The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-08-20
AWiId and FnnntIcnl ID octrine.

AVID and Fanatical ID Octrine.
The doctrine of State rights was never run to
such extreme and absurd lengths by any other
class of men as by our conservatives. In their
anxiety to get some basis for their claim OF the
right ofimmediate and unconditional represen-
tation in Congress for the late Rebel States,
they lay down doctrines which are the most
revolutionary and anarcnlcal that ever have
been advanced in our country. The idea that by
no possibility the people ola State lose their
right 10 representation; that they may secedc,
as the Rebel states did, and in their organized
capacity make war upon the nation, and at the
same time be entitled to have representatives
sitting in the councils of the very
Government they are endeavoring to
overthrow, thus at the same time committing
all the crimes of traitors an enjoying all the
rights of citizens, is 80 absurd that we could not
have believed it possible for any man or set of
men to adopt IT.. Yet in the letter of Hon.
THOMAS EWING, OF Ohio, to Secretary BROWNING,
we find this very doctrine elaborated and de-
Tended. He boldly maintains that during the
whole Rebellion the Rebel States were entitled
to representation in Congress. The doctrines
adopted by the Wigwam Convention lead to the
same result. State may carry on war against
the United States, and at the same time send
Representatives and Sen ators to control its egis
lation, squander it's resources, or turn all its
powers against itself. According to this theory,
the Rebel States during our late struggle, might
have sent up sufficient members so that with
the help of Northern CoppeIheads, they could
have disbanded our army and secured the
triumph of the South. They might have voted
at the Presidential election in 1864, and with
the help of one or two Northern States might
perhaps, have elected JEFF. DAVIS President.
To these absurd results does the Conservative
theory lead. 1t is not logically as respectable
as the secession doctrine was, for that went
upon the principle that man could not claim
to be a Confederate citizen and United States
citizen at the same time When Rebel State
voluntarily seeded, and went to war, it did not
have the impudent hardhood to maintain that
it still had the right OF representation in the
very Government 1t was endeavorIng to destroy.
Such an absurdlty was reserved tor the advo-
cacy of our Wigwam poll icians and philoso-
pliers.
The Southern States very well understood that
when in their organized capacity they seeded
irom the Union, formed new confcderacy, and
went to war against the United States, they
voluntarily abandoned all their rights and prvi-
upon the stormy sea OF revolution, and they knew
very well tnat they had staked their all upon It.
The supremely absurd idea that, if they should
tail, they could at once step back into their old
places in the Union, had not occurred to them
1t never did occur to them until Northern dema-
gogues anxious to use the political power of the
South for partisan purposes put 1t into their
heads. They very well understood that they
could never resume ther position in the Union
again without conforming to the results OF the
war. They would have done so ere this had
| they not been deluded and misled by The very
| same class of men who before the war so wofully
| deceived them in regard to Northern sentiment
and purposes
| This idea that States can Jump out OF the
| Union and into it again at pleasure; that they
| can make war against the Union and yet pre-
serve all the rights and privileges OF States in
the Union; that they can be traitors and remain
| good citizens; that Rebellion don't divest those
who participate in it Of any of their rights that
in all matters of national concern there is dit
ference between loyal States and disIoyal ones,
| is one that the common sense of the people
| spurns. 1t may be dressed up and tricked out,
and called Union, and peace, and all that, but
the people will see in it nothing but the fanati,
| Cism of State rights run mad.
|