The day book. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1857-1867, 1866-01-11

stitutional power to appoint provisional gov
ernors." And so we are asked to treat all the
acts, done by the SOVEREIGN PEOPLE of the
South-their conventions, their laws, their
elections, THEIR RATIFICATION of the calls
made upon them in their sovereign capacity
we are asked to treat these as invalid, be-
cause the President had no power, as they say
to appoint an officer unknown to the Consti-
tuition.
Now, we despise TO go into any abstract
reasoning or chop logic" on this subject
The President found great emergency, which
was part of the war emergency. Either as
the civil or military head of the nation he had
the power to appoint a protectorate for the
Taos Of the United States in the South, and it
matters not hoeo this was done whether his
governors or protectorates We're sent there I'M
der military law, as over military depart
ment in the South, called Georgia and Alaba-
ma, or whether as an agent of the Govern
ment, acting on the part Of the United States,
to aid and protect the loyalty of the South in
the several States to struggle into form and
relation to the Federal head-in any event
| this constitutional power belonged to the
President to protect and reassert the rights of
the loyal in the States, and to enforce the la,cs
| Of the United States. If he had not this pow
er in the then condition of the nation, then
he is more helpless than was the tabled wood
en- king that the Greek writes about The
President ofthe U States finds a rebellion quel-
led, out he finds also that dsloyal men, by
revolution, have clogged and DISTRACTED Stcste
machinery to such degree that the constitu-
tional power of the whole people, represented
In the Executive for this purpose, is nscessari-
y called on to aid the loyalty of the lately Sc
coded States to get back properly out Of the
clutches of treason into the Government of
which he is the head. And if he has a right
as President to extend aid to loyalty in this
emergency, what does it matter hosc or in
what form he gives it
But even fthe President had no authority
to do this, (which, of course, we do not con-
cede,) still the invincible fact remains that the
people ofthe South, in their souerign capacity,
have called conventions in pursuance of law,
and made laws and acted under them Now,
if these acts of the South are free and not
coerced, if they were voluntarily done, and
without armed interference, and if these acts
do not conflict with the Constitution of the
United States, what signifies it whether the
Presid ent appointed or did not appoint Pro-
visional Governors? Ifhis acts were ,nUalid
the acts of the people of the South were not
invalid, unless, indeed in the opinion of gentle
men who maintain that the South can sccede
and become an alien people, by virtue of Sc
cession ordinances that nuify our common
nationality and subject the Constitution of the
United States to the authority of that of the
States If the South is an alien people, why
then, perhaps, they have no concern in the
Government, and they were merely imperti-
nent when they gave the finishing blow to
slavery by aiding in the adoption of the con-
stitutional amendment
But we feel Inundated to pursue this sub
jeet gravely and we cannot refrain from
saying, when we hear gentlemen who assert.
that the South are not States, but Territories,
that we are trife amused to mark them de-
ny the power Of the President to send 60
vernon or ruler over what thy style a SUBJ
jected people.
1t is fortunate that the American masses,
with their President. are looking, with wor-
thy interest, upward to high and sublime
things, such as human freedom and progress,
as embodied in the future of our noble de-
mocracy, and not down, with idiotic vision,
into the narrow arena OF party gladiators,
who, as we devoutly hope and truly believe,
are playing about the last of their :" fantastic
tricks before high Heaven" to make 81 the an
gels weep."-Nat. Int.