The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1865-12-14

: 10 nutual aUecllOn ana support.
e The amendment to the Constitution be
: ing adopted, it would remain for the
7 States whose powers have been so long III
allegiance to resume their places in the
: two branches of the National Legislature
and thereby complete the work of res
, toration. Here it is for you, fellow citi-
zens of the Senate, and for you, fellow
citizens Of the House Of Representatives
to judge, each of you for yourselves, of
the elections, returns, and qualifications
of your own members.
) The full assertion of the powers of the
: General Government requires the hold
, ing Of Circuit Courts Of the United States
within the districts where their authority
!, has been interrupted. In the present
) posture of our public affairs, strong OBJ
jections have been urged to holding those
courts in any Of the States where the re-
bellion has existed aud it was ascertain
ed, by inquiry, that the Circuit Court Of
the United States would not be held with
in the District of Virginia during the
autumn or early winter, nor until Congress
should have can opportunity to consider
aud act ON the whole subject"
To your deliberations the restoration of
this branch Of the civil authority of the
United States is therefore necessarily re-
ferred, with the hope that early provision
will be made for the resumption Of all its
functions 1t is manifest that treason,
most fragrant in character has been com
mitted
Persons who are charged with its com
mission should have fair and impartial
trials in the highest tribunals of the coun-
try, in order that the Constitution and
the laws may be fully vindicated the
truth clearly established and affirmed that
treason is a. crime, that traitors should be
punished, and the offence made infamous !;
and, at the same time the question may
be judicially settled, finally and forever,
that no State CT its own will has the right
1 to renounce its place in the Union.
/ The relations of the General Govern
ment towards the four millions of inhab-
itants whom the war has called into freed
ON, have engaged my most serious con-
sideration. Ou the proprety of attempt
ing to make the freedmen electors by the
proclamation OF the Executive, | took for
my counsel the Constitution itself, the
interpretations of that instrument by its
authors and their contemporaries, and re-
cent legislatious by Congress. When, at
the first movement towards independ-
ence, the Congress of the United States
instructed the several States to institute
governments of their own, they left each
State to decide for itself the conditions
for the enjoyment Of the elective fran
ctise.
During the period of the Cenfederacy,
there continued to exist very great
diversity in the qualifications of electors
in the several States and even in State
distinction of qualifications prevailed
with regard to the officers who were to
be chosen. The Constitution of the Uni
ted States recognizes those diversties
when it enjoins that, in the choice of
members Of the House of Representatives
of the United States, "the electors in each
State shall have the qualifications requi
site for electors Of the most numerous
branch of the State Legislature.
! After the formation Of the Cons.tu
ton, it remained, as before, the uniform
usage for State to enlarge the body OF its
electors, according to its own judgment: /;
and, under this system, one State after
tanother has proceeded to increase the
number of its electors, until now univer
sal suffrage, or something very near it, Is
I the general rule. SO fixed was this re
servation of power in the habits OF he
people, and so unquestioucd has been the
Interpretation of the Constitution, that
during the civil war the late President
never harbored the purpose-certalnly
never avowed the purpose-of disregard
ing it and in the acts of Congress, dur
ing that period, nothing can be found
which, during the continuance of hos
! tilitics, much less after their close, would
have sanctioned any departure by the
Executive from policy which has so
uniformly obtained.
Moreover, concession Of the elective
franchise to the freedmen, by act of the
United States, must have been extended
to all colored uen, wherever 1onnd, ana
must establish change of suffrage In
the Northern, Middle and Western States
, not less than in the Southern and South
western. Such an act would have created
a new class of voters, and would have
been an assumption of power by the
President which nothing in the Constitu-
tion or laws of the United States would
have warranted.
On the other hand, every danger OF
conflict is avoided when the settlement OF
the question is referred to the several
States They can, each for itself, decide
on the measure, aud whether it is to be
8 adopted at once and absolutely, OF intro
duced gradually and with conditions
0 In my judgement, the freedmen, 1t they
, show patience and manly virtues, viii
( sooner obtain participation in the elec
2 tive franchise through the States thar
through the General Government, ever
Y if it had power to intervene.