The weekly north Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1857-1867, 1866-08-22

licc SoNcTHmeIt, tnaC the constitution Of
the United States was intended most care
fully to provide. We demand strict adj
herence to its provisions. In this, and
this alone, can he found basis of perma.
nent union and peace.
Fourth.-But it is alleged. in iustifica-
ton to the usurpation which we condemn,
that the condition of the southern states
and people is not such as renders safe their
re-admission to share in the government
of the country; that they are still disloyal
in sentiment and purpose, and that neither
the honor, the credit, nor interest of the
nation would be safe, were they admitted
to the councils of the nation.
We reply to this, First-That we have
no right, for such reasons, to deny to any
portion of the States or people any right
conferred upon them by the constitution of
the United States. Second, that SO long as
their acts are those of loyalty, SO long as
they conform in all their public conduct to
the requirements of the constitution and
laws, we have no right to distrust the pur-
pose or the ability Of the Union to protect
or defend, under all contingencies, and by
whatever means may be required, its hon
or and its welfare.
These would, in our judgment, be full
and conclusive answers to the plea thus
advanced for the exclusion of these States
from the Union; but we say, further, that
this plea rests on a complete misapprehen-
sion or an unjust perversion of existing
facts. We do not hesitate to affirm that
there is no section of the country where
the constitution and laws of the United
States find more entire and prompt obedi-
ence than among those people who were
lately in arms against them, or where there
is less purpose or danger of any further
attempt to overthrow their authority. 1t
would seem to be more natural and newt
able that in States so reccntly.swept by the
whirlwind of war where all ordinary modes
of organized industry have been broken
up, and the bonds of influences that guar
antee social order have been DESTROYED
where thousands and tens of thousands of
turbulent spirits have been suddenly re-
leased from the discipline Of war, and
thrown without resources or restraint upon
disorganized and chaotic society, and
where the keen sense of defeat is united to
the overthrow of ambition and hope
scenes of violence should defy, for time.
the imperfect discipline of law, and excite
anew the fears and forebodings of the pat
riotic and well disposed. 1t is unquestion-
bly, true that local disturbances of this kind
accompanied by more or less violence, do
occur; but they are confined to the large
cities of the South, where different races
and interests are most closely in contact,
and where passions and resentments are
most easily fed and famed into outbreak,
and even there they are quite as much the
fruits of untimely and hurtful political
agitation as of any hostility on the part of
the people to the national government
But the concurrent testimony of those best
acquainted with the condition of society
and state of public sentiment in the South,
including its representation in this conven-
ton, establishes the fact that the great
mass of the southern people accept, with as
full and sincere submission as do the other
States, the re-establishcd supremacy of the
national authority, and are prepared, in
the most loyal spirit, and with "a zeal quick
ened alike by their interest and their pride.
to cooperate with other States and sec
tons in whatever may he necessary to
maintain the right, promote the welfare,
and sustain the honor of our common
country. History presents no instance
when people SO powerful in numbers, in
resources, and in public spirit, after a war
so long III its duration, so destructive in it's
progress, and so adverse in it's issue. have
accepted defeat and its consequences with
so much of good faith as has marked the
conduct of the people lately in instruction
against the United States. Beyond all
question, this has been mainly due to the
wise generosity with which their inforced
-, ~,
of the United States, and the generals in
ures which were afterward taken to restore
order, tranquility, and law to the States
where before all had been ovcrthrown.
No steps could have been better calcu-
lated to win the respect, revive the patr-
otism, and secure the permanent support
of the people of the South to the Consti-
tuition and the Union, than those WHICH
have been SO firmly taken and steadfastly
pursued by the President of the United
States; and if that confidence and loyalty
has been impaired, if thepeople to-day are
less firm in their allegiance than at the
close of the war, We believe it is due to the
changed tone of the legislation toward
them. Congress has endeavored to sup
plant and defeat the Presidents wise and
benefcent policy of restoration; to their
exclusion from all participation in our
common governments; to the withdrawal
from the rights conferred and guaranteed
by the Constitution, and to the evident
purpose of Congress, in the exercise of
usurped and unlawful authority, to reduce
them from the rank of free and equal
members of Republic of States, with
rights and dignities unimpaired, to the
condition of conquered provinces and con-
quered people, in all things subordinate
and subject to the will of their conquerors.
free only to obey laws in making which
they are not allowed to share. No people
has ever yet existed whose loyalty and
faith such treatment, long continued,
would not ALLEVIATE and impair; and the ten
millions of Americans who live in the
South would be unworthy citizens of free
country, degenerate sons of an heroic an
cestry, unfit ever to become guardians of
the rights and liberties bequeathed to us
by the fathers and founders of this Repub-
lie, if they could accept, with uncomplan-
ing submissiveness, the conditions thus
sought to be imposed upon them. Resent
ment of injustice is always and everywhere
essential to freedom; and the spirit which
prompts the States and people lately in
insurrection, but insurgent no longer, to
protest against the imposition of unjust
and degrading conditions, makes them all
the more worthy to share in the govern
ment of free commonwealth, and gives
still firmer assurance of the future power
and freedom of the Republic. For what
ever responsibility the Southern people
may have incurred in resisting the author
ity of the National Government, and in
taking up arms for its overthrow, they
may be held to answer as individuals, be-
fore the judicial tribunals of the land; and
for that conduct, as societies and organic
ed communities, they have already paid
the most fearful penalties that can fall on
offending States, in the losses, the suffer-
ings, and humiliation of unsuccessful war.
But whatever may be the guilt or the
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