The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-05-14
The Facts of History in Regard to the
Stntns of the Southern Stntes

IT is not uncommon to hear the assertion
made that the cessation of the war brought
back the Southern States to their status quo
ante bellum," or status before the war.
There is nothing so useful in meeting state
ments Of this character as recurrence to the
facts Of the case as they have transpired.
The Shareholders Rebellion was not a
rebellion of individuals, acting in their indi-
vidual capacity and upon their own RESPONSE
bility, but of communities acting organically,
and in their corporate capacity. The States
seeded as States, thus voluntarily abandon
ing the participation they had previously ex-
ercised in the government of the country. AS
States they then proceeded to confederate
together in the establishment of rival and
hostile government to that Of the United
States. As States they raised armies, and
engaged in war upon the Union. During the
four years of the war these seeded States
maintained in full vigor and operation their
State organizations, electing their Governors,
Legislators, Judges, and inferior officers, as
usual, and maintaining all the functions of
communities organized for the purposes of
Iu6y W6E6 OJdJ0S
de tacto, the only change from their
former status being that they had aban-
doned their participation in the Government
of the Union, had formed a confederation
among Themselves had sworn all their officers
to support it, instead of the old Government,
and were engaged in a war to overthrow the
power of the Union within their limits. 1t is
well here to observe what, as matter of fact
they had accomplished. They had seeded,
having withdrawn from all participation in
the Government Of the Union; they had
formed a confederation, which was actively
at work; they had preserved their State Gov
ernments in tull vigor; and they were making
war upon the Union. There was no theory
about all this-it was fact The only pro-
blematical point was whether they could
maintain the position they had assumed.
That could only be determined by the issue
of the war. ...
But when the war terminated with the
overthrow of the Rebel armies, what then
occurred as matter OF fact? Did the Rebel
States go back to the status quo ante 6elLuna?
BY no means. They would have been glad
to do so, and took steps in that direction, but
the strong hand of the Executive power of
the nation was laid upon them. Their Legis-
latures were. forbidden to assemble; their
Governors were arrested, or fed into exile;
their Judges, Sheriffs, Justices of the Peace.
ETC., were summarily deposed. II one word,
the framework of their governments was at
single stroke annihilated. The people re-
manned, but there was no organizatlon-no
corporation. They were mere mob held in
subjection by the military power of the
Union. The organized community, as a body
polite, a civil State, had ceased to exist.
This was the status quo ante belEum with a
vengeance State sovereignty had at last cul-
minated in State annihIlation! Fit monu-
sion and rebellion.
From this point the work of reconstruction
commenced, and here again this whole theory
of status quo ante beIIum was ignored. The
work started from the very bottom. 1t did
not originate with the people of the States.
1t was initiated solely by the Federal Execu-
tive, and carried forward and consummated
by his agents and under his authority and
direction. The States now organized at the
South, and exercising de .fdcto authority
there, are not the old States that existed be-
fore the war. They are absolutely newcrea-
tions. There is no tie of legal succession, no
bond OF constitutions continuity, between
them and the old ones. Their very existence
is perpetual monument of the violent over
throw of those old States.
How absurd, then, to talk about the status
quo ante belEuno of these States! They have
no such status. Between them and that
status there is ''great gulf fxed," which no
ingenuity of sophistry can bridge. That
gulf is the chasm of nonentity into which
the Rebel State Governments were hurled by
President JOHNSON at the close of the war;
These new States owe their existence purely
to the kindly reconstructing hand of the
Executive-not to any supposed life they are
assumed to have inherited from the perished
status of the past. The old order went out
in the night of attempted revolution; the
new order had its birth in the will of the
Federal Executive.
The BRITISH MINIsTRY.-The second
reading nj the British RefOrm hill which w az