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

Tour years and q half that almost entire
people strove for that destruction, with a
ferocity Of will which made the purposes
OF Danton and Robespierre almost timid
and with cruelty Of execution which makes
the "September slaughters Of the prisons "
almost mercy,
And now, when the grass has not yet
covered the graves where sleep the victims
of this immense crime. and when, by no act,
or speech, or tisn, the great mass of tho
authors of II have even professed regrets
for tho past, except regrets for the failure,
and when they avow no new desires for
the future, this nation must either accept
this most unwelcome fact of general dis
loyalty or else the nation cannot live.
MIR. Speaker, has the Constitution, now
that actual war for the attainment OF the
nations destruction has been crushed out,
deprived the Government of all power TO
accept this fact, and to provide against the
imminent peril to the nation which it in,
portsf To show that the Constitution has
not is the work Of this my hour.
To be fully aud accurately Npprehended,
let me state now what | am about to main.
tain and what shall not maintain.
do not think that tho Federal Govern.
meut has any power to exclude by law any
civilized native Of the United States from
rights of national citizenship, who has not
violated or renounced his allegiance to the
United States.
do not maintain that any citizen can, by
any act of disioyelty or Ivy dscarding his
allegiance, divest himself oi the obligations
of the allegiance which i've oweR his ooun.
tryi but, on the contrary, | hold that he
cannot.
l do not hold that the United States car
regulate the enjoyment Of the elective fran.
ohise IN the organized States so as to pro
scribe who, of them who are citizens, sha
be permitted to vote. think the second
section of the first article OF the Constitu
tloN gives this power to the States.
WHAT do maintain, and shall try to en-
tsblish, is that the UMted States is u sp
preme nationality, with tho sovereign power
usually held by nations to define the obi
cations of eilizenship. aud demand tn,
paramount allegiance OF all its citizens. IN
return Tor nutiunal protection; and that, it
virtue of such sovereignty, the nation ha,
| the power by law To declare what gross
open and pulpahle aots of anuration an,
abandonment of the obligations of citizen
| ship shall work forfeiture of all tho polit
ical rights nnd powers ot citizenship, iDclud
ing the elective franth SO, and may alst
prescribe what shall he deemed suflicien
evidence of return TO truo faith aud ale
glance to his couhtry, such us to entitl,
him to demand the rights OF citizen.
To attain the estaLlishmout of those
now proceed
THE UNITED STATES is A NATION.
IL is upon this sublime and simple Law
that lay the foundations OF my argument
Mr. Speaker how strange has been til,
history of that laws enunciaton aud en-
torcement in our country. Its absence frou
the Confederation rendered that struc
ture, which was reared in the storms o
war, utterly weak and insecure, aud at The
end of the eighth year Of it's existence pros
trated it in ruin. To remove in the new
Constitution this cause of the leebleuess
and ruin OF the old, was the very eud and
purpose of the now ones formation Thai
high purpose they who made it engraved
into its text in those vital words, Shall bc
the supreme law of the land"
And then they set the purpose out again
i'll tho tiara OF stars with which they
bound the Constitutions brow, aud made il
read, "To form more perfect Union"
This law, stated by Wheaton in the words
"The United States is supreme Govern
ment acting not only upon the sovereign
members Of the Union, but directly upon
tho citizens, was thus made self evident
az the very foundation of the Government
both by the origin, the text and the pre-.
amhle of the Constitution. 1t was after.
ward affirmed bya thousand judgments OF
the highest courts of the States and nation
Ii was reannounced by the Government
itself in terrible dialect of war in tho sup.
preston of three successive revults against
that supremacy, in the States of Pennsyl.
vania, South Carolina and Rhode Island.
II became impressed upon the Constitution s
history by the meanings assigned to il by
those who made it. The same thing was
enforced by the subsequent arguments Of
its great expounGers, among which 8 ani
one-the reply to Hayne--unsurpassed by
the achievements of human intellect, and
which has passed into undying history, the
sole companion OF its only peer, "the ora
ton upon the Crown"
But. sir, after all these il was strangely,
in Gods orders, reserved to this Govern.
ment to teach it to her children and the
world in emphasis which startled the
human race.
This lesson, which they who made it lad
TINS written all over the Constitution
which the Government bad three times
more indicated by the accents of war, which
Tor several years the Uuurts had been franz
ing into degrees and men had been illus
trailing with the best eloquence of earth, is
oomprehended at last. But, Mr. Speaker,
it was only oomprehended when il was
written III letters of mingled fire and blood
of " the mighty millions"
There it stands now written, compre-
hended. IL is the Judgment of by far the
most august court which ever sat for high
resolve the court OF the mighty people;
and men comprehend at last that this is
nation with right 10 live.
lie then proceeds TO show that every ma
tion is entitled to the means of selfdefense;
that self preservation is universal right
aud duty of nations; the citizenship is a
and not State quality and gift;
how the rights of citizenship are forfeited.
and the relation of citizenship to suffrage,
THE UNITED sTArEs.
now assert that this very power in
question, OF Withdrawing or Withholding
,ither some or all OF the rights Of citizen
ship from them who renouncs their ale
glance, has been exercised by your Govern.
nent ever since it was in Sex xistence, aud
Dy the States before it was Government.
There was not State IN which. during the
Har OF the Revolution, laws were not passed
orfeiting rights of citizenship of them who
adhered TO the enemies of the country. The
iates and titles Of these acts will be found
II American State papers. page 1893. !
,anhot here refer to more than one or two,
Shcil will give just idea of the character