The day book. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1857-1867, 1866-10-18

olution OF Congress avowing the objects of the
war.
Their course has no sanction whatever
when viewed in connection with the princi-
pies avowed and acted upon BY President
Lipcoln and the party, to which they claim to
belong. The admission of West Virginia as
State into the Union ia standing rebuSe
to the radicals in their present action, and
demonstrates their present inconsistency as
well as departure from the policy and princi-
Piles of President Lincoln, whom they claim
as their Magnus Apollo.
The letter which has been recently published
from the pen of Edward Bates, who was At
torney General under Mr.. Lincoln, is a valu-
able historical document, and proves that the
doctrine held, maintained and acted upon by
the Government disallowed the theory of the
South, and denied that an act of secession or
rebellion could dissolve the Union of States
made by the Constitution.
Before signing the bill for the admission of
West Virginia, Mr.. Lincoln required from the
members of his Cabinet their written opinions
as to its constitutionaity and expadiency
With the exception Of Mr.. Smith, the Secre-
tary of the Interior, who was about to vacate
his position, all the members of the Cabinet
gave their written opinions, not one of which,
we are told, contained a single paragraph
favoring the conclusion thata State ordinance
of secession, or the fact of open rebellion in d
State, did or could take State out of the
Union.
But, on the contrary, the very opposite
opinion was assumed as undsputed doctrine,
and argued upon as postulate. Indeed, the
very idea was regarded al preposterous.
Judge Bates, who knew, states that he did
not know republican of that day, 1862, in
Congress, or in the Executive department,
who pretended to believe that State could
withdraw itself from the Union by secession
or rebellion, Or both together.
AS the Judge continues, eve all considered
an ordinance Of secession a mere nullity in
law and politics, and rebellion personal
crime. punishable by law. 1t never was the
doctrine OF the Republican party in Mr.. Lin
coins life time, and believe, is not now, that
a State can get opt of the Union by secession
and rebellion.
That is a late invention of few enterpr-
sing, extreme radicals who have labored in
vain to fasten it upon the Republicans as one
Of their tenets. President Lincoln and both
Houses Of Congress, by their repeated solemn
acts, are pledged to IT, contrary They
passed the West Virginia bill, which, accor-
cling to the plain provisions of the Constitu-
ton, could not have been passed, unless vir-
ginia were State in the Union, with Leg
lature capable Of consendng to the dismem-
berment.
And as a further evidence of the doctrine
held by the Government during the admins
tration of Mr.. Lincoln, Judge Bates adds
'1he President, with the advice and consent
Of the Senate, did all he could to extend the
judiciary system of the United States, into
States which had passed the ordinance of Sc
cession, and where people stood in open re-
bellion, by appointing District Judges in Vir-
gina, Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, and Louis
lana. And both Houses of Congress admit
ted members from Virginia, Tennessee and
Louisiana"
Notwithstanding these facts of history,
radicalism in order to make respectable, if
possible, the absurd position assumed and
acted upon, declares that the South has ac-
complished her purpose to disnember the
Union, and her acts of secession We're valid
that she is out of the Union, which their pre-
vious acts and theory regarded as "per-
petual"
And therefore, in order to her readmission
new and extra con sttutonal terms are to be
imposed, and exacted from her. And in this
illogical, absurd, and supremacy ridiculous and
inconsistent position, this rump, this remnant,
of United States Congress, has been sustain
ed by majorities in recent State elections
| Truly the spectacle is a most humiliating one,
aud almost justiGes despair of the Re-
public.
Labor in England.
| The Mercantile Journal contains sllmma-
ry upon this subject, from which we gather
that the reform movement in England is as