The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1866-10-03
RALEIGH, N. c., WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1866.
ADDRESS OF THE NATIONALUNION
COMMITTEE TO THE AMERICAN
pEnnTE

ADDRESS OF THE NATIONALUNION
COMMITTEE TO THE AMERICAN
PEOPLE.
FELLOW -CITIzENs-Very grave difference
having arisen between your immediate Rep
resentatives in Congress and the President
who owes his position to your votes, we are
impelled to ask your attention thereto, and
to suggest the duties to your country which
they render imperative.
We shall avoid the use of hard words. Of
these, there have already been too many.
And, that the matters I'M issue may be brought
within the narrowest compass, let US first
eliminate from the controversy alltRat has
already been settled or has never been In dis
pute -is
The Republic has been desperately assailed
from within, and its very existence seriously
imperiled. Thirteen States wers claimed as
having withdrawn from the Union, and were
represented for years in hostile Congress
meeting at Richmond. Ten of these States
were, for time, wholly in the powerof hos
tile confederacy; the other three partially 80.
The undoubtedly loyal States were repeated
ly and formidably invaded by Rebel armies,
which were only expelled after obstinate and
bloody battles. Through four years of ardu-
GUS, desperate civil strife, the hosts of the
rebel Confederacy withstood those of the
Union. Agents of that Confederacy ira
versed the civilized world, seeking allies in
their war against the Republic, and melting
the rapacious and unprincipled to fit out
armed corsairs to prey upon our commerce.
By State authority, and in the perverted
names ofpatriotism and loyalty, hundreds of
thousands of our countrymen were conscrp-
ted into Rebel armies and made to fight des-
perately for our National disruption and
ruin. And though, by the blessing of God
and the valor and constancy Of our loyal
people, the Rebellion was finally and utterly
crushed, it did not succumb until it had
caused the destruction of more than half a
million of precious human lives, not to speak
of property to the valne of at least five bill
ions of dollats.
At length, the rebel armies surrendered
and the rebel power utterly collapsed and van
ished. What then
The claim OF the insurgents that they eth
er now re-acquired or had never forfeited
their constitutional rights in the Union, in
cluding that of representation in Congress,
in pointed antagonisD alike to the require
ments of Congress and to those of the acting
President. It was the Executive alone who,
after the Rebellion was no more, appointed
Provisional Governors for the now submis-
sive, unarmed Southern States, on the as
scmbling of Convention, composed of dele
gates to be chosen by that portion of the
people of said State who are loyal to the
United States, and uo others, for the purpose
of altering and amending the Constitution
of said State. + was President johnson
W no, so late as October last-when all shad-
dow of overt resistance to the Union had
long since disappeared that it was
not enough that a State which had revolted
must recognize her Ordinance of Secession
as null and void from the beginning, and
ratify the Constitutional Amendment prohib
iting slavery evermore, but she must also re-
pudiate " every dollar of Indebtedness crea-
ted to aid in carrying on the Rebellion" 1t
was he who ordered the dispersion by mill
the Rebellion which should assume power to
make laws after the rebellion had fallen. 1t
was he who referred to Congress all inquiries
to the probability of Representatives from
States lately in revolt being admitted TO
seats in either House, and suggested that
they should present their credentials, not at
the organizing of Congress, but afterward.
And finally, it was he, and not Congress,
who suggested to his Gov. Sharkey of Miss
issippi, that
"If you could extend the elective franchise
to all persons of color who can read the
Constitution ofthe United States in English
and write their names, and to all persons of
color who own real estate valued at not less
than $3.50 and pay taxes thereon, you would
completely disarm the adversary, and set an
example that other States will follow"
If, then, there be any controversy as to the
right of the loyal States to exact conditions
and require guarantees of those which plung-
ed madly into Secession and Rebellion, the
supporters respectively of Andrew johnson
and of Congress cannot be antagonist parties
to that contest, since their record places them
on the same side.
It being thus agreed that conditions of
restoration and guarantees against future re-
bellion may be exacted of the States lately in
revolt, the right of Congress to voice in
prescribing those conditions and in shaping
those guarantees is plainly incontestible.
Whether it take the shape of law or of
constitutional amendment, the action of
Congress is vital. Even if they were to be
settled by treaty, the ratification of the Sem
ate, by two-thirds vote, would be indispen-
sable. There is nothing in the Federal con-
stitution, nor in the nature of the case, that
countenances an Executive monopoly of this
power.
What, then, is the ground of complaint
against Congress
It is charged that the action ofthe two
Houses was tardy and hesitating. Consider
with how many embarrassments and difficult
ties the problem is beset, and you will not
wonder that months were required to devise,
perfect, and pass, BY two-thirds vote in Ell
ther House, a just and safe plan of recon-
| struction.
Yet the plan has been matured It has
passed the Senateby 33 to II, and the House
by 1873 to SO. It is now fairly before the
country, having already been ratified by the
| Legislatures of several States and rejected by
none. Under it, the State of Tennessee has
been formally restored to all the privileges
she forfeited by Rebellion, including repre-
sentation in either House of Congress. And
the door thus passed through stands invi-
| tingly open to all who linger without.
| Are the conditions thus prescribed intoler-
oble, or even humiliating 2 They are in sub.
stance these
l. All persons born or naturalized in this
country are henceforth citizens of the United
States, and shall enjoy all the rights of citi-
zens evermore and no State shall have pow.
er tocontravene this most righteous andn neces
| sary provision.
! II. While the States claim and exercise the
| power of denying the elective franchise to a
| part Of their people, the weight Of each State
| in the Union shall be measured by and based
| upon its enfranchised population. If any
State shall choose, for no crime, to deny po-