Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1866-09-12

She claims to come back with her privi-
lege of representation unimpaired."
While the Philadelphia Convention was
assembling, Mr.. Ewing said: "Even in
the heat and violence of the rebellion,
the States in which rebel violence most
prevailed, were each and all of them, as
States, entitled to their representation in
the two houses of Congress" This, say,
was the central thought in the Conven-
ton. and even the accomplished acrobat
of the n. Y. Times. though he wIded
knee-deep in words, through his four
column address, was not able TO sink 1t
ont OF sight. In their declaration of
principles" it is expressly affirmed that
the war left the rights and authority of
the States free and unimpaired that
neither Congress nor President has any
power to question their right of represen-
tation.' Planting themselves on this
doctrine, they ask that the people elect
to the 10th Congress only those who &C
knowledge the unqualified right of the
rebel States to immediate representation.
They also ask the President to use his
vast official patronage to secure this re-
suit. Freighted with the record of their
proceedings, a committee of this mongrel
Convention repaired to Washington and
in the east room enacted the farce of de
~livering them. The President Endorsed
the doctrine of the Convention and hen
gave utterance to a sentiment so reckless
and revolutionary as to have created the
profoundest alarm among loyal men.
The Democratic and rebel journals nave
for months been denouncing Congress as
an illegal body, a revolutionary rump,
and have demanded their dispersion by
force. Alexander II. Stephens expressed
the opinion that the acts of this Con-
gress are illegal because the rebel States
are not represented. Carrot Davis ex-
pressed the same opinion in the Senate
and appealed to the President to disperSe
them and recognize the rebels and Dem
ocratic members in the Congress of the
United States. But all those suggestions
were regarded as the insane rawlings of
men blinded by partisan fury. But here,
in a speech made by appointment, to a
committee whose plans and purposes he
not only knew but had helped to form,
Andrew johnson used this language:
1--WE have seen hanging on the verge OF
the Government as it were, a BODY called
or which assumed to be a Congress OF
the United States, but in fact a Congress
of only part of the States" Who Is the
Government upon the verge of which
the President declares the Congress of
the United States hangs as an unlawful
appendage? We had supposed that the
Government of the United States consist
ed of the supreme power of the people,
vested in the legislative, judicial and ex-
ecutive departments. He speaks Of the
Thirty-ninth Congress as "a body called
or assumed to be the Congress of the
United States" If these words have any
meaning, they mean that the President
regards your Congress as an unlawful as
sembly, and if he has the courage TO act
up to his convictions, he will take the adj
vice of his rebel and Democratic friends
and disperse it when it again conveneS, as
he and his Southern allies dissolved the
New Orleans Convention, in blood. 1t is
possible that we are to have a rebellion,
not 'on the other end of the line ut in
the center-in the sacred citadel of the
nation. 1t is possible that he intends to
fulfill his promise to make tr.ason
'odious,' by making himself the most con-
spicuous example of public treachcry.-
Whatever be the Presidents meaning,
the loyal people will not fail to remind
him that he is not the controller of Con-
gress, but the executor of its laws, and
the same people who elevated him to his
high place, will, if justice and liberty re-
quire it, let fall on him a bolt of condem-
nation which will settle for ever the
question that Presidents are the servants,
not the masters, of the American people.
And now let me examine the doctrine
of the Philadelphia Convention, that the
war left the rights and authority Of the
rebel States unimpaired.' | meet this
proposition with the undeniable fac that
when the C~onfederacy fell, the authority
of the rebel States was not only impair
ed" but utterly ~oVerthrown. l answer in
the words of Andrew johnson: tile rel
bellion deprived North Carolina of all
civil government and that he had ap-l
pointed a provisional government "t.p aid
in rebuilding a State Government. and
restoring North Carolina to her cou~titu-
tional relations to the Union" 1 deny
the assertion that representation Is an
~inalienable right. | repudiate the afro
cious doctrine that rebels in arms we're
entitled to q voice in the Govern alent
which they were fighting at the same
time to destroy. While the rebel army
was in winter quarters recruiting for the
next campaign. Lee and johnson. Brock
inridge and Bragg, Taylor and Forrest,
might nave taken their seats, or i not
these, her others who had never been
OAdhO CAOASA ~ lahS o0SA B0DAAS " 7 III /
the rebellion that they could not take
the test oath, and might have alded
enough votes to the Democratic strength
in the 3Sth Congress to control the action
of that body, and assure the Success of
the rebellion.
do not adopt the doctrine that tie re-
bel States were out of the Union. Int / !
hold, in the language of Abraham Lincoln,
that ''by the rebellion they destroyed
their practical relations to the Union"
They did not relieve themselves from
their obligations to the Union, but by |
treason and war they forfeited their
rights TO life and poverty. 1t was TO the
victorious Government to say what mercy
should be extended, what rights should
be restored.
CONGRESS MUST REPUBLICAN GoY-
MNRTs TO TIL STATES
1t is the duty of the Congress of the Uni
ted States, ~enjoined by the Constitution. ''to
guarantee 10 every State in the Union a re-
publican form of government"
For the correctness of this position | APP
peal TO the solemn decision of the Supreme
Court in the case of the Dorr rebellion in
1912. The Court said:
s'Under this article of the Constitution it
rests with Congress to decide which govern
ment of the two set W in Rhode Island is
the established one, for as the United States
guarantees to each State a republican gov
eminent, Congress must necessarily deter
mine what government is established in a
State before it can decide whether .it is re-
publican or not. When the Senators and
Representatives of q State are admitted into
the councils of the Union, the authority of
the Government under which they are ap-
pointed is recognized by the proper e%Onstitu-
tional authority, and its decision is binding
on every other department of the Govern
ment. Undoubtedly a military government
established on the permanent government Of
the State would not be a republican govern
ment, and it would be the duty of Congress
to. overthrow it."