The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1866-01-31

ing, In great measure, honor, II honor it be-
3 10 the deceased of separating the rebel States
from the Union, Is B ssl 80 &.
quote his words: s. &. +, ,ss.5.s
sg The great act of July IS, 1861, which
gave to the war for the suppression of the
rebellion its first congressional sanction, and
invested the President with new powers, was
j drawn by him. 1t was he that set in motion
!; the great ban, not yet lifted by which the
4 rebel States were shut out from the COM
!, munion of the Union. This is a landmark
4 in our history, and it might properly be
II known by the name Of its author, as Cola
\ mers statute 81. ,ss, 8
Upon such funeral occasions it belongs to
each Senator to judge for himself what he
shall say. 1t is a matter of taste. But one
thing seems to me certain whatever may be
said at a funeral, it is no proper time to
make reply, and thus bring on debate. l.
therefore, remained silent. l yield to no man
in a profound regard for the memory and
character Of that really great and good man,
Judge Collamer, and l intend now to do
what my heart prompted me to do then, but
which sense of the proprieties Of the occa-
sion compelled me to forego, namely, to de-
fend the statute which he drew, and the Con-
gress which enacted it, the President who ap-
proved it, as well as himself, from this charge,
that this law has opened way, or that he,
or Congress, or the President intended to
open a way by which any State could go out
or be thrust out, from the Union Of States
under the Constitution.
| Sir, Congress, under the Constitution, has
| power to admit new States into this Union.
| Congress has 10 power to expel old States,
| or to open a way for them to go out; and no
/ man knew better than Judge Collamer that
! Congress had no such power. He could not
have intended to draw such an act without
| violating his oath to support the Constitu-
tion. However lightly some may speak Of
the obligations of that oatli, he was not one
| of those. He was radical in the high and
noble sense of the term, because he was radi-
cally right, radically firm, and radically true
| to his convictions toward God and toward
| man.
On one occasion he said:
j II do not know how other members of
| the Senate look upon the obligation of their
oath to support the Constitution of the Uni
| ted States To me it is an oath registered in
heaven as well as upon earth, and there is no
necessity that, in my estimation, will justify
me in the breach of it. think those men
who are now risking their lives upon the
4
stitution are not to be treated in this Hall by
us with the concession that we are ready, if
the necessity calls for it. to break it. All that
our rebel enemies are engaged in is the over
throw of the Constitution and all that we
are contending for is its maintenance and
preservation.
| Now, l will not say that the Senator from
Massachusetts, in the form of seeming praise
intended to do any injustice to his name: it
was rather to bring, if possible, that great
name to the support of his favorite theory.
But the effect of what he said would, in my
Judgment, if accepted, be the greatest posi-
Bile dishonor; that while Judge Collamel
knew that the Constitution gave no right to
the States to secede, and gave to Congress nc
power to expel them or to open a way fol
them to Withdraw from the Union, he, in
violation of his oath to support the Constitu-
ton, drew this act of July 13, 1861, for the
purpose of shutting eleven great States and
ten million people out from this Union under
the Constitution. And now, sir, let us look
into that statute. 1t is the fifth section, il
any, which clothes the President with this
power to expel States from the Union.
How any such power can be found in the
language of that section is to me beyond
comprehension. The idea which inspired
the pen that drew it, so far from being that
those States were outside the Union or ought
to be placed outside this Union, was directly
the opposite, namely, that the people of those
State were in the Union, owing allegiance tc
the Constitution because they were in the
Union that they were struggling to cast OF
that allegiance by going out from the Union
and that q new war power should be placed
by Congress in the hands of the President
for the very purpose of forcing them to re
main in the Union and resume their allegi
ance to it, and for no other purpose. Thai
statute was not drawn to shut those States
out, but to shut them in the Union to close
every avenue by which supplies could reach
them, until the President turning against
them the sword, by which they undertook te
cut their way out of the Union, should crush
all armed resistance and compel the inhabit
ants to come under the flag and ackn0wledgt
: once more their allegiance to the Union.-
What is its languagea After certain recitals
it declares:
"Then and in such case it may and shall
be lawful for the President by proclamation
to declare that the inhabitants ofsuch Stat
or States, or any section OF part therco
where such insurrection exists, are in stat
of insurrection against the United States
and thereupon, all commercial intercours
by and between the same and the citizen
thereof, and the citizens of the rest of tn
United States shall cease and be unlawful
50 long as such condition Of hostility shall con
: tmue;;" witha proviso allowing the Presiden
in hisdiscretion tolicense such intercourse a
he might think most conducive to the publ
interest, under rules and regulations Of tn
Secretary of the Treasury.
: We notice, first of all, the authority her
I given is not to declare certain States out o
the Union, but to declare their inhabitant
, / in q state of insurrection. Pray, what is al
: insurrection but an uprising in arms of peo
J pie against their own Government, an etfor
: to cast off allegiance they owe to it9 1t j
7 clear, therefore, that if they were not in tli
2 Union, they could not make an insurrectiol
against it. Could the people Of Nova Scott
: +, or New Mexico make an insurrection agains
r .. United States? Because they were i
this Union is the very ground and the onl
ground upon which they could be in insul
rection at all.
Again, sir, that statute which gave to tn
! President a new war power, by its very term
), was to cease with the war necessity. 1t wa
: a power to stop commercial intercourse, j
/, order to- prevent our own citizens from feed
l. ing, clothing, and arming the rebellion
q which our armies went to put down. Whe
: that work was done, the necessity for noIi-ir
: tercourse was gone; and, by the very term
orj of the act, all power under it was to ceas