Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1866-06-15
NO. 10.

white and colOred citizens The bill con
/ sists of two parts; one which declares
that all persons who are born In the Uni
/ ted States, and owe allegiance to nc
| foreign Power, are citizens without dis
elimination Of race or color another
which confers powers upon United States
courts and civil and military officers, tC
oppose and arbitrarily annUl aud defeat
legislative and judicial proceedings Of the
States In the administration Of justice
where the equal rights of a particular
class of persons are alleged to be involved
The President withheld his approval
from the first part of this law upon the
ground that it was unnecessary and In his
Judgment an abstraction open to miscon-
struction. He disapproved Of the second
part of the law because it was not merely
incongruous but inconsistent with the
rights and powers which the Constitu-
ton necessarily and wisely leaves to be
exercised by the several States. But he
at the same time offered to concur with
Congress- in any constitutional measure
which should be required for the protec-
ton of freedmen in harmony with the fun .
damental principles of the Constitution
of the United States. Congress adhered
to the bill, and ii became law. The
President could not forget-I am sure [
shall never fOrget-the pestllentIal fruits
of the Fugitive Slave law and the Dred
Scott decision They were inyidious and
onerous because they unnecessarily array
ed Federal courts and officers in conflict
with the authorities of the States upon
questions of Individual rights of property
and liberty.
There is no soundness at all in our po-
liticaI system, if the personal or civil
rights of each member of the State, white
or black. free-bOrn or emancipated, ma
IT,
secure under the administration of State
Government than they could be under
the administration of the National Gov
ernment. Harmony is essential to Union
but harmony is impossible if the citizens
of every State are not left free from un-
constitutional Intervention in their civil
rights by the Federal Government. The
Civil Rights bill retaliates upon the late
slaveholding States now after slavery has
ceased to exist, the very aggression which
through the Fugitive Slave law, the slave
States committed upon the free States. /
for one, am not proposing, now or ever, to
carry sectional ambition into the field of
National Legislation. The President
nevertheless acquiesces in the law Of
Congress. How then shall he be con-
dcmned for his inhdelity to his political
Drinciples or associations. The Colorado
case is the third incident which the dis
cordant seek to turn to their advantage.
Five years ago, Congress, in view of the
detection in the eleven States, which were
carried into the rebellion, authorized the
people of Colorado, then understood to
be 10000 in number, to form a COnstitu-
tion for a State. The people by major
ity of 3 to l refused to accept the privi-
lege. Last year, when the people were re-
duced by emigration to tWo-thirds Of the
former number, a party without any legal
authority held an irregular election and
obtained a majority of 135 Of less than
600 votes for accepting a State Govern
ment, which they had rejected year be-
fore. Congress passed a bill which pro
posed their admission into the Union.
The President withheld his approval up
on the ground that the few inhabitants of
Colorado Territory are already exercising
all the necessary and benehcent powers Of
self-governmenU that the late irregular
election furnishes only equIyOcal proof of
their desire to come to the Union and
that on principle, communities having
less than one-fourth OF the population
REQUIRED by law for the election of one
member of Congress, ought not, without
some extraordinary reason, to be admitted
to an equality Of power with the States
which have a population four tunes, hve
times. ten times or one hundred times
Z.
from the action of Congress, while 1t was
clearly within the province of the Ex-
ecutive Department, was, at the same
time. lust as well considered and as loyal
as the acts of Congress. In two Of the
instances mentioned, Congress, according
to the forms of the Constitution itself,
have. or at least seem to have, surrender
ed their own convictions and accepted
those of the President. Let me say now,
| that all three Of these measures in which
/ the President declined to concur with
| Congress, are purely eZtraneous instances
/ and have no necessary or real bearing
uDou the question of reconciliation.
| I think it may now be assumed that the
/ President has neither sought, nor made,
/ nor accepted any occasion for dIsagreeing
! from Congress, and that so far as the
/ purely incidental legislation to which ]
| have referred Is concerned, he Is as loya
| to It's principles and to the natiOna
| cause as Congress or any of its members
can claim to be. The sewers Of discorC
! further insist that the representatives wht
have come here from the unrepresenteC
States, are actually dislOyal. 1t is agreed
on all hands, that disloyal Represents
tives ought not to be- in any case, admit
ted. Congress, however, has the Consti
tutional right and power to exclude al
such representatives, not only from tn
States unrepresented, but from any other
When, therefore, a Senator or Represen
tative from one of the unrepresentet
States presented his credentials to th
body to which he has been elected, h.
offers himself, as any other member does
for a trial upon the question Of loyalty
and allegiance. 1t belongs to Congress
to prescribe the form of the trial and tn
evidence of loyalty 1t will demand. Il
, accordance with this principle and il
view Of exactly this occasion Congress ha
heretofore established two test Oaths, on
a general oath of fidelity and allegiance
, the other a special one disavOWing an
: repudiating all connection with disunio
or rebellion. These laws are general
they require every member to subscribe t
2 them. They are required to be presen
ted to every claimant to a seat, and yet tn
, members from Tennessee and Arkansas
f have been six months asking to hav
these oaths rendered to them for thei
e. subscription, and have been denied. !
S would seem that they could justly b
- denied only on the ground that Ia sub
scribing to the Oaths the claimant
would commit a fraud and a perjury
t Not only is there legal presumption t
y the contrary, but every intelligent man /
e the community admits the proved loyalC
D fidelity and cOnstancy of all the member
e who have come from Tennessee and Al
i. kansas. The apology for the denial
,, that although the members now chose
r are loyal, vet they might become disloy,
Y after being admitted. 1t Is necessary
r say that the same subterfuge may
s equally resOrted to in the case of ever
Y other member of Congress The susp
e eion is illogical and unwarranted by th
- Constitution, and even If 10 were bot
d constitutional and logical Congress hi
3 L L., Ia