The Weekly Perrysburg journal. [volume] (Perrysburg, O. [Ohio]) 1861-1???, 1866-05-04

forever deprived Of citizenship. as was
Shays and his principal officers. Afterward
some Of them who had fred upon citizens
were permitted to recover their citizenship
10y proving peuitencs and loyalty, and by
taking the oath of allegiance.
From the day of its birth TO this hour,
your Government has by aots of Congress,
both asserted and exercised this identical
power for which | argue. These acts bear
date respectively April Ii. 1902. and March
20. 1870, and were signed by Washington
and Jefferson. These aots all expressively
provide that no person prescribed by any
Of these State laws to which have alluded
shall ever DO admitted to become citizens
of the United States without the assent Of
the States.
These laws were passed by the men who
made your Constitution. They have re.
mainod upon your statute book. and havo
been enforced throughout every day Of your
national existence. To-day they remain
there standing almost alone now, Of all the
statutes of our national era, witnesses of
that strange eagaciiy, gouius and power
which conceived and planned. and reared
the awful structures Of the Republic, and
which started that Republic down through
tho ages upon its career Of power aud
grandeur There stand these statutes yet,
like sentiuels with swords of flame at the
gate of Eden, guarding the entrance to our
national fellowship and power aud, like
monuments too. of the wisdom of the Cow
ernnrents uutl,or These monuments of
the nations origin are now covered with the
gray mOsses OF near D hundred years, and
three generations of the nations children
have passed to the dead beneath tlrnir shade.
Aud still they stand there to-day, their
foundations resting upon the GRANTEES, jus.
tice aud law, upon which lie, in eternal re-
pose, the deep foundations OF the Republic
ITSELF Aud all over them, from base to
summit, is written in characters as plain az
lhuse traced "hy the fingers Of mans
hand over against the caudlestick upon the
| plaster OF the wall of the Kings palace"
that truth, upon which ull human govern
mcnt is founded. aud upon which stands
the government OF God, that true allegiance
and fidelity to Government is the only foun-
dation of Government that eau he aud
/ that men fall from citizenship by the same
'' sin Ivy which fell the augels"
But. Mr.. Speaker, quit this presentation
Of the authorities by pointing my country.
mon, and you, fellow members of this
House, 10 tlp last and most terrible years
of your lifo. In those fearful events which
have been aronud you, and when good mon
had forgotten tho paruzan in the patriot.
aud when they were grasping with the awful
energies OF despair for the wisest aud best
means of national existence, you have again
and again re-enacted those principles of the
Revolution; and your acts Of Congress bear
the now immortal signature of your hon
ored and lamented President. Oh, how la.
mented nowl. BY mere acts of law, you
have couhscated lands you have deprived
Of power to hold Office you have deprived
OF the power to vote, and have wholly for
ielted every quality of citizenship. Tke
act OF March 3, 1868, is an exercise Of tho
very ii5ht OF forfeiture without trial for
which argue. That act provides that
AN persons who have deserted the mil
itary or naval service of the United States"
And who do not report for duty within q
| prescribed time
shall be deemed and tnkon to have vouu-
tarily relinqushed and forfeited the rights
of citizenship, and their right to become
citizens; and such deserters shall be for.
ever incapable of holding any Office of trust
or profit under the United States or of ex.
ercsing any right of citizenship"
Unless somebody shall hereafter appear
in tho world strong enough to show that
to desert. our armies is higher offense
against tho duties of citizenship and a
palmer relinquishment and forfeiture of its
rights than four years of war against the
nations existence is, then this law will
stand as practical assertion, exercise and
application of all the national powers Of
self preservation, for which contend.
Sir if, indeed, it be so that all these arc
not enough to establish as among the pow
ers OF our great aud beloved, but most in
jured Government, the merest right of self
dcfcns' an il, indeed, the Chief ar, h tccts
OF that ruin OF States, which lies there be-
fore you yet, almost unalleviated; if tho
chief actors Of this crime, eTine whose
Internal shades and glares are, in all tho
long future, to at once darken aud show
all that is bad in human history; if all these
chiefs of human infamy, with blood.drops
dripping from every fingers end, and from
each articuhr hair !" il these men, un-
repenlant. manncaled "no reckoning made"
may stalk back, not to ordinary rights of
citizenship merely, bnt to the higher,
grander powers OF electors of this mighty
nation; nay, come here into the very sanctu-
airy of the uation's life, and TO liberty's last
retreat, and may come, too, as the rulers Of
the Republic, aud all This in defiance Of all
power in the Government to forbid it, then,
sir, have the precepts of all reason, all law.
all mortality, all history, all experience and
all common justice been discarded in tho
making OF your Government; and then
turn away from looking at my country's
future in anguish, in despair of the Repub-
lic
But, Mr.. Speaker it is not so. Your coun-
try aud mine has the power to be, aud the
Republic will live.