Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1864-08-17

oLV ~ 10 W 0t0uu 90 ~ ics ~ 10 ioAi ''eo6'iy1
the parties who arc bound by it shall change its
terms, or add to it new provisions. Any other doc-
trine is revolutionary and destructive and to be ut.
terly rejected, whether founded upon Presidenusl
proclamations or statutes enacted BY Congress
The powers of the Federal Government in all its
branches are confined within the provisions OF the
Constitution, and cannot transcend them therefore
the Constitution it is, including its power OF reg
ular amendment is the leading doctrine OF the great
party which proposes to save the nation in this tine
day of its sore trial But if the false and guilty doc
triue that the President of the United States by
proclamation or the Congress thereof by statute,
can prescribe alter add to or diminish the condition
of union between States, be discarded at once and
forever and post of the difficulties which appear to
attend the question of reconstruction will wholly
disappear. Those departments of the government
are confined to particular legislative and executive
duties and cannot touch determine the relations
of the State with each other. That field OF power
is sacred to the great organized communities oy
whom the Union was formed and by whom alone 1t
can be subjected to modification or change. we
have fought to restore the Union, not to change it.
much less to subvert its fundamental principles, and
the accomplishment of its restoration is the compen
sation propose to ourselves for all the costs ana
sacrifices of the struggle.
But what is impossible to the President or to
Congress it is competent for the States in their SOW
ereign capacity by free mutual consent at the prop
er time, to perform
The American States required compact ofunion
to go through the of the revelation and it was
made. Subsequently they required an amended
compact, creating more intimate union, to secure
to them the fruits ofindependence. From their de-
alterations the latter occasion there resulted that
most admirable instrument, the Constitution OF the
United States under which the republic has existed
and prospered for more than seventy years. And
now, under our experience of revolt, and war and
disagreement we may conclude that additional
securities for liberty and union should be estab-
lshed in the Fundamental law. But these securities
must consist OF limitations, rather than OF exten-
sions of Federal authority, and must not invade
those fields of power which left sacred to State
jurisdiction in the original scheme of union.
The Constitution should provide against the un
controlled domination of sectional parties South or
North, in the Government of the United States, as
the most indispensable and vital regulation possible
for safety and continued existence as Republic.
We are at war, and blood flows, and wealth is
wasted, and fanatcism runs RIOT and the Constltu
ton is broken, and we are bowed down by bitter
grief and sorrow in all our homes because section
al faction rules the Government of the United States
free from restraint limitation of its pow
ers. And 1t should be made impossible that this
condition of things can again exist after we have
once extrcated ourselves from the grasp Of calamity
There should also be q judicous limitation upon
the distribution of Fedora! patronage.
change by which the great body of public officers
you'd 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 reconstruction
is, that to individuals there shall be amnesty
cept for particular offences. All the excuses of
state Of war cannot be visited with judicial punish
ont pofh md r,o1fo nnSra hot q
the conclusion Of such struggle, the mantle of ob
livion shall cover the past. nation torn by civil
war demands repose at its conclusion, that society
may be recognized and that the passions and de.
morazation produced by war may disappear before
the renewed action of moral forces Laws Of confs
cation and treason may be polite and necessary TO
prevent instruction or to check it in the outset;
but they become inapplicable when revolt has
rpencd into public war, and one entire people are
organized against another. Penal enactments,
when directed against whole population, are odious
and useless and their tendency is to prolong and in
tensify war, and to embarrass its just conclusion
Their Office is to chastise individual offenders with
in Government jurisdiction, and not entire commu-
mites contending for independence or other public
objects. The laws of war necessarily and properly
obtain between the parties to war pending the
contest, and dispace or supercede those of munich
pal enactment. Amnesty, therefore, within the
limit of public safety, follows Of course the term
nation Of such contest as that in which we are now
engaged.
1t may be added that clear justice requires that
Unionisls who have fed from the revoltcd country
should be restored to their estates, and that the
particular wrongs inflicted upon them should as far
as possible be redressed.