Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1865-11-28
{" A REPUBLICAN FORM OF GOV.
- ERNMENT."
Letter from Robert Dale Owen-ThS
Guarrantee OLA Republican form Of
GnrGtnmenf


GOVERNMENT.
Robert Dale Owen is the author of a
very able and thoughtful letter, published
in the New York Erening Post of Satur-
day last, on the power of Congress, under
Art. ", Sec w.: "The United States
shall guarantee to every State in this
Union a Republican form of Govern
ment," to insist on Negro Suffrage as an
indispensable condition of reconstruction.
We append a condensation of his letter
To the Editor of the E1ening Post:
Now that we nearly approach the meet
ing of Congress before whom will come
questions of graver import and more last
ing results than any that ever awaited the
assembling of a national legislature in our
country, suffer me, through your columns,
briefly to invite the attention of the mem
bers elect and of the public to a clause in
the Constitution to which recent events
have given an unlooked-for Importance :;
and to a practical recommendation which,
if brought forward by the proper men in
the proper way, will, [ think, command
two-thirds of the votes in either House.
1t is the people of the whole nation
through their national government, not
the people of any one State through their
convention or their State Legislature, who
have the right, and upon whom is imposed
the duty, to see that State governments
are, and remain, republican in form.
art ", Sec. A. And the whole people.
not the people of a single State, are by
the Constitution made the Judges of what
is a republican form of government.
fla State of the Union were to proclaim
a monarchy, Congress would have the
right to reject her representatives. But a
republican form of government NAV be
subverted by indireotion as ~effectuallv as
by proclamation of a monarchy. A State
has a right, within certain limits, to decree
the qualifications of her voters. But any
qualification may be pushed beyond the
point of republicanism. And when this
happens, it devolves upon the national
government to enforce the constitutional
guaranty.
A State, if it SEQ fit, may require aprop-
erty qualification; as that a voter shall be
a taxpayer or a householder; but if it push
the principle so far as to require that he
shall possess a hundred thousand dollars,
then large masses are DISTINGUISHED, and
the republican form of government is VIC
lated thereby.
A State, if it see fit, may require a lit
erary qualification, DIS that n voter shall
be able to read the constitution of his
country; but if it push the principle so
far as to require thBt he shall understand
Sanscrit or read Homer in the original
Greek, then large masses are DISTINGUISHED,
n the republican form of government is
violated thereby.
A State, if it see fit, may require a quail
ticatiOn of birth, as that a foreigner shall
have been a three-years resident before he
is entitled to vote; but if it should push
this principle so far as to disfranchise all
persons of foreign birth and their descend
ants, during lifetime, then large masses
would be excluded, and the republican
form of government would be violated
thereby.
SO, also, if State d~isfrGnchise, because Of
race, the fttieth part Of her population, her
action mag U~iOLate Justice, get fail short Of
aoOrking substantial change IN her form OF
government. DE naininlis non curat Ter
But # the number excluded By this quaLif-
cation Of race from participation IN self
government amount to One-third or one-hGtt
or tlco-thirds Of her entire population, then
large masses are disfranchised, end tie re
publican form Of government is essentially
rioLated thereby.
If such disfranchisement be temporary,
then it amounts to Il temporary suspension
of the republican form.
The right to check a State which should
habitually violate, or temporarily sus-
pend, a republican form of government,
was wisely placed in the nations hands /;
for such violation or suspension endan-
gers the national unity-imperils domes-
tic peace. Slavery, though tolerated by
the Constitution, did substantially violate
the republican form, and the great rebel
lion was the ultimate result.
At the present juncture, when the dan
ger is that this constitutional provisionre-
garding a republican form of government
may be violated in the persons of four
millions of native-born citizens of African
descent, an additional consideration pre-
sents itself. Loyalty is scarce in the
South, and it is precisely the most loyal
portion of the southern people who run
the risk of disfranchisement. We may
safely calculate upon the vote of the negro
population, in mass, being cast for national
representatives who will vote with us on
all great national questions as against re-
pudiation of our debt, or assumption of
the rebel debt. They will sustain us on
such questions, not because they nave any
financial knowledge or political expert
ence, but because they have sagacious in
%stincts. They understand who are their
friends; they understand that their safety
depends on voting with their friends; and
they will do it.
There are two things to be considered
in this matter; our duty and u interest.
They happen to coincide. God has decreed
that if we neglect our constitutional duty
we suffer our political allies to be disfran-
chised; in other words, we permit to be
deprived of suffrage, to the number of
four millions, the friends Of loyalty and
the Union.
> The -four years upon
which peace has now closed ought TO have
taught us much. They ought to have
taught us that it is our bounden duty to
provide not only against immediate, but
against prospective dangers. They ought
to have taught us the wisdom of Vattels
Interpretation of the right of war when
he says Book Ill, section A, 45) : "If
the safety of the State lies at stake, our
| DACSuuLhOh dlO u 1tAtSlShI CdlLOS "
extended too far. Must we delay our ruin
till it has become invisible? : An
injury gives a right to provide for our
future safety by depriving the unjust ag-
gressor of the means of injuring us"
To this much of Mr.. Owens letter,
demonstrating the constitutional duty of
Congress in this matter we give our heart
lest assent; that which follows, being'Mr.
Owens proposition of a means to accom-
plish this end, strike us as entirely made
quate to the end in view. We, however,
append it:
If the trainers of the constitution had
anticipated such an instruction as we
have Just quelled, l do not doubt that, be-
sides giving Congress the right to deter
mine the time, places and manner of hold
ing elections for Congressman, they would
have given that body the further right to
determine the qualifications of voters us
well for Congressman as for President.
These are national offices and l think it
would have been expedient to vest in the
nation-not in the separate States-the
right to determine how they should be
filled. l am quite sure that in the present
temper of the South, it is not safe to suffer
each State to determine the qualifications
of electors of Federal officers. The quail
fcations should be uniform in all the
! States. and the representatives of the ma