The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1866-04-04

? as 70 any obligations they may be owing
T These burdens we have 70 bear; let Us bea
them patiently.
) o. the 4th day Of March, 1862, Congress
, by law enacted that the number Of mem
) bers of the House of Representatives shOul'
be after the 4th Of March, 1868, two hun
; dred and forty-one. OF this number fifty
seven were assigned to the States by name
: which had been declared in insurreetiol
: and rebellion. Yet there are now only oHs
: hundred and eighty-four members compos
ing the House. Where are the others
! Some Of US for months applied, but we weri
refused.
On the first Monday in December, 1861
, after the passage of the ordinance Of seces
sion by the State of Tennessee, and its rati.
} hcation by the people, and the resort t
arms had been resolved on, Horace May
! nard and others, as members from the Statt
Of Tennessee, elected at the general elee-
ton on the first Thursday in August, 1861
were admitted 10 their seats as members O.
the 9th Congress, and Andrew Johnson oe-
cupied his place in the Senate Of the United
States as one of its Senators.
Not only SO, but ports of entry were es-
tablished in soms Of these States-snd
Judges, Marshals and District Attorney:
appointed with the consent of the Senate.
ALI of this was done during the penden-
cy, OF war, and yet, now that the war has
ceased, it is urged that they are no longer
Statesy-but Territories, subject 10 the will
Of the eonquerOr.
The record Of the Congress is therefore
against the position that the seeded States
were or are out of the Union--in any sense
or for any purpose. Executive messages
and ProelamatioRs and Congressional en-
actments all concur in pronouncing it false
IN theory and in fact.
I =. 1,lnN h. Darar hN5arr,
party are precluded by the facts stated, and
a denial now on their part to the States OF
| representation, is a wsnton attack upon the
| President of the United States stultifies its
own action as party; and involves its fol-
lowers in dark labyrinth of Inconsistency, ,
from which there is no escape.
CHIEF JUSTICE CHASE.
In q discourse delivered at Dartmouth
College, he said:
SIT is my opinion the States remain
States. The Rebel Governments of the
Southern States have been destroyed. All
4 the machinery of these Governments has
come to an end; and now, holding as do
/ that these States remain States, the second
process of Reorganization is that the Gov
| eruments now revert into the hands of the
Southern people. They are to rebuild the
Governments of these States"
Such were the views as expressed by Chief
| Justice Chase.
And even Stevens, of Pennsylvania, on
one occasion, used the following language,
clearly demonstrating his acquiescence in
the same great political truth.
Mr.. Stevens introduced resolution in
the House of Representatives, on the 4th
December, 1852, declaring:
chat if any person in the employment
of the United States, in either the legisla-
make peace, or should accept or propose 10
accept any such proposition, on any other
basis than the integrity and entire unity of
the United States, and their territory as
they existed at the sine of the rebellion,
he will be guilty of high crime"
And Gen. w. T. Sherman, the hero of so
many well fought battles, and whose grand
march to the sea will make his name i'm
mortal, said in letter dated January, s,
1865:
Georgia is not out Of the Union, and
therefore the talk of reconstruction appears
10 be inapplieable. My opinion is that no
negotiations are necessary, nor commissions,
nor conventions, nor anything of the kind.
Whenever the people of Georgia quit re-
belling against their Government, then the
State of Georgia will have resumed her func-
tions in the Union.''
These views the President with true dis
oernment has perceived, and in forcible
language has expressed, showing that he
fully comprehends the true distinction,
Whea IN his message he said:
"IEe States attempting TO secede, placed
themselves in a condition where their vital
lty was impaired, not extinguished, their
functions suspended, not Gestroyed.,'s
Now, lister myself that after the pas
sious OF the hour have caIIned down, and
reason is restored, he will be sustained by
the people Of the country who desire peace
and Union. His policy, take it, will com
mend itself to the judgment of all men, un-
influenced by hate.
Did the rebellion destroy the rights of the
States2 Did it subject the loyal people to
the same punishmentof Of the disloyal? Are
| they subject 70 the Congressional will? If
so, where do they get the power2
have always been taught to believe that
under the Constitution Of the United States
the Federal Government is one of limited
powers, although supreme in regard to all
of the subjects submitted TO, or conferred
upon it. Every other power, by express
| limitation, is reserved 10 the States. fF6
| - Now,f as have endeayored 10 show, the
States still exist, then, the only power that
| Congress has over them, is that which is
conferred by the Constitution. has the war
enlarged or diminished the power thus con-
ferred2 It is obvious TO every intelligent
and practical statesman that the war has
| done neither; that the relationship is pre-
cisely the same now that il was before the
war.
If the Government was a sovereignty,
limited by the provisions of the Constitu-
tiOn before the wa, it remains lust the same
after the war has terminated successfully.
1t has recovered its rightful authority aud
nothing more. It has the power to punish
4 bo rosun.l I.aS,-
thority for treason; or it can pardon them
yet it derives this right, not because Of
success in war, but from the laws of the
| land.
This is an inherent Limitation to the pow
er OF the sovereign, asserted by all OF the
| Presidents, in relation to war and its re
suits, when waged by an established Gov
ernment against its rebellious subjects or
| citizens.
Never before has it been claimed, that a
sovereign, whose power is limited by 8
written constitution, and who has been
compelled to take up arms and wage war TO
repOssess itself Of its constitutional author
| ity over part Of its territory, occupied for
a time by rebels, can acquire as the result
Of victory. any other political power, or
any more enlarged authority than it had at
the time the war was declared.
This cardinal doctrine controls the Presi-
| dent: Now, that the war is ended, the
| President assumes that the only and proper
| guide for his conduct is the Constitution;
| yet Congress claims, even after the war is
over, 10 exercise powers not conferred.
| Where do the members Of Congress OBJ
tain authority for their fayorite idea Of ex-
acting terms from Southern States before
they will admit their Representatives
| Does the Constitution anywhere confer such
4 -, -F,,s II. 10
they claira ethe right to dictate to the
States what shall be the character Of its in
ternal policy, and to exact a slayish Obedi-
enee to their commands, as the price OF
having Representatives,
Ny feliow-citizens, the pertinent ques-
ton arises: Are we 10 live hereafter under
the Constitution, or under the wild theories
born of the thfoas Of the grest rebellion-a
system military in its character, snd de-
manding as indemnity for the past, and Sc
curity for the future, other terms and CON
ditiOns thar those found in the organic
law?
If we leave the old landmarks. by what
! viii we be guided? How far will we 90
When will we stop? Whose viii controls?
Shall it be that of an individual? If so,
then our government becomes al Empire.
Shall it be Of the CoDgress2 Then we are
/ governed by "many headed monster
thing''-a fit subject for corruption and We
nality.
This is the great issue between Andrew
johnson and the Congress. The President
is opposed to a change in our organic law.
| He is opposed to measures OF doubtful con-
! stitutionality. He is il favor, now that
the war is over, Of unrOlling the Constitu-
tion, and being governed by its wisdom and
its authority. Can you blsne him for it2
He insists that If eleven States are read
mitted on the plan proposed by the commit
tee of fifteen, they can hereafter be ex-
pelled from the Union BY the same power
tbst now admits them.
This be denies; he insists that the States
4 eould not secede-and he denies that Con-
rress has the power 70 expell them. Il
would be, in his opinion, an unlimited ex.
ercise Of power, and that their power is con-
tronea by the written law.
such ! Union would be mere rcrpe Of
sand. unsubstantial as The vapor. Ii has
never vel existed in the United States, and
cannot legally exist, 50 long a. you recog-
/ ni.e the institutions Of the United States, as
the anchor OF car political safety, and the
palladium Of our liberties. The fuudament-
sl doctrine OF that Constitution is the equal
itv Of political privileges in al Of the
states, How csn they be equal, II you i'm
pose unhesrd Of and Illegal conditions On
some of them snd not upon all.