The national Republican., 1866-12-07
SUMMERS NEW PLAN TO ExPEL
THE UNREPRESENTED STATES
FROM THE UNION. .r-r .-.

FROM THE UNION. 100 -r
II is the habit Of Senator SUMNER to come |
to each session Of Congress with his satchel |
full Of new bills. It seems, from notice |
which he gave in the Senate onTuesday, that |
during the last recess he has concocteda new
plan to shut out ten States, by an act Of
Congress, from representation in Congress
or voting upon the Constitutional Amend
ments on the alleged ground that the gov
ernments Of those States are illegal and void.
That it was predetermined in joint caucus
during the last session to keep them out from
any participation in the next Presidential
election we knew, and so stated at the time;
and that the Hon. TBADDEUs STEVENS de-
clared in his place in the House that he ut
terly repudiated the idea that they were to
be taken into account in ascertaining whether
three fourths Of the States shall have ratified
the pending amendments to the Constitu-
ton, we also knew; but by what process and
under what excuses or DISCUSSES we could
neither conjecture or divine. Here the
"Great Giasticus comes. 1t is to 20 back
ward over all the legislation had since the
war, inclusive Of all the laws referred to in
The PRESIDENTS message, and to declare, by
law to be passed over IN expected veto by
two thirds Of both Houses, that those State,
are illegally organized and ought not to b.
represented in Congress or aAoDed to vot
upon the Constitutional Amendments. Thi
is, Of course, only the prelude to the contem
plated movement to exclude he eiectora
votes Of those States from the count at h,
merit Presidential election.
We denominated this plot to muzzle tht
voice Of those States in the political affair,
Of the country last spring q conspirac,
against the Constitution; and we have sine,
seen no reason for changing our opinion
We have been silent upon the subject re
Gently only because the conspirators hav,
themselves been silent Mr.. SUMNER having
taken the guardianship Of the monster, ant
having given notice Of his intention To intro
duce it into the Senate as a Radical prede
termined measure, the duty is again imposed
upon us of exposing its fearful enormity.
The original caucus plan was to endeavol
to get some Senator into the Vice Presidents
chair at the time appointed for counting the
next electoral votes who will be willing tc
ignore the packages containing the certif
Gates Of the several electoral colleges of the
unrepresented States, and who will refuse Il
break their seals, thereby rejecting thost
votes altogether. As soon as the project
came to our knowledge we took occasion Il
remind those gentlemen that they had Dor
rowed the idea from the followers OF Jon,
G. BREcKISRIDGE, who talked of serving th
LINCOLN votes, in the winter OF 1861, in tn
same way; but they had not the courage t,
attempt to carry it out We took occasion
to say farther, that in the event that tn,
electoral votes Of those States would, will
others, elect President il counted, that can
didate, whoever he might be, would be Pres
ident, or we would have another revolution
more bloody perhaps than the one we have
passed through, because there would be {
loyal sentiment in the North to support tn,
South in her electoral rights.
Although we do not suppose that anything
we may say will deter the majority in either
branch from prosecuting this measure through
toa alaw, yet we must utter our protest against
1t as very dangerous as well as revolution
ary measure, and one which will one day OIL
another return to plague its inventors With
what sort OF metaphysics can Mr.. sUxsEr
pretend that the States in rebellion did no
reorganize themselves legally since the war
Is it because TIE President, following Mr.
LrScoLs's precedent, had initiated the move
ment by and through provisional Governors
This is Gen. Buffers point !; and we suppos
1t to be his. Has II not been shown over an,
again that The PRESIDENT possessed tn
power to appoint provisional Governors b.
the laws of nations? Then, how is It to b,
made out by any argument having the faint
est semblance Of reason that those Stat,
governments are illegal We shall see al
the measure proceeds.
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