The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1866-01-31
No

~ H
To Georgia, a,s7 To North Carolina
To Illinois, Ii To Ohio, ID
To Indiana, II To Oregon, ~
To Iowa, g To Pennsylvania, q
To Kansas, To Rhode Island,
To Kentucky, To South Carolina,
To Louisiana, - To Tennessee,
To Maine, To Texas,
To To Massa.Sa...,. MMasyand ,S TO To v;~. vsr%SDt
10 Minnesota, 3 TO Wisconsin
2 That law is still in force. Under that law
the present House of Representatives was
chosen; under that law the present House is
organized under that law those eleven States
2 of the South have just as much right to rep
resentati0n as the other twenty-five
Whether those States are in q condition to
choose Representatives, and whether they
have chosen right representatives, are ques-
tions will discuss hereafter now speak
only Of their right to have Representatives
under the existing law of Congress.
Thus, by the action of Congress in appor-
tioning direct taxes and representation
those two. fundamentals in republican gov
ernment-the status Of those eleven States
included within this Union is declared and
acted upon. ss,s..,.,.
Once more, by the act of the eth of June,
1869, amended as late as February, 1858,
Congress, in the ninth section, provided that
tax commissioners in insurrcctionary districts,
after bidding in for the United States lands
sold for unpaid taxes, should, in the name of
the United States, enter upon and take pos
/ session of the same, and lease the same I" I'M
, til the said rebellion and insurrection in said
State shall be put down, and the civil author
! ity of the United States established, and
untilthe people of said State shall elect leg
Z islature and State officers, who shall take an
oath to support the Constitution of the Uni
ted States, to be announced by the proclama-
tion Of the President" And the twelfth sec
tion provides g that the proceeds of the said
lease shall be paid into the Treasury of the
United States, one-fourth of which shall be
paid over to the Governor of said State"
when such insurrection shall be put down,
and the people shall elect Legislature and
State officers who shall take an oath to sup
port the Constitution of the United States,
and such fact shall be proclaimed by the
President, for the purposeof reimbursingth the
loyal citizens of said State, or for such other
purpose as said State may direct"
Congress here declares in these sections,
not that the States are outside the Union, not
that they have lost their rights in the Union,
but recognizing the insurrection in these
States. declares four things:
1. The intention of Congress to put down
the insurrection and re-establish the civil
authority in these States.
2. When the instruction is put down, the
people of these States have the right to
elect their Legislature, Governor, and State
officers. H
3. When the people elect them, and they
take their oath to support the Constitution
of the United States the President is by law
required to issue his proclamation to that
effect And
4. After the issue of such proclamation,
the Secretary of the Treasury is required to
pay over certain moneys to the Governor of
| the State, to be disposed of as the State may
| direct.
| The law is in force now; is still the su-
| preme law of the land. Its language demon
! strates with complete certainty certainty
which excludes all dou5t-that in the judg-
ment of Congress, those eleven States are still
States in this Union under the Constitu-
| ton.
| Having shown those States to be in the
| Union under the Constitution, ] now inquire,
what is their true situation2 What rights
have they 2 and what duties devolve on
them2
To answer these important questions let US
inquire, what constitutes State9
| A State, in the meaning of public law, Is
a complete or selfsufficient body of persons
united together in one community for the
defence Of their rights. It has affairs and
| interests 1t deliberates and becomes moral
person, having understanding and will, and
| is susceptible of obligations and laws"
All the great writers on public law agree
| in this.
"In a more limited sense of the word
| State sometimes expresses merely the positive
or actual organization of the legislative,
executive, or Judicial powers; thus the actual
government is designated sometimes by the
| name of State"
This distinction between what constitutes
State in the meaning ofpublic law, and the
| word State as sometimes used to designate
the form of its government, is just as clearas
the distinction between a man and the gar
| ment he wears. In the Declaration Of hide
pendence this great distinction between the
| State, the body political, which constitutes
| the State, and the form of its government,
between g the people" whose right it is /" to
! alter or to abolish their form of govern
ment," and /" instituting new government"
!" organizing its powers in such form as to
them shall seem most likely to effect their
safety and happiness" is most clearly recog-
nized. The State, the people, the body
polite, institute, alter, or abolish their form
of government" Despotism sometimes treats
the body polite, the State, the people, as if
the people were made for the government,
and confounds the State with its ruling or
ganization. Not so under the Declaration Of
+ Independence, under our republican system.
Here the form Of government is but an
agency to serve the State. Legislatures
judges, and executive officers are servants and
not masters. Irepeat, under the old despot
ism the form Of government was organized T.
put all power in the monarch, who some
times claimed to be the State itself. twa
Louis XIV who said, 9 Etat, c'est Noifn
am the State. But the people of France, th
! State, decapitated this despotic assumption
in the person of one of his successors. jaime
assorted the same absolutism, and the peo
pie Of England, the State, did the same thinl
when it brought Charles I to the block.
.aroyed to be very sad mistake in thos
crowned heads. thus to ignore this distinction
between the State and its accidents, betweel
; the body-politic itself and mere form Q
, government, which they, in their absolutisn
7 assumed themselves to be- g
The distinction, as it SCENE to me, is come
times lost sight of among US, and is the Ok
casion of differences Of views on the subje<
lis of rcconstuction. I may be pardoned, ther
Eefore. if dwell still longer on this inportar