Civilian & telegraph. [volume] (Cumberland, Md.) 1859-1875, 1865-07-20
NUMBER xxx.
Key to President Johnson's Policy.

hey eo Ireslue1t JoHnS0n'S- F01Cy.--l
On the day of the assembling Of the Ohio,
Republican State Convention, at Celun,bus,-s =
letter from delegate was published in the
State J0vnal, Of that city, which sets forth
the policy of President Johnson, and to which
peculiar Importance las been attached from
an endorsement by the Louisville journal. b,
the effect that it is semi-oficial expressions
of the Presidents opinions g.., ... ;.,-za-a
1.-The true key to the Presidents Prcclaual,
tlon Is that he holds the doctfine that the So,
called acts Of State Secession are null and
void. and all acts done in pursuance thereof.
and hence that all Offices held under the Rebel
authority can be declared vacant by the i,nili-
tary authority of the President of the Unitod
States, on the quelching of the rebellion
Further, that the State constitutions and
laws in force at the date of the pretended So.
cession. having been held in abeyance during
tho war, remain in full force and effect, as they
originally stood before they were changed,
and subjected to recognize Rebel authority.
Therefore his proclamations recite: That
whereas, tie fourth section of the fourth art;-
Gle of tho Constitution of the United Slater
declares that the United States shall guarantee
to every State in the Union a republican form
of government therefore he, as President
of the United States proceeds to put in mo-
tion the machinery that may enable th,
loyal voters of the State to set in operation
again the civil government, referring back To
the date of the so-called ordinance of Seces.
zion, to ascertain WHO are the legal voters Of
the State However. by his authority al
,lar in re Al,
the Rebel legal voters from exercising the
right OF suffrage by requiring the test,oath
set forth in the Amnesty Proclamation Of
May 90, 1865. BY this action he enfranch-
ises no one, but by virtue of his pardonins
power. prescribes the condition on which
legal loyal voter of the State may exercise his
pre-existing right Of suffrage by ackuowled-
ging the authority of the Government of the
United States. without which oath he is no
voter under the Constitution aud laws. f
President johnson believes that neither
himself nor Congress has any Constitutional
right to create voter but that power tho
people of the several States composing tho
Federal Union have rightfully exercised from
the the origin of the Government to the pres.
cnt time. t.. .a,. ..g,,,I. ..,
1t By no means follows. as some argue. that
if the States, are as they wcre ante Jeilum.
that the officers whom President johnson has
displaced, are the Legitimate State Govern.
ment, because there can be no legitimate
State Government that acknowledged Rebel
authority and resisted the paramount authority
Of the Constitution of the United States by
armed rebellion; which forfeits the right 6s
these officers to hold Office, but not the right
of the legal loyal voters of the State to elioobe
other officers who may bring their State again
into ''proper practical relations to the Gov
ernment of the Union. In the beginning Of
the war; this principle was fully acknowledge
ed by every department of the Governmental
reference to Virginia, when Pierpont was
elected Governor by the legal loyal voters,
and Messrs. Carlisle and Wiley admitted as
United States Senators, long before West Vir-
gina was separated from the balance of the
State. .. .r1t|
President johnson, in his proclamation,
has not wiped out any State Constitution or
laws that the United States ever recognized.
he has merely elected the Rebel usurpers OF
office, acknowledged nothing that did not ex-
ist previous to the so-called Secession. Ia
king up the old State Constitution and law as
they existed then, he gives tho loyal People
an opportunity of filling the Offices with loyal
MEN, Slavery fell with the operations Of
the laws of war, and the people are duly no.
tilted that it cannot be resurrceted but tho
President had no more power to confer tho
right OF suffrage on pegroes than to prescribe
that minors Of eighteen or women should vote,
contrary to Che old State Constitution.