The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1866-09-11

has been disregarded. and its people have
been treated precisely as mere portion OF
the people Of the United States, without req
erepee to their State organization. 1t has
asserted and exercised the right to suppress
aii combinations, great and small, against
1 ;ts authority. It claims the same power to
crnsb a rebellion in State, as one in ter
ritory. And if, in truth, it may ignore and
disregard State organization, when the
State shall attempt to shelter the people In
their rebellion, it may use the same powers
over them to suppress the force and secure
LOYALTY as if they had no such shelter. The
end of the war is to compel obedience and
the government must have the same powers
to effect this over the whole people OF State,
as over one hundred gifts citizel.s.
In every civil war, no matter %nat may ne
the form of its government, when the REBEL
ion shall be suppressed, it becomes the gov
eminent, after fully securing its peace and
tranquility, to restore the people who may
be pardoned, as speedily as possible to all
their former rights, unless it shall be deemed
necessary, for future security, to abridge
some of them A consolidated and unlimi-
ted government may do this /; but as there
is no power in our form of government to an
initiate State, there is no authority, known
to the Constitution, to alter or diminish any
right which stands guaranteed to State.
The only power, which may incidentally do
this, is that which enforces on the govern
meut the solemn constitutional duty to pre-
serve the States as an integral part OF the
Union. If in doing this, collisions arise,
and the laws of peace are too feeble to ef-
feet the object, the laws of war must be in
voked to accomplish it. In word the re-
bellion must be suppressed by arms, obedience
compelled, and tranquility restored, by such
means as shall be most effectual to preserve
the integrity of the government
Political and moral storms no more sub
side, at once, into calm, than do those OF
nature. The surging passions which have
been raised during a civil war of four years
will become tranquil at no mans bidding,
and those whose task it is to suppress civil
war heated by three hundred fields of blood
and carnage, and the fate of whose arms has
| been to spread desolation in the track OF
| conquest, may never expect, at the hrst mo-
ment when the roar of battle shall cease, to
find the subdued heart or the cordial hand
for peace and fraternity. The conqueror who
knows this must regulate his policy by the
condition of the people. If he have the
kindest of natures himself, and be ever so
much disposed to proclaim pardon to ALL
still he must watch the wave of discomfort, to
see whether it is really sinking into rest, or
restrained only by the check of triumphant
arms. 1t is doubtless his true policy to re-
move, as fast as possible, from before the eyes
of the people. all offensive displays of the
conquering hand, and substitute, in their
stead the confidence of returning friend
ship. Distrust begets distrust, and, SD long
as it shall manifest itself, the door to a cor
dial fraternity will remain closed. And
while admit that martial law may be alb
solutely necessary TO suppress rebellion,
and, as matter of course, that those, who
may he entrusted to suppress it, must be at
all times, unless there be a universal civil con-
trolling power, the sole judge to what extent
it shall be pushed, and how long it shall
last,-yet l know of no instrument of war,
which is so hostile to the restoration of
speedy and firm peace, as the exercise OF that
despotic authority over people accustomed
to the blessings 0fcivil liberty, as used by
the citizens of every State in the Union from
its earliest existence. Nothing more frets,
nay enrages, a people accustomed to be tried
by courts and iuries, sworn to administer the
law they have made themselves. than to be
brought under guard even in civil matters,
before tribunal, which disregards the
known law under which the complaint is
made and substitutes, in its place, another
unknown to the people, harsh and despotic.
It,,therefore, will be ever the policy of any wise
conqueror to restore to the vanquished, as
early as possible, their civil institutions and
remove, from their midst, SO soon as practi-
cable, the sources of martial annoyance. If
this be a true line of policy as to conquests,
generally, how much more so must 1t be, as to
State, portion of a common country,
which under excitement for while. may
have forgotten its higher duties and plunged
into civil war
But whether the policy pushed be the wise
or the unwise one, the people when they are
restored by gradual steps to their former con-
dition must always regard each step prescri-
bed by the supreme power and by them &C
cepted and used, as lawful. Having reached
the summit by this means, it will not do to
determine any step in the ascent lest they
fall again amid chaos of ruins. This is alb
solutely necessary in order to protect their
own agents during their progress to COM
plete self government, and, indeed, to pro-
tect the acts of society in all its tender and
delicate relations from being regarded as the
doings of licentious rabble. A contrary
doctrine snaps the continuity of government,
and creates an interregnum, during which
there was no law among the people.
1 am, respectfully, yours,
B. F. MOORE.