The Vinton record. [volume] (M'arthur, Vinton County, Ohio) 1866-1891, 1866-05-31

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1fear, from the haven of peace and
safety. Indeed, it may well be
doubted, whether we have ever
seen a time of more peril than the
present. After four years of bloody
war to preserve the Union, as We
were told, We see the party that
arrogates to itself exclusively the
name of Union, practically dissolv-
ing what it pretended to preserve.
We see eleven States that have
laid down their arms, are obedient
to the Constitution and the laws,
and are anxious to resume the eX-
ercise OF their constitutional rights,
forcibly deprived of them, heavily
taxed without representation and
ruled by laws in the making of
which they have not the slightest
voice And this is done by par
ty that calls itself Union and Re-
publican. Pray, gentlemen, if this
be Union what is dissolution if
this be Republicanism what is des-
potism? Did any one ever hear
English rule over Ireland, Austri-
an rule over Hungary, OF Russian
rule over Poland called republican?
| fancy not-and yet wherein do
they differ in principle from that
rule which our Abolition so-called
Congress exercises and is striving g
to consolidate over the Southern
States? And who does not see that
if the precedent be set and ap-
proved, Of Congress excluding a
State, or States from representa-
ton, there never will be wanting a
preteXt for a like exclusion of any
State obnoxious to a majority of
the Congress, or whose representa-
tion would oppose a bar to the
schemes of that majority or to the
perpetuation Of its power9 If the
representation of a State is to de-
pend upon the will of Congress,
instead of the provisions Of the
Constitution, of what use is the
Constitution, or what vitality has
our form of Government? What
would have been said had the Con.
gress, when the Hartford Conven-
tion was in session, and when Mas
sachusetts forbade her militia to
pass her own borders to defend the
country, excluded the New Eng
land States from representation p
What would the Summers, and
Wades, and SIevenses of that day
have said to that? And yet there
was just as much right to do so
then, as there is to exclude the
Southern States npw-that is to
say, there was and is no right of
exclusion in either case. Let no
man deceive himself, or be deceiv-
ed by sophistry upon this question,
1t is vital to the existence of our
Government. The wrong done to
the Southern States is not done to
them alone--it is wrong to all
the States-to Ohio as much as to
South Carolina. If, upon some
pletext or another, majority in
Congress may disregard and over
ride the Constitution, and exclude
that State from representation, a
majority in another Congress may,
in like manner and upon some 9th
er pretext, exclude Ohio. And,
besides, the right of a State to rep
resentation is not her right alone !;
it is the light of every State that
all the States shall be represented.
The Union into which we entered
is a Union of all the States. The
laws of Congress which we agreed
should bind us are laws made by
representatives from all the States.
Our fathers never agreed, we have
never agreed, that States obedient
to the Constitution should be ex-
cluded from Congress, and our laws
be made by the remainder of the
States. There is not a word in the
Constitution or in the history Of
the Republic that gives the slight
est sanction to such an idea. On
the contrary it is directly subver-
sive of the Constitution, and, car
ried into practice, is an overthrow
of our Government. And in view
of these facts, | do not hesitate to
say that the doings of the present
so-called Congress of the United
States are plain usurpations Of
power. 1t is not the Congress or
dained by the Constitution, but is
an inchoate, imperfect, fragmenta-
ry body, unknown to that lnstru-
ment. We may be bound by its
acts as the acts OF Government
de factO, just as the acts of usurp-
ers exercising de facto the powers
of Government, have generally