New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-06-11
~ RrooVsTRUslIoN COMMITIEE

EgtyIed have g,su their views to Congress. Their
report will Constitute the chief argument of the
radical pity in support of their policy, and will
he the oasis on which they will claim the support Of
tbs Northern people in the coming elections Wesay
1.-The Northern people, for, with the exception OF
the negro population of the South, the committee
seem to ignore almost entirely the existence OIL
any rights amongst the people OF the southern
States.
We propose brief review of some of the doc
trines promulgated in this report, for, though we
have not vet received it in detail the Geographic
svnoDsis which we have already published is suffi-
eientlv copious to give as distinct view of its
main features.
The theory now advanced with such effrontery
by the radicals is that the war; during its pro-
qress. assumed such dimensions as necessarily to
4 be grand war between distinct nationalities
That as result Of this condition of things the
Southern States ceased to be an integral part of
the United States; andt as soon as their military
power was broken they became, simply "a con.
quered people, and entitled only to receive such
rights, privileges and conditions as might be
| vouehsafed by their conquerors,n and that the
conquered rebels were at the mercy of their con-
querors." That having, of their own accord, re-
inquished the right of representation in Congress,
| the Southern States cannot legitimately resume
their places in the national Legislature without the
express assent of those who resisted their right to
withdraw And that this right should not be con
ceded until sufficient guarantees and adequate Sc
h curity be given by the conquered States, (which
4 will be satisfactory to the government against
which they rebelled 2 of the improbability Of the
recurrence of future treason and rebellion
| In the labored argument Of the committee
there seem to be glarng Inconsistencies and
very Illogical deductions. We will note only some
of the most obvious. If the United States govern
ment possessed any right to make war upon the
Southern States thatrigbt was derived solely from
the Constitution on which alone is based its right
to exercise its powers The exercise Of this
| power was claimed, and especially by the entire
Republican party, in the existence Of the right to
" suppress insurrectonn and to execute the
laws Of the Union.n If at the beginning of the
struggle, Or OF any period during the progress Of
the war, these States ceased to be members of the
4 Federal Union, the whole action Of the govern
ment was wrongful and revolutionary, and an in
i vasion Of the rights Of the Southern States as
4 separate and independent people. And if, as the
committee argue, certain States could at their
option, by simply Withdrawing their delegations
from Congress, annu all the rights and Obligations
which are guaranteed BY the Constitution, the
failure of the people of State to choose repre-
sentation would have similar effect and each
State might therefore, either by positive action or
by mastery inactivity annu all its relations to
the general government, and place itself beyond
the pale of the protection of the Constitution,
TO carry out the logic Of the committee to its
legitimate results, we might thus find any number
ofStates placing themselves outside the Union,
and thus depriving the general government of any
constitutional right to interfere with their action
For, whom State is out Of the Union, the laws Of
the Union cannot prevail there and there can
therefore be no " insurreetion or rebellion to
be repressed, and no laws to be legitimateIy en-
forced in territory thus suddenly become foreign
territory by the novel and ingenious process which
accords With the theory Of the committee. This is
certainly avery powerful argument, if we can rely
upon the logic Of the committee, for the right OF
secession and indicates that the old heresy' still
perYades the New England mind and may give rise
at some future day to such threats OF secession as
were uttered by their ancestors in 1914, and pro-
mulgated in the celebrated Hartford convention.
4 We will not dwell upon that portion Of their re-
| port which descants upon, the attempts Of the
radicals at q Cancellation, Of their leniency," Of
their kind desire for the resumption of fraternal
relations.n It seems to US as If was urged only
in the spirit of irony. For with statute-books
whose pages are covered with acts Of almost uni
yersal prescription and conffscation with the in
Gignant hoWls which assai almost every Just or
generous act Of President Jehnson without an
attempt to repeal any of the oppressive legislation
which bears 50 heavily upon the Southern people !;
with the repeated and earnest efforts of the sum
ners and the steyenses to devise and to pass
through Congress legislation still more novel and
oppressive in its character with persistent effort
10 afix such legislation irrevoGably upon the
country by changes in the fundamental law, which
will amount to revolution in the form of our gov
eminent; with the constant exhibitions of feelings Of
petty malignity, which seemingly evinee willing
ness to reYoutonize the government for the sake of
gratifying feelings Of luminosity against section
we fail to discern the presence Of the magnanimiy
Of which the committee SO proudly boast. We
think they must have intended, by the declaration
| only to have perpeHated aserious joke!
The report of the committee is before the coun-
| try. 10 the conservative men Of the North with
out distinction of former party organizations, we
must appeal in support of the measures of Presi-
dent johnson. They owe it to themselves and to
the future glory and prosperity of the country to
perpetuate the Constitution on its original prin-
ciples, and to put end to these radical attempts
at tinkerng it, which, if continued much longer,
will not leave enough of the original framework
upon which to hang their pernicious and revoIu-
tionary amendments. We commend, in opposition
to the radical theories of blood and vengeance,
which are so in accord with the practice of the
revolutionary committee of Robespierre and
Marat, the statesmanlke principles Of President
Johnson, which are in consonance with the follow
ing sage utterances of Montesquieu:
AS soon as republic has comprised the des-
truction of those who wanted to subvert it, there
should be an end of terrors, punishments and
even rewards Great punishments. and conse-
auently great changes, cannot take place without
investing some citizens with exorbitant power. 1t
is therefore advisable in this case to exceed in
lenity rather than severity; to Danish but few
rather than many; and to leave them their estates
instead of making vast number Of eonfscations.
Under pretense of avenging the republics cause
the avengers would establish tyranny. The bust
ness is not to destroy the rebels but the rebellion
They ought to return as quickly as possible into
the usual track of government, in which every one
is protected by the laws, and no one injured.
AN HISTORICAL PARALLEL.
1t has been frequently asserted that history fur
nishes no parallel to the recent struggle of the
South for separation from the Federal Union. In