Delaware State journal and statesman., 1866-09-25
LOYALTY.
Address of the National Union
Committee---A fair State
ment of Loyal Union
Principles.
What we Are, What we Want,
and What we will Have.

and WnaC we Will Have.
Eel ow-CITIzENs: Very grave difference
having arisen between your immediate Re-
presentatives in Congress and the President,
who owes his position to your votes, we are
impelled to ask your attention thereto, and
to suggest the duties to your country which
they render imperative.
We shall avoid the use of hard words. OF
these, there have already been too many.
And, that the matters in issue may be brought
within the narrowest compass, let us first
eliminate from the controversy all that has
already been settled or has never been in
dispute.
The Republic has been desperately as
sailed from within, and its very existence
seriously imperiled. Thirteen States were
claimed as having Withdrawn from the
Union, and were represented for years in
hostile Congress meeting at Richmond. Ten
OF these States were, for time, wholly in
the power of q hostile Confederacy; the
other three partially so. The undoubtedly
loyal States were repeatedly and formidably
invaded by rebel armies, which were only
expelled after obstinate and bloody battles.
Through four years of arduous, desperate
civil strife, the hosts of the rebel Confedera-
cy withstood those of the Union. Agents of
that Confederacy tTaversed the civilized
world, seeking allies in their war against the
Republic and melting the rapacious and un-
principled TO fit out armed corsairs to prey
upon her commerce. By State authority,
and in the perverted names of patriotism
and loyalty, hundreds of thousands of our
| countrymen were conscripted into rebel ar
mics and made TO fight desperately for our
national disruption and ruin. And though,
by the blessing of God and the valor and
constancy of our loyal people, the rebellion
was finally and utterly crushed, it did not
succumb until it had caused the destruction
of more than half million of precious hu-
man lives, not to speak of property to the
value of at least five billions of dollars.
At length the rebel armies surrendered
and the rebel power utterly collapsed and
vanished. What then?
The claim of the insurgents that they
either now reacquired or had ever forfeited
their constitutional rights in the Union, in
Guiding that OF representation in Congress,
stands in pointed antagonism alike to the re-
quirements of Congress and to those of the
acting President 1t was the Executive
alone who, after the rebellion was no more,
appointed provisional governors for the now
submissive unarmed Southern States, on the
assumption that the rebellion had been ire
volutionary," and had deprived the people
under its sway of all civil government, and
Who requiled the assembling OF "conven-
tion, composed OF delegates to be chosen by
that portion ofthe people of said State who are
loyal TO the United States, and no others, for
the purpose of altering and amending the
constitution of said State" 1t was Presi-
dent johnson who, so late as October last
when all shadow of overt resistance TO the
Union had long since disappear ed-insisted
that it was not enough that State which
had revOlted must recognize her ordinance
of secession as null and void from the be-
ginning, and ratify the constitutional amend
ment prohibiting slavery evermore, but she
must also repudiate "every dollar of indebt-
edness created to aid in carrying on the re-
bellion.n II was he who ordered the dis
persion by military force of any Legislature
chosen under the rebellion which should
assume power to make laws after that rebel
lion had fallen. 1t was he who referred to
Congress all inquirers as to the probability
of Representatives from the States lately in
revolt being admitted to seats in either House,
and suggested that they should present their
} credentials not at the organization OF Con-
gress, but afterwards. And finally, it was
he, and not Congress, who suggested to his
GOV. Sharkey, of Mississippi, that
"If you could extend the elective franchise
to all persons of color who can read the Co..
stitutiOn of the United States in English and
write their names, and TO all persons Of color
who own real estate valued at not less than
two hundred and fifty dollars and pay taxes
| luGIGOut HOu WOulu NOuplGlCly ulSdIll buC
adversary, and set an example that other
States will follow"
If, then, there be any controversy as to
the right of the loyal States to exact condi-
tions and require guarantees OF those which
plunged madly into secession and rebellion,
the supporters respectively of Andrew John
, son and of Congress cannot be antagonist
parties to that contest since their record
places them on the same side.
u hoinu oUroad fhof conditions nf
) restoration and guarantees against future
! rebellion may be exacted of the States lately
! in revolt, the right of Congress to a voice in
prescribing those conditions and in shaping
those guarantees is plainly incontestible.
Whether it takes the shape of law or of q
constitutional amendment, the action oi
Il Congress is vital. Even if they were to be
settled by treaty, the ratification Of the
Senate, by two-third vote, would be indls
y pensable There is nothing in the Fedora
Constitution, nor in the nature of the case
that countenances an Executive monopoly
of this power.
What, then, is the ground of complain
against COngressp
Is it charged that the action of the two
Houses was tardy and hesitatingP Consde
how momentous were the questions involved
. the issues depending. Consider how move
Il and extraordinary was the situation. Con
:, slider how utterly silent and blank is the Fed
eral Constitution touching the treatment o
I. insurgent States, whether during their fla
grant hostility to the Union or after their dis
comtiture. Consider with how many embar
easements and difficulties the problem is be
set, and you will not wonder that month
were required to devise, perfect and pass, b,
a two-thirds vote in either Honse, Just AM
"a safe plan of reconstruction.
is Yet that plan has been matured. It ha
passed the Senate by 33 to IL, and the Hous
by 1888 TO 36. 1t is now fairly before til
5. country, having already been ratified by tn
Legislatures of several States and rejected b.
none Under it the State of Tennessee ha
been formally restored to all the privilege
she forfeited by rebellion, including repre-
sentation in either House Of Congress. An
9. the door thus passed through stands inviting
- ly open to all who still linger without
Are the conditions thus prescribed intolera
BILE, or even humiliating? They are, in sui
10 stance, these;
:: l. All persons born or naturalized in thi
- country are henceforth citizens OF the Unite
III States, and shall enjoy all the rights of cit
zens evermore; and no State shall hav
power to contravene this most righteous an