The New era. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1865-1871, 1866-10-18
WHERE WILL IT END F?


while of every lover of American in
stitutions to inquire whittier theprogress
of modern Radicalism will lead us, and
where it will find its end. The present
dogma Of the radical party is this; that
the government can be made stronger
and better by making a new Consti-
tuition, and compelling a minority of
the States which do not submit to it.
No choice is to be permitted. The new
style of law is to be made absolutely
binding, by force if not by free-will ae
ceptance. The theory of the right Of
secession, in the shape in which the
Southern States professed to stand on it,
has been thoroughly extinguished by
the war, and is abandoned throughout
the country. It is proclaimed, and with
undeniaple truth, that if the war done
anything it has established the con-
elusion that no right exists in any one
State, or any number of States, to with
draw at will from the American Union
But how does the new doctrine now
put in practice by the radicals agree
with this conclusion? If one State has
no right to secede, ten States have no
right, nor have twenty States right to
secede from the minority. Yet we are
at the present time urged to adopt q
policy based on this very theory Of the
right of majority of the States to
secede from minority. For the whole
plan of the radicals for reconstruction
depends on this claim. Keeping States
out of the Union temporarily is pre-
cisely the same thing as secession. OBJ
serve the direction in which this leads.
Let us imagine the Union reconstructed
on the radical plan. Political questions
are then sure to arise from time to time
which will be of great Importance.
None is more plainly visible in the
future than the question Of the repre-
sentation OF States in Congress. This is
a totally different question from that of
the representation of populations, which
is now discussed. The Union was con-
structed on the theory of representing
States as States, and populations also
The new reconstruction theory goes on
the assumed right of a powerful ma
jority of the States to reform the whole
system of State representation. 1t
makes no distinction. 1t refuses to
admit either State or people to repre-
sentation except at the will and on the
prescribed terms. of the majority
Adopting it will have established a pre-
cedent. The old foundations Of the
Union will be changed, undermined.
The independence of States entering
the Union will no longer exist. The
constitutional provision that "no State,
without its consent, shall be deprived
OF equal suffrage in the Senate,' will
cease to command respect. The assumed
RICH - exc!ud safe, from any ; lffrag''
in the Senate iml,lie, u right to regulate
that suffrage, and to disregard the doc
trine of equality of States. 1t is but n
clause in the Constitution, and the new
theory is, that amendments of any sort
may be made by a sufficient majority of
States. 1t is only an amendment, there
fore, which is needed to strike this
clause out of the Constitution. Such an
amendment would not be any greater
assumption of power by the majority
than the present proposition to exclude
states entirely from the Senate unless
they adopt certain specified laws. The
.tucilis descensus are,mi opens before us.
When the new political questions arise
to agitate the minds of men, when
South and West grow strong and insist,
as producing countries, on the adoption
of principles which are not liked by the
East, as manufacturing and consuming
countries, then this new doctrine of Sc
cession will rise up to curse us. "Why,'
they willargue, "shouid we be blockaded
in the Senate by this absurd relic of old
times, the equal representation OF States?
Why should the vast populations of the
Mississippi Valley and the Western
plains be governed by the votes OF small
and old States along the seaboard:" If
they be then told that the Union was