New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-09-25
THE RADICAL THEORY

II u,
1 of representatives in Congress by the domi-
nant party, entails on that party the necessity
Of discovering some principle by which they
can justify their course. To the ordinely
common sense of mankind there seems to be
something ludicrously inconsistent in the
positions which the Republican pity have
occupied during the last five years. Nor is
this inconsistency merely an example Of
those mutations and fluctuations of party
which happen so oiGen in the course of 20.
litical history but it is, on the contrary, a
sort of standardization which demands ex-
PLANTATION to the extent tha5 it changes the
characteristics and, apparently, the objecta
and purposes of the organization. Men, and
even parties, may change their positions on
particular questions, without exciting any
very great degree of establishment. In IF !
such transitions appear to be natural pf
nomena in the development Of party life and
r rty progress. But when we see a pa.is
witch has just pressed to a conclusion a la1,y
and bloody war for the maintenance Of nv
Union, now become intensely hostile to Sii3
restoration of the Union, we find in so CO! =.
4 plete metamolphosis something which car,
4 not be e. blamed by ordinary methods. Iaa
absolute and passionate de- a. of the right Of
f1secession, with which the war commenced, is
1 succeeded by the exercise of a power of e,-
clusion which, if it is not Complementary II
eorrelatiye, is still more heretical than tha
other and the loud assertion Of the eternal
i'fac5ti Ictibility Of the Union is followed BY
1 se '1old assertion that the Union is in fact
/ destroyed.
These contradictions are plain, not only Il.
the world but to the radical leaders them
selves and those ,astute politicians perceive
the necessity of making an effort, if not to
reconcile the discrepancies of their history
which would beimpossible, at least to Justify
their present course by the assertion Of some
principle from which their actual policy may
be logically deduced. This principle has
campaign speech in Pennsylvania with much
ostentations andwith an assumption ofaxioma-
TIC certainty which appears to defy contradic-
ton. This gentleman after concisely stating
| the doctrine of the President and his SUP
lpo1ters, to wit That the Southern States are
| now conshtutionally III the Union and that
their people are entitled to immediate repre-
sentation in Congress which doctrine he.
denounces as false and wicked-lays it down
as the basis of the radical theory of the rela-
tons of the late Confederate States towards
the federal government, that those States. OF
rather the people thereof, are conquered enc
mics that conquered enemies have no rights
sat all except those which the conqueror
chooses to grant, and that SO far from the
Southern people having tight to be repre-
scented IN Congress, they have no right even
70 person OF property, except BY the infinite
grace and mercy Of the government of the
United States. The population of the sub
Jugated States, by this theory, are not citizens
but simply criminal criminals by the RESULT
of war; which they were the defeated party.
: The fundamental proposition that CON
quered people cease to have any rights hui
man, social or political except such as may
be accorded by the VICTOR is put forward as
an axiom, and on this axiom, all the suisse
qnent reasoning of the radical leaders is based.
Even Nh. Greeley's platform Of " universal
suffrage amnesty and universal suffrage,
'ests on this principle just as much as Mr..
'EeYens's platform of universal confscation.
5oth assume the absolute right of control
'Fer the people and territory of the late Con {
aderate States, to residein the victorious gov
presuppose the destruction of
nose rights which the conquered people orig +
nlally possessed. But, in point of fact this /
lfFiom SO boastfullya and confidently announced s
s no axiom at all. Not onlyi is it not uniyer- t
ally admitted butit is rejected everywhere b
nd by everybody above the plane of an t
shantee savage. In the case Of war between Ii
Eo powers, the effect of conquest is as v
galnst all other powers, to merge +
1e sovereignty Of the conquered
1to that Of the conquering party. And this 9
'Eall Asbetween the parties to the war, the :. :,
become assimilated, as to their =
ghts to the conquerors. And this is all. 1t ?
false that any rights whatever are lost ex- :
apt the right or rather the power of separate :,
overnment. .
attights OF life and property are not in the !
ightest degree affected. These do not de- :
md on the results of wars, as, among all
y'1lized nations they are supposed to be quite u
dependent Of political and governmental Ia
rms as to their existence. In fact the OBJ W
st of government reduced to its simplest ii
preston, is the protection of precisely those in
shts Of life and property, which Mr.. Stevens U
ciares to have been forfeited by the reduc- tn
N Of eight millions of people to obedience III
the government of the United States. The pc
sclaration of Independence, document as
Ioted by the radicals. whenever it suits in
EN- convenience, declares that men are he
dowed by their Creator with certain inalien-
he rights, and that, among these. rights, are
Life, liberty, and the pursuit Of happiness g
the right Of property is an essential to the AZ
restricted pursuit Of happiness, that right =
necessarily inalienab1e- like the right to oe
It is absurd to say that such rights de- ~
nd on the issue of q war. ~
Indeed. as we said before, such an idea is
leoted BY all civilized nations, as entirely let
consistent with the very nature and objects de
government Even political rights are not, MI
practice, withheld from conquered peo- tn
o. Even after those wars which 1,,o,.o ool17 H.