The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-11-13
wRAT oONsTrTuTEs A sTATEq
Hg Telegraph 3

~ ~ kdstor Of TRe BveRiHO 7sIe0TapAt-
BURIzpeToE, N. j., November II, I866 notice
"a your issOe OF Saturday evening the folowing;-
ave grant that Georgia was one of the original
eatee but we deny that Georgia as It stands to-day
the eszne 0eorSia which in 1889 ratified the old
Censttosson- The cham OF continuity has been
kgOken."
How strange it is that the editorial fraternity thu
permit parsan spirit TO blind them to the plainest
principles Of constitutional law may, to make them
inconsistent with the earlier record of the Republ-
can party. Once State, always a State. State
sauDoa re.enter the Congressional womb and be
born again. Nor docs the tact that the citizens OF
That state, or any other Southern State, were in
rebellion, alter the principle, simply because the
citizens while IN rebellion can do no valid act or
thing. State, in its character Of political body
or existence, having, such, rights, powers, and
duties winch 1t can enforce, exercise, and perform
only through the agency or persons, who, being duly
authorized may, in reference TO such rights powers,
and dutIes represent act for and bind the political
body caDed the State Is one thing; and persons
wDo IN relation 10 matters over which the State has
no power do not and cannot bind the STATE,
bot who, by unlawfully attempting to repre-
sent the State, may and do render themselves liable
FER their own acts, is another and a very different
by the Rebellion in the South. Those who were in
dDty bound TO support the Constitution before the
Rebellion, u they are in existence, are bound 10
ri was before the war. suppose county III your
state, as one OF them did, creates an insurrecuon
and II is put down, does It not remain the same
county stlllf You punish the individual Tor trea-
son and rebellion under the Constitution aud laws
OF your State, but dare you pretend tnat the state
Legislature, in the absence OF all constitutional and
legislative proVslons, NAV impose conditions prece-
oent TO lts readmlsslon as county, or deny the
county representation in tue LegIsatureg And the
Eate oi sovereign State Is much stronger than
that OI O county, which is mere MUNICIPAL de-
pendeDcY. And yet tins is what the Republican
party contends Tor in regard to the late Tevoted
States. The Constitution haa provided for the pun
ishment OF the individual citizen engaged in trea
soB; but then be can only be punlsAed IN the wsy
provided for in that instrument. There is no pro.
vI1on 10 punish state, as you appear to suppose.
And certainly Congress has right 10 refuse repre-
seDaOn under the pretense that the Judge OF the
election and qualification OF its officers. Treason
s not disqualification, because the institution
and the laws before this Rebellion happened had
not made treason disqualification, and Congress
has no constitutional power 10 add to the punish
ment of O crime already committee Some people
say that II IS pieposterous to attempt to distIn-
guIsb between a state and the people of q State.
bnt the legal distinction plain aud must be
strictly kept in view, If we say that the State
owns certain tract OF land, mean that the title
ls IN the organized political existence called tne
State. All the persons rn the state put together
right TO send Senator'S and Representatives we
mean that the organized pohtical existence has the
right, and not the people aggregate. Rebellion
does not destroy the organism of a state any more
ihan II destroys the organism of a county wlere
lneDrrection breaks out. ii is strange that men
who chou be informed upon these cUnsritunOnas
questions should tall into such egregiOUs blunders