The New era. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1865-1871, 1866-10-04

grown 10 MANHOOD ana influence IN us
affairs, and still are strangers in their
own land, excluded from the instruction
which might make them patriots. The
Union Of these States, for which these
partizans deemed your lives not too
great a price, is yet as incomplete as
when you marched home, and by their
measures it's restoration is still indefi-
nitely postponed. They say to you, eff
our terms are not accepted by the South
we can wait" 1t becomes, therefore,
your peculiar duty, since you prepared
the ground for this final work, to enquire
how it has been done, and consider
whether it is wise Or safe to wait. Mean
time, while you determine whether to
wait or move on, it is indispensable first
to entrench yourselves in a position Of
impregnable facts.
The power of the National Govern
ment over the affairs of its insurgent
citizens, except for purposes of judicial
punishment, is purely of q belligerent
character, and its belligerent right con-
corning them is included in, While it IS
also limited by one Of the grants of the
Constitution. The Government is au-
thorized to suppress instruction by mill
tary means, and these include all bellige-
rent functions aud capacities which may
be necessary for that end. In the exer-
else of its necessary belligerent rights, it
is as competent to require Of its insur
gent citizens as it would be OF a foreign
enemy, not only the laying down Of
arms, but the surrender Of every position
which threatened a renewal OF the con-
flict. The right is perfect and complete
for its purpose, but it is limited by its
purpose. The Constitution directs that
LoI low, el,o No,
for the suppression Of rebellion. With
this complete suppression, which in
cludes the prevention Of a renewal, the
legitimate application Of compulsion to
their future course as communities must
cease. 1t is not true that in case of war,
this Government requires oil Of the bel
ligerent rights known to international
law. 1t has only SO much OF that kind
of right over its own people as it finds
embodied in its own Constitution. It
derives from this source SO much as is
necessary IN sllppressing aslrrection,and
this does not include the right to take
and hold its rebellious citizens and their
territory 0s q conquest. 1t is authorized
to employ war to vindicate its old title
to allegiance, not to acquire new one.
In accordance With this rule, the Presi-
dent, as Commander-in-Ch Chief, compelled
the insurgents, after they had laid down
their arms, to abolish by their local laws,
the institution of slavery, the agitation
of which had been the cause of this war,
and might be the cause of another; to
declare null and void their acts of Sc
cession, which had been part Of their
belligerent action, and, until rescinded,
embodied claim which threatened
future conflict; and finally, to repudiate
sf,
would have been Il hostile act, vindi-
threatening its renewal. The institution
of slavery, the ordinances of secession,
and the maintenance of an insurrection-
airy war debt, were strictly positions,
and threatened q possible renewal of the
war. Until they should be surrendered
there could be no complete surrender of
the belligerent attitude OF the insurgent
communities Of the South. Therefore,
the COMMUNICATIVE Chief, clothed with
the double functions Of military COM
mand and of the civil execution of sthe
laws of the Union," compelled this sur
render, and at this point the belligerent
power of the National Government, the
power to apply compulsion in any form
to the political future of the lately re-
volted States, was exhausted.
This legitimate and restricted use of
compulsion appeared to accomplish the
desired end. 1t is true that the subdued
and impoverished people of the South
did not and could not at once pass from
hostility to friendship. Their homes
were darLened with sorrow, which no
sense Of errorcould mitigate; their fields
were cemeteries; their farms were the
burnt path of our armies, and they
could not love us in the midst Of their
desolation. But they knew that the is
sue of the appeal to arms had been de-
termined forever against them; they
saw that they had lost by war what they
had attempted by war to save; they had
suffered too much to dream of renewing
the strife, and seeing no future before
them but that Of citizens Of the United
States, they We're ready to return to
their allegiance, as defined to them anew
by the event of the struggle. When
Congress first assembled they had ac-
quired temper towards the national
government as healthy as it was posi-
Bile for any people to attain after such a
conflict and such experiences. In this
respect the result of the war was uneX-
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