conflict with the Con-
stitution of the United States or to make
void any constitutional law of any State,
no matter to what subject it relates, wheth-
er it be slavery, religion, social, political or
property rights. Esl.p 9
But Gen. BANKS, in the plenitude of his
assumed and usurped power over Constitu-
tions and laws, goes step further, and, a Ia
LOUIS NAPOLEON, makes grand coup detat,
and issues his Gen. BANKs's) edict for an
election of delegates on the first Mondayin
z April, to State Convention, to revise, al
ter and remodel the Constitution of Louisi-
ana. What disinterested patriotism in Gen.
BANKS to assume to act for the people of
Louisiana, without once sayintV by your
leave, gentlemen" and of his own soverr
eign will and pleasure, call Convention to
modify and change the organic law of their
State! sif5ai1 gal ofof1m
As the news of General BANKs's pronun-
ciamento sent out from his headquarters at
New Orleans, came North, all radicalism
was wrapped in wild ecstasy. 1t saw, or
thought it saw the clear dawning of that
& era when the negro shall be free and equal
in all the land; when there shall be no
State rights men to give trouble or any
State rights to defend, and when no Demo-
crat or Conservative shall be left to seek or
hold an Office or scare the cormorants who
gorge themselves at the pnblic crib. Fanat-
icism rolled her eyes in wild delight and ex-
claimed: "What wonderful events are
ftrahspiring in these latter days!'
But in the midst Of this transport, as If
invented to spoil these delightful anticipa-
tions, comes sound of dissatisfaction, even
among the Administration adherents in
Louisiana and other places more northward,
with the course and policy Of Gen. BANKS.
We shall soon see whether the people of
this country are prepared to see State Con-
stitutions and State laws declared null and
void at the will of a military commander,
be he high or low, and be his plea necessity
or any other. If they are, then all the State
Governments will be annihilated in turn
with the rights and liberties of the people.
Such revolutionary and arbitrary usurpa-
tions of power, unless checked in time,
neverstop halfway and neyergo backward.