Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1865-05-31
How the Rebel States Must Gene
Rack.

BACK.
1t is perhaps but charitable to suppose
that General Sherman, when he consented
TO the terms desired by the rebel General
Johnston, in which it was stipulated that
the State Governments of the region in re-
bell,on should be acknowledged, knew
nothing of the nature Of those govern
men,s. There is, We believe, not one of
them whose authority over those States
could be acknowledged with any more
propriety by the Federal Government than
that of Mosby over his band Of guerrillas.
Little has been said in the newspapers
of the changes which have been made in
the organic law of each of the rebel States
since the conspiracy against the Federal
Government showed itself in open hostili-
ties-but it is certain that most important
changes have been made.
Take, for example, the case of Alabama.
We suppose that the majority Of our read
ers have taken for granted that if Ala
bams were to be re-admitted into the
Union, she would come back under her
old constitution-the same which was in
force when the war broke out. This is
not so; that constitution has been laid
aside-the present government Of the State
is organized under another Of quite diff
ferent pattern. There is not an officer in
the State, from the Governor down to
surveyor of highways, who is elected or
appointed under that constitution. 1t Is
a revolutionary State Government, rebel
organization which is in force therefore
which the Federal Government has never
recognized and never can recognize.
When the conspiracy broke out into
open war, its accomplices in Alabama
took measures for calling convention to
frame a constitution confomable to the
new order of things. The convention
was held; it framed new constitution,
renouncing all connection with the Uni
ted States, recognizing the authority OF
the rebel government, and making various
other changes, one of which was that there
should be no further emancipation OF
slaves, even by permission of the State
Legislature. 1t had been provided that
this new instrument should be submitted
to the people of the State, to be adopted
or rejected BY them; but this was not
done; the people were not allowed to
vote upon the question the constitution
was thrust upon them without their ratiti-
cation; the entire civil code Of Alabama
was afterwards altered to conform to it,
and under it the Governor, the Legislature
of the State, and every one of the civil
officers now claiming authority in Ala
bama, were elected.
Such is the nature of the government
now claiming the rule in Alabama, and Of
a like pattern are all the constitutions Of
the Gulf States. Every one of them is
not only government, the functions Of
which are exercised by rebels, but is rev.
dictionary, hostile, treasonous in its very
nature. The Federal Government can no
more recognize its authority in the State
than il can recognize Johnston's army as
regularly recruited in the United States
services, and entitled to their wages out Of
the Treasury. Our government commits
absolute suicide when it admits in any,
even the most distant manner, the right
fulness of government in such manifest
conflict with its own.
The Federal Government, therefore, when
the conspiracy is overthrown within the
rebel States, can only regard these as with
out any lawful government, and must pro-
vide one for them, until either the old
constitutions can be restored, with such
changes as may conform them TO the de-
mands of the time, or new constitutions
made with the assent of the people. The
men who cIaim to act as Governors Of
these States have no right to the office
they claim to fill; they are there by usur-
patton; the members of the State Legisla-
lures have no right to their seats; they
are as much interlopers as the rebel Con-
gress lately assembled at Richmond, and
now scattered before the conquering army
of Grant. When the Federal Government
shall conclude to acknowledge the usur-
patton of Jefferson Davis and his Congress
as a lawful government, it will be soon
enough to admit the rightful existence of
the State governments which form part
of the rebel system. They are all the
brood of the rebellion, and must perish
with it. The mother usurpation is already
des,royed-the progeny must share its
fate.
For our own part, we cannot see how,
even if it were desirable, which it seems TO
US that it is not. an interregnum can be
avoided in all the rebel States-a space
more or less brief between the dissolution
of their present revolutionary system and
the restoration of the State governments
on basis of allegiance and fidelity to the
Federal Government which is now want
ing in all of them. 1t will be for the
President and his advisere to consider
how this necessity may best be provided
for, and with the least prejudice to the
public liberties.-N. =. EUe1inJ Post.