The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-05-28

is to collect evidence from every source that
can throw light upon the question at issue
| even from inanimate Objects as well as from the
testimony OF human beings.
The equality OF oil men before the law is the
fundamental requisite of Justice everywhere
| Without it, law becomes but another name for
injustice and oppression.
Democratic Theory ot Secession Reviewed
| A DEMOCRATIC member of Congress gives the
following dictum:-
That the Southern States are IN the Union.
| Their ordinances Of secession being null ana
| void, they have never been out, and are legally
entitled to representation in Congress-"
This argument proves nothing by proving too
much. If it be correct, then the Southern
States were legally entitled TO representation
in Congress during the waI-a conclusion which
Is absurd. Had the ordinances of secession
stood alone and been followed by no acts, they
would, doubtless, nave failed to take the
Southern States out of the Union. But when
the ordinances of secession were followed by
the actual withdra wal of the Southern Senators
and Representatives from Congress, thus consti-
tuting, on the part of those States, an abandon.
ment of participation in the Government of the
Union, then the Southern States became, as q
matter of fact "out of the Unionn-not out of
its jurisdiction, not free from its laws, not
beyond its boundaries, but out of it, in the
sense (and it is the olly sense in which the
expression has any relevancy to a discussion
like this) that they had ceased 10 participate in
its Government. They had abandoned the part
nership. They would no longer exercise any
functions in it. But had the movement stopped
here, there would still have been no war. 1t is
lu nAfin o.
or Will not be represented in Congress. If it
Goes not choose TO send members to the House
OF Representatives, or Senators to the Senate
there is no law to compel it to do so. So had
the South merely withdrawn its representatives
from Congress- and done nothing more it might
have stayed out Of the Union to its hearts con.
tent, and nobody would have complained It
would still have been entitled to its representa-
tives, whenever it chose TO send them. But
when this actual withdra wai from all participa.
ton in the Government OF the Union was fol-
lowed by acts of war against the Union, by the
setting-up of a rival Government composed of
the seeded States unlawfully and unconstitu.
tionally contederated together then the
Southern States lost all right of representation
in the Union.
Their people then became Rebels and traitors.
and lost all the rights and privileges of citizens
Their States were still, as matter of fact, orga-
nized communities, exercising civil and military
functions; but they were no longer States in the
eye OF The Constitution, for their officers were
no longer sworn to support the Constitution OF
the United States, but we're Rebels and traitors
fighting against it. When the war ceased, by
the overthrow of the Rebel armies, then Presi-
dent JOHNSON went to work and dissolved these
Rebel State Governments, and reduced the
Southern States to a condition of utter dsor-
ganlzation, leaving each of them, until the work
of reconstruction commenced, without any Or
ganized community, body corporate or corpo
ration which could be called State.
Now let us review our steps. The ordinances
of secession ,Oere null and void; they had no
legal force; they neither absolved any man from
his old relations, nor imposed upon him new
duties. but when they were followed by the
actual IDithdraD0l of the Southern Representa-
tives, then the Southern States, as a matter of
fact, ceased TO be participants IN the Union.
Still they had lost no rights. They were legally
entitled to representation whenever they should
choose to claim it. But when, in addition to
withdrawal from the Union, they made war
against it, and entered into an unconstitutional
confederation as new Government, they lost
all right to representation in the Union and
ceased TO be any longer constitutional States,
though they were still de fdcto States, lust as
their Rebel ConIederacy was de fdctO Govern.
ment. When, at the close of the war, President
JOHNSON overthrow their organizations, then
these States ceased to be even de fdct0 States
and became absolute nonentites Reconotruc-
ton has made new de fdcto States In their
places; but it has not yet secured tor those
States admission into the Union.
Now it is the height Of absurdity to attempt
TO overr ide these facts of history by ingenious
metaphYs Yscal sophistrtes. Secession was not
LEGAL, but it toas fact. Rebellion was not legal
but it l0GS fact. 1t was unconstitutional for
the Rebel States to form a contederacy but they
did do it. All these acts were "null and void"
in legal sense, but they were acts, nevertheless
and acts which produced the most tremendous
consequences. Amarriage between parties either
of whom is already married, is "null and Vo d."
but if entered inio knowingly is still crme
and punishable as such. To try to shield the
Rebel States from the consequences OF their acts
on the ground that those acts were "null and
void" is absurd. Rebellion was a fact, and
among its consequences the Rebel States find
that, both as matter of TACT and matter of right