The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1866-10-02
Southern Rights.

"uo ny tne SOluleIS anu SallOrS assembled in
convention at Pittsburg made them speech
from which we extract the following:
You who landed at Port Royal after that
li9st y brilliant bombardment fellow soldiers,
uiu You believe that South Carolina was then
IN tne unlon, with all her rights and privileges
rs s part of the growing power of this Union.
EeI us follow on for a few moments: because.
II tnere Is any man so stupid here as IN helieve
sisn. shIs AZ that time South Carolina had all her
rights In the Union as a part of the Governed
him have offended, and he had bettar taLa Ms
nat and go to dinner, for shall NOT address him
any any longer; tApplause;l Now, then, with va
tSousan1 eSs ntbsr q, IhettsysDurg Antietam and
representatives, the war was fought ont W.
all agree that at the time of which haya 80
en-the beginning of the war-these men had
no rignts IN the Union. Then the war was
fought out What was the next stem in the
progress Of the nation? An the armed soldiers
representing these men surrendered themselves
prisoners OF war. Mark thatl Surrendered
hemselves-surrendered themselves and their
rlghts, and everything they had, to our victori-
GUS arms. [Applause.l
Is there any man here who win claim that by
surrender men get rights? Applause Then
they got no rights. What did they become
what did they claim they were? Why did
they claim amnesty parOled prisoners of
war? Now, then, my doubling friends, if any
there are here, is not a paroled prisoner of war
poor material to make sovereign States of this
~ mon on out on Great applause. What were
the states then IN inteudment of public law
what were the States in intendment of nation
al right and of every decision of every court
and every jurist? They were but camps of
paroied prisoners under guard of our soldiers,
to see that nobody molested them SO long as
they behaved, Well, now, then, ask You
right here can there be any doubt i'm the Ian
guage Of your resolutions, that the Congress of
the United States, representing the Govern
meut Of the conquering army of the United
States In IN Ia oil
rules and regulations for the government of
ten camps Of paroled prisoners of war? i do
not discuss the question, what you call them, /
deal with the question coldly and firmly what
they We're. You may call them territories, con-
quered provinces, anything but our governors;
Ican't stand that [Applause.l
But have heard the sophism which is the
end and aim, the alpha and omega, of all argu-
ment against us 10 this effect Well, don't
understand you. There you say that q State
has no right to secede, you say that the States
tried TO seeede, and yOu whipped them and pre-
vented them; then you say they are not in the
Union. How do you reconcile that? Let us
for moment deal with that argument. What
Z do we say precisely? We say that no act of a
State, or the Government Ofthe United States
even, can alter the relations of q single citizen
of this Government to itself without his con-
sent; we say that no State can take q single
foot of American soil from under the authori-
ty of the American Government or the prOtec-
ton Of the American flag; say the Obliga-
United States.
The distinction VIC make is this: They lost
their rights by the crimes they committed,
while they did not get rid of their obligations.
They had rights, IA part of this Government,
as States in this u Mon. They had obligations
as citizens of the United States. Let me give
you an example familiar to our courts: A man
commits murder; at that moment he has all
the high rights OF u citizen-the right to the
ballot the right to be elected to office, the right
to the marriage relation, the right to the gov
eminent of his children, the right to walk a
freeman around the streets, but by the act of
murder, by that crime, he forfeits his rights to
his liberty, to his wife, to his children and ev-
EN- to life itself Mark me, he gets rid of none
of his obligations to society by his own crime.
LApplausc.l SO with these States while they
could not make one hair white or black so far
as their disseyerance from the Union was con-
cerned, yet they by their treason and their
crimes could forfeit all their rights in the Uni
I On--nOt less traitors because they were citizens
mot less citizens because they were traitors.
lAppiause.1 Now, then, what is State for?-
1t Is said that q State can never die. Suppose
for moment that all the people in State die,
what becomes of the State then? [Laughterl
Suppose all the people move out Of a State l
now speak of the political organization as q
part Of this great Government-what becomes
Cat al tee hs@ psope SSpppOssa SRA 1s hf
with few glorious exceptions whom we need
not now stop to consider, suppose they all re-
pudiated their obligations to this Government,
and all bound themselves together and swore
allegiance to another government, and all uni
ted in arms to drive out the authorities OF this
Government what then becomes of the State?
Why the State is destroyed because the State
is but the organ of civil government.
/ do not know, my friends, that 1t will make
ity to you, especially such an authority, but
Andrew johnson, in his proclamation ap-
pointing provisional Governors, says that he
appoints provisional Governors because all
civil government is destroyed in the revolted
States. With all civil government destroyed,
using his very language, where was the State?
Therefore the idea that State can never die;
that State must always exist, and that
| State, by its people, can fight the Union for
| four years, and then come back of its own vOli-
| ton and undertake to govern the Union, is a
| sophism and q delusion unworthy of an intel
| ligent people [Applause.l Now, then, it is
said further that State cannot die, and can
not lose its rights, because it has no right to Sc
cede. i.I Ui ls Ia.i rN
Let us look at that little further find a
man here on the sidewalk weltering in his
blood, his throat cut and the bloody razor in
! his hand, showing case of suicide. Why, l
| say, the man is dead. No, say you, he cannot
| be dead; he has no right to cut his throat
| But Is question of right not a question OF
| fact? To this answer, this is a question of
| fact and not question of right; and l repeat
once more what understand to be the true
! principle of the great Republican party on
this question, that in this great contest not one
| right of the Government over these States or
over their citizens was lost, but every right of
every traitor on its soil was forfeited and gone
forever. [Applause.]
4 If we have settled this to our satisfaction
| upon the principles of inexorable logic and
truth, what is the condition of these people?
| We have settled definitely what shall be the
| rights of Congress or the rights of the rest of
| the nation. Their rights all powerful
| Their duty is another question. Now, in all
| governmental communities IL has always been
| found necessary for the Government to treat
| communities as if they had erred or been mis-
/ led, to be, in the mass, forgiven. But all gov
| ernments have always treated as examples
| those that misled their communities, and that
| is their duty, it would seem to me, in the pres
ent crisis. [Applause.] To extend to tho
South, to the Southern men, who, as cOmmu-
mites, have been misled, our cordial welcome
| back, when they will come back in the spirit
| of truth, of justice, of right, of kindness, and
of loyalty in which we offer to receive them.
But for the men that misled them, the great
representative men, let them be so dealt with
| that no man hereafter shall leave his seat in
the Congress of the United States, or desert
the glorious flag for the purpose of taking
I command in the armies of our enemies. APP
plause. .uE--t