Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1865-10-05
New Series--Vol. 8, No. 80.

expelled from tnclr lltnlts tne NouIb VI tuc
United States, and all civil officers OF the
United States, and withdrew their Repre-.
sentatives and Senators in Congress, and
resisted by force the authority OF the Uni
ted States for four years, and required every
Executive, Legislative and Judicial othcer
within their territory to take an oath to
support the constitution and laws OF the
rebel coHfederacy, they "are in the Union
as States" and were, therefore, during all
this period Of rebellion. ''ip the Union as
States" The method adopted by the
Ohio Democracy il a very good method oy
which TO rob the victorious Government OF
the United States Of the right which, oy
the American laws Of war and the general
judgment Of mankind, belongs TO every vic
torious nationality, to dictate terms TO the
conquered. 1t is, in my Judgment. devil:
ish device to give to the rebels the fruits OF
the hard earned victory of the Government.
If they "are in the Usion as States and
entitled to all the reserved rigbts Of the
States, il is very clear that they have the
right to send to the incoming Congress Rep
reseutatives and Senators. Virginia may
send Mason and Hunter to the Senate,
South Carolina, Hampton aud Beauregard.
and so on through all that rebel region, and
senta tives having the qualifications pre-
scribed by the Constitution as to age, and
citizenship, and residence. then the Con
grcss is to be denounced as guilty Of an as.
ssult npon every State. and an effort to
Overthrow the Constitution. Admit the
Proposition that the so-cal!cd seeded States
are. md have, during the rebellion. been in
the Union as States, and the Constitutional
Amendment prohibiting slavery throughout
the United States, although it receives the
ratification. as it surely will, Of every free
State save New Jersey although two slave
States, Maryland and Missouri, have rati.
fed, yet it fails, for want Of the assent Of
three-fourths Of the States in the Union.
If the amendment be thus defeated then
their party aims, with their resolve OF 1867,
declaring that emancipation, either By. Con
gressional action, or Executive proolama
tion. ia unconstitutional, and thus it results
that no slave is liberated within those rebel
States, and the tens Of thousands OF the
black soldiers of the Union who defended
your flag, will be returned to slavery and
sold like cattle ia the market. Great Ged!
the Ame rican people make merchandise Of
their own defenders, that the very traitors
who struck at the nations life, and against
whom these liberated slaves rose In arms,
NAV be restored TO power, only to repeat
their treason and make it q complete sue
cess.
Another result which follows the adoption
BY the people, of this proposition is, that
these rebel States may assume, as States,
the payment of their own debt, con tracted
in the hellish work of rebellion, and there,
by appropriate the resources of their rebel
arist5cracy. every dollar of which should
Of right, be applied to pay the debt OF the
Union.
Another result of the proposition is, that
the Federal Government will not by the im-
position of taxes or otherwise, be able to
impose upon the rebel population OF South
Carolina, to pay for the suppression OF their
rebellien, any larger burden than upon
like number of the loyal end patriotic pop
ulation of q hio. -,
If those rebel districts ere still "in the
Union as States" with all their reserved
rights, it further results that President
Johnson is guilty of usurpation IL appoint
4ng, as he has done, Provisional Governors
over them, and prescribing the rules OF their
official action.
And, finally, if the "so,cslled seeded
States" are still in the Union, as States
because their ordinances were void, 1t fol,
lows that if every State of the Union had
followed the example of South carolina,
recalled their representatives from Congress,
banished every Federal officer from tnelr
limits, captured and held every Federal tort,
custom house and post-ofiice. and appro-
priated to their own use all Federal reVe-
nues, and withheld all supplies from thefed-
eral Government, and entered into new
confederation, and hunted down the Unit9d
States officers, wherever found they would
all have been "in the Union as States. -
Plain, honest men will never assent TO any
such absurd conclusion !; neither VIII they
believe that, within the territorial limits o. OF
any State of this Union, there is or can DC
any State of the Union with all the reserved
rights of State, after all its people nave
voluntarily levied war upon the unitea
States, repudiated its authority, and entered
in, violation Of thes express letter OF tne
Constitution, into allegiance and cohled'
eration' with other States.
That the territory Of every one OF the
"so.called seeded States" is in the Union
| do not doubt; and that it would have been
out of the Union if the rebellion had tri
umphed, no man can deny. That "the ordl
nances of secession" were void as agalns,
the rights of the whole people OF the United
States, think no sane man VIII Tor
moment gainsay but who can for moment
doubt that the people of South Carolina, BY
their rebellion and treason, voluntarily par
ticipated in by all the free people of tina
State, did utterly annihilate their Ooustllu
tional State Government as a State OF IN
Union, and forfeit their right to exercis
any of their reserved rights as State OF TIN
Union. The same may be said of every on
of those eleven insurgent States, and as tue,
levied war upon the United States, AM
have been conquered by the United States
are the rights of a conqueror as recognize
by the law of nations, may be asserted owe
them by the people of the. United States =
The loyal people of the States OF the Union
who alone constituted its Government, hav
by reason of the premises the right wlthon
, let or hindrance from these insurgent re6t
States, to amend the Constitution ct th
United States, by the assent OK fthreefourth
, of the loyal States of the Unisn, SO as
exclude the crime of slavery from every roo
of every State and Territory Of the republl
and, to make it a condition that the peop'
. of no one of the insurgent States, sha
again be admitted into the Union as Stat
\ b1t. on the terms prescribed by Jefferso
! and the Congress of 1902, to the people
. the Territory of Ohio, te7wit: that the
should form a Constitutional Governmen
) and come into the Union as a State. upe
: the condition that slavery shonld be Jorer