The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1865-07-21

al ACSouICcS, UuI VIC are uOG aware tIltt
the admission extends any further. Mil
itary organizations against the republic
are not practicable but they are seeking
to open, and with the least possible delay.
the avenues to their old fields of political
contest and ascendancy. They will en-
deavor to save all they can of the doctrine
of state supremacy for future use. In the
permission for the return of the rebel leg
islature to Richmond, and in the Sher-
man-Johnston pacification, our govern
ment barely escaped serious, if not a
fatal political defeat, at the hands of a
vanquished enemy. The purpose of the
South now is to resume the exercise of
state functions with the utmost possible
speed, and with the least possible change
in their home systems. To secure that,
they will do and submit to whatever is
necessary, 1t must constantly be borne
in mind that when once state is admit
ted to its place, the power of the nation
over all subjects of state cognizance is
gone. If the dogma of state supremacy is
not destroyed, for practise as we'll as in
theory, the war will have been in vain
1t has not only been the favorite weapon
of slavery, but has been eagerly caught up
by the enemies of our Institutions in Eu-
rope, the tenet that the United States is
not nation, a government, sovereignty :;
that the citizens owe to it no direct ale
glance that they cannot commit against
it the crime Of treason, if they carry with
them into their treason the forms of state
authority. The right of this republic to be a
soreeign among the sorere'ynties Of the earth,
must be put beyond future dispute, abroad as
yell as at home. We have paid the fear
full price, and we must not be defrauded of
! the results.
Let Us now, fellow citizens, look at the
dangers which attend an immediate resto-
ration of the rebel states to the exercise of
full state authority. Slavery is the law
of every rebel state. In some of these
states free persons of color are not per-
mitted to reside !; in none of them have
they the right to testify i'll court, or to be
educated. in few of them to hold land.
and in all Of them they are totally disfran-
chised But, far beyond the letter of the
law, the spirit of the people and the hab-
its of generations are such as to insure the
Ipermanence Of that state Of things in sub
stance. If slavery should be abolished in
form, their spirit and habits, their pride
and passions will lead them to uphold their
oligarchal system, built upon debased
colored population and intrenched behind
state institutions, over which the nation
cannot pass in peace. Their personal re-
lation with the colored people as masters
over slaves being changed in law, they
will look upon them in a new light, rs /,
class to be feared, and as the cause of their
defeat and humiliation. They will not
tax themselves to give to the freedmen al
education. They will not permit the con-
tinuance within their states otphilanthrop.
ic agencies for colored people, from tn,
free states They will not encourag,
Northern immigration, with systems Of
small freeholds and free labor: nor vii
capital and labor 90 there from the free
states under present auspices. Returning
to their old arts of politics, which they art
fond of, and in which long practice ha:
made them expert, they will seek to repu
: diate debt incurred for the suppression
of their revolt nor can we shut our ewes
to the political combinations, to be rule,
by this oligarchy and to do its work l
is useless to suggest or conjecture methods
and means ; the spirit and motive will
: take such forms as occasions may require.
9 We trust it cannot be necessary to paus
here and refute a political fallacy, whicl
the logic of events has already exposed
, 1t has been contended that torcible resist
ence having ceased, the rebel states are
by that fact, again in their orbits, and il
all their functions as states, in local AM
r national affairs, just as if no war had ia
ken place-that the nation, whether b,
Congress or the Executive, has no option
!. to exercise, no powers or rights to enforce
no conditions that it can make. We trus
J that the mere statement of this propose
n ton, in the light of the circumstances i
: which we stand, is sufficient refutation
n We are holding the rebel country in mill
: tary occupation, and the nation is assert
ing right, before it yields that occupa
II ton, to see the public safety secured, an
e the public faith preserved. The onl
a question can be as to the mode of obtain
: ing the result. We trust all loyal peopl
:, of the land will have no hesitation i
n standing by the President, with clear cor
J victions, as we'll as strong purpose, on thi
n issue. BY necessity, the republic mu:
IT hold and exercise some control over thes
J. regions and people until the States are IT
II stored to their full functions as States, i
l. national as we'll as in State affairs Th
e authority is to be exercised by the Pres
e dent Or by Congress, or both, according
= the nature of each case. Though result
It ing, necessarily, from the fact Of the wa
lie these powers are not necessarily to be e,
ercised by military persons or in militar
ID forms. This temporary, provisional al
ID thorlty, although supreme for the tim
y may be exercised, much of it, by civil o
If ticers, using the methods of civil powe
a and admitting the employment of the j.
e dicial and executive functions, with II
ID arts and business and social intercourse
ID life. This we understand to be, in sui
stance, the position which the governme,
= pow occunies. and we believe tho noon