The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1866-02-22
BY sCHOFF. VINEGAR & co.


constitution of the United States Whethe
it was so or not | will not undertake to say
But what has been done in South Carolina
what has been done in Mississippi and Ala
bama, under what my colleague calls th,
peace powers. Not only have citizens
those who were never in the armies Of thu
United States, or any other army, been ar
rested time and again and been tried before
military commissions, but military commits
sions have been trying private causes tres
passes, actions of debt, actions of assainpsit
and administering justice between man anC
man. Not only have they been doing this
but the judges and justices appointed by
the people of South Carolina for the very
purpose OF exercising this authority have
been surnmarily dlspossessed Of their offices
aud placed entirely to one side Not only
that, but legislatures elected by the people
of South Carolina to make laws have been
dispersed, and new legislatures have been
set up in their stead; Governors have been
deposed and other Governors placed in THEN
stead, and this under the exercise of peace
powers
My colleague says that the President haC
to judge when to disband the army. and il
order to know whether it was safe to dis
band any portion of the army he had tc
make some little investigation in those
communities, to see how they felt, and he
yentured upon these acts by way Of feeling
thetr pulse, investigating the state of pub
lie feelingand public sentiment down there
de admits that it was little peculiar that
he should appoint agents there and call
them provisional governors but they were
only deputies of the President If the Pres
iaent, the conmander.i III chief of the army,
had GONE there himself and done these very
things, be- argues that nobody woald have
objected TO the coustitutionality of them,
If South Carolina is to be considered state
of tine American Union. if South Carolina
is state, that is what Wisconsin is, that is
what Ohio is The President is indeed com
mander-in-c chief Of the army and navy, but
he is no more commander in chief of the
army i'll South Carolina than he is in Wis
consin. What he can do in one State as
commander-n-c chief be can do in another. -
If he can depose legal, constitutional gov
ernor III one state he can do so i'll another. |
do not see why he cannot. | make no cona-
plant of the, President for doing these things
in South Carolina. He did not remove a
Governor of constitutional state he re-
moved criminal from exercising acts of
authority under powers delegated to him
by criminals. Not only that but laws
passed by these legislatures have been set
aside over and over again; make no COM
plant of it, | believe it was right to set
them aside, because believe there was no
community there which had the right to
make laws they were all criminals.
In point of fact, Mr.. President, the issue
between myself on the one side, and the
Senator from Maryland and my colleague
on the other, is just this there were GER
tain laws which once recognized South
Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi to be
states Under. those laws, those people had
the right to elect Governors and choose
South Carolina elected man
by the name of Magrath for Governor of
that state. The Senator from Maryland in
sists that we were prosecuting this war to
make Magrath the Governor of South Caro-
lima and to obey the constitution of the
United States; that that is the law that we
were trying to enforce in the prosecution of
this war. | think it was another law we
were trying to enforce-a law enacted on
the 30th of April, 1890, the first section of
which declares
''That if any person or persons owing al
legiance to the United States of America
shall levy war against them, or shall adhere
to their enemies giving them aid and COM
fort within the United States or elsewhere
and shall thereof be convicted, on confession
in open court, or on the testimony of two
witnesses to the same overt act of the trea
son whereof he or they shall be indicted,
such person or persons shall be adiudged
guilty of treason against the United States
and shall suffer DEATH"
| think we were prosecuting this war in
order to enforce that law against Governor
Magrath, against every one of the Represen-
tatives in their Legislature, against all their
judges. 1t does not follow, because we have
the power to do it, that therefore we should
execute the law. We were prosecuting the
war that we might be enabled to execute
this law if we chose to do it. The President
can remit these men from the penalties of
this law if he pleases If he does not, that
is law to be executed, and that is one of
the laws to enable us to execute which we
were prosecuting this war. Upon the pen
alties of that statute were included not only
every agent of what you call the state OF
South Carolina during the existence of the
war, but almost every citizen within tn:
state of South Carolina. The law condemn
ed every one OF them to death When they
were disarIned it rested within the discre-
ton of the government of the United States
TO say whether this law should be enforced
or not We had only to carry out this law,
enacted IN l79Q, and what should have hap
pened to what you call the State of South
Carolina? Not only tie Governor, every
representative, and every other municipal
agent would have been executed, but every
citizen who had incurred this guilt of trea-
son would have been executed When YOU
had executed every officer and every man,
take it the state of South Carolina and its
functions would have been suspended in more
senses than one. conceive that that would
have been the end of the state of South Car
DINA; or fit would not, or if South Caroline
would have survived that, where would il
have been? What would have been it's con
dition?
MIR. President, upon one point an issue il
made between my colleague and myself, anc
that is upon the question whether it is saft
now to restore the prerogatives of states tx
the people Of those communities My col
league does not exactly assert that it i,
safe now to do it, but he does say that thos
people Lave surrendered, not merely thei
armies, but their cause. l wish | could be
lieve that; but the fact is, it is not true; ant
| wish to submit to the Senate, not all th
evidence that l have before me- but few
extracts from it, to show that it is not true
Mr.. Brownlow, or Governor Brownlow, O
Tennessee, one Of those districts for whicl
the character of states is claimed, but few
days since-I read from the National Unio
| of the 10Th instant-used this language:
g can only say by way of admonitio
and encouragement to the colored friends
attend your schools; learn to read the wor
of God, and then learn to love and practic
it; and by way of caution and advice, ad
monish you to be mild aud temperate in you
habit and spirit and your conduct towar
the white people. l advise as friend Low
ing the institution and desiring the prosper
ity of what you have undertaken. [ ad7is
the teachers, male and female, to be exceed
! pcrIx- i