Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-06-27
COLUMBUS. OHIO WEDNESDAY MORNING. JUNE q, 1866
r Iron the Cincinnati Commercial,l u..
The Constitutional Amendment
'a" and the Union Party. - ,.f

and the Union Party. -.
/, EDS. CoM.--Tbe first, third aud fourth
sections of the proposed constitutional |
B amendment are already enacted into laws,
Z in the Civil Rights bill, the Test Oath act,
the laws of Congress guaranteeing, the
: payment of our National debt and the Con-
( stitutions and ordinances of the late dis
loyal States, repudiating the rebel debt. as
suggested by President johnson, The
chief reason now alleged for putting these
I measures into the shape of constitutional
provisions, must arise from doubt as to
their present cOnstitutionality, or want of
faith in the loyalty OF the people of the
United States in the future conduct Of their
own government The sacred obligation
to pay our National debt can not be in
creased by placing such provision in the
Constitution, which, in, fact, rather casts a
suspicion on our credit abroad, by a stand
ing notification that there is a large organ
lied party of regulators in our midst
who, as soon as they obtain majority in
Congress, will refuse to pass the necessary
tax bills for revenue purposes, a contingent
cy which no paper guarantee could reme-
dy, whenever the moral sense of the Amer
lean people becomes so debased as to require
1t. The probability of the assumption Of
the rebel debt is equally imaginary, if
tion to do so, for under our present ,Consti-
tuition, with proper legislation, no loyal
court would hesitate to enjOin the collec-
tion of any tax, State or National, levied
for the purpose of paying debts contracted
to carry on an armed resistance to the laws
OF the United States, and the Supreme Court
will undoubtedly so hold, if the ques-
tion should ever be brought before tnem
It's settled maxim not to put what is
unnecessary or mere matter of legislation in
toa Observation-Disclosures which was
fundamental with the wise trainers of the
Federal Constitution, though grossly yiO-
lated by modern Constitution thinkers, par
tieularly in Ohio, whose Convention, like
the present Congress, thought wisdom
would die with them, unless all their pet
political projects OF party legislation were
perpetudted for the benefit Of future genera
lions. r..r. r.f t1 ...'r...
These three sections were engrafted, then,
in the constitutional amendment as sort of
buncOmb to furnish party platform TOR
campaign, instead of che original nostrum
of negro suffrage, the standing Radical
panacea for al our National ills, and, there
fore, the public mind seemed somewhat re-
lieyed by the sudden descent of our Con-
gressional ideaists, Sod
The real and substantial thing required
reSentatiOn which would suit the change
produced by the abolition of slavery, and
the question now is, does the one proposed
by Congress meet the matter .Jdirlyand in
such shape that it can be ratified without
indefinitely prolonging agitation and praC-
tiCdl disunion. ..
The clause in the Constitution allowing
the three-fifths representation was COM
promise founded on the idea that slaves
were a part of the family, iu.t as the women
and children, and were for the same reason
cOiStr1tcttUety represented, though not in the
same proportion, because, rs the Federalist
says, they were treated partly as property
by the State laws. By the adoption of the
constitutional amendment abOlishng slaV-
cry, "the reason of tue rule ceasng, the
rule itself should cease" and equality in
popular representation between the States
can only be attained by striking down the
whole system of cOnStIaCtiee represent
tatiOn and basing National represen-
tation on political power, measured by
voters and direct taxation ON prop
erty, to obviate the objection that repre-
sentatiOn must go with taxation. Hence,
the proposition of appOrtioning representa-
tion on voters, citizens of the United States,
so extensively discussed before the elections
of last year, while the present proposed
amendment, which contains the principle
of constructive representation as much as the
old Constitution counting in the nOn-Uoting
classes as basis when it suits for political
reasons, and counting them out when it op-
crates adversely, was first concOcted by the
Yankee ingenuity of Mr.. Blaine. of Maine,
to save the New England States from losing
members of Congress by the adoption of
the voting basis amendment, and thimble-
rugged through the Senatorial Union eau-
Gus with the assistance of the influeAce of
New York city, in order that she might
retain toCO members of Congress conS,yuctigely
representing thousands of unnaturalized
foreigners temporarily sojOurning there for
the mere purpose of business. .#I
Senator Sherman and others made a gall
lant fight for the voting basis amendment,
which operates uniformly on the logical
principle of making each citizen voter eqidL
everywhere, without assuming the light to
punish any State because she does not con-
ter suffrage on the negroes, while implicitly
admitting at the same time their untitness TO
vote, by declining to present an amend
ment to the Constitution of the United
States for universal suffrage and keeping
the negroes as minors under the guardian
ship OF the Freedmen's Bureau The fol-
lowing table will show what selfish sectual-
ism prevented the New England Senators
from sustaining the voting basis amend
ment, thus haZarding the ratification of ann
amendment, rather than yield cintella of
local power, forgetting, with, wonderful
short-sightedness, their present advantage
Oh Senatorial representation: lts,a4
= ,APPoHIoEtEST on CENSUS OF 1860.