New Orleans daily crescent., 1866-08-20
CoNsrIrUTIoNAL AMENDmENrs.

4
ingenuity in devising new amendments to the
Constitution, They have long had complete
control Of Congress, and it has been IN thef
power to propose any changes that suited
their fancy. They professed that slavery had
| already been abolished by the acts of war !;
Init tbev nevertheless insisted that the
senarate states should abolish it again. But
/ when the States had also abolished it they
we're stilI restless lest this double negative
might seem an affirmative and threatened to
kick themselves into Mysteries unless the gen
eral government should further abolish it by
constitutional amendment; and thus clineh
the matter by third negative.
The faith of the government plighted to the
New England holders of the United States
bonds was they insisted, sacred, and could
not be questioned. The pledge had already
been made in mourning the indebtedness; but
it would appear that the holders of the bonds
apprehended that radical pledge, however
solemn, was not binding unless reiterated in
a still more solemn form. They were as rest
less as the pertlrbed ghost of Hamlet. These
spirits that prey upon the public purse in
vaded the subterranean vaults of the capitol
and insisted, in sepulchral tones, that the
radical Congress should swear again. Accord
ingly the radicals questioned the faith of the
| government and then g swore horrible" that
| it could not be questioned. And as if this were
not sufficient to quiet the 'perturbed spirit
Of public credit, the radicals insisted on
swearing again, and on recording their oaths
oa the shattered tablets Of the Constitution.
They said the "rebel 2 debt was invalid;
there was no law for it. IT was null 1t was
void Its validity could not be entertained
for moment. It was dead. It was buried.
1t was past the hope Of resurrection. And
this being, they said, an undoubted.fact, they
insisted on digging up and mangling the car
cass Then they wanted to bury it again,
and piling Pelion upon Ossa, they succeeded
1 only in rendering the grave more conspicuous
by the monument they thus erected.
The negro they said, was as good as a
white man. He had proved his manhood. "
He had saved the country. He was entitled
to equal rights with the white man. So they
passed laws which gave him equal rights with
the white man, but refused the white man
equal rights with the negro.
| They said the negro was citizen-that
there could be no doubt Of it The fact
couldn't be questioned; that nobody should
question it, that they would put it beyond
question; that they would incorporate him in
the Constitution, install him in Faneuil Hall,
and crown him on Plymouth Rock. And
they voted in Congress that the Constitution
should take his hue, and that he should help
them to rule and to crush the white man.
They said that rebellion was wicked that
secession was rebellion that both were
treason; that treason should be made odious;
that the States couldn't get out; that they did
get out; that it wasn't rebellion, though the
actors we're rebels; that it wasn't secession,
because the States couldn't secede; that
it wasn't revolution, because the movement
failed; that it was revolution, because the late
States are now conquered provinces; that they
couldn't be provinces unless they had first got
out that having got out, it wasn't treason in
them to fight but having been whipped,
though they never got out, yet they must stay
out and, though they were neither rebels"
nor seceders, nor traitors they were down,
and therefore deserved to be gouged and bit
ten and tortured, because they permitted
themselves to be knocked down; that by this
chixalrous process, the offense, or other act,
whatever it might be called, which they had
committed, might be made odious
But it does not seem once to have occurred
to any single radical to settle all this medley
Of logic by constitutional amendment. To us
it seems one Of the most significant features
Of the late session Of Congress. They have
been proposing amendments to the Constitu-
ton on almost every conceivable subject But
the vital. subject Of secession, that question
on which the whole issue of the war turned,
has been left by the Constitution in it's original
uncertainty. Not member from the North
has proposed to incorporate in the Cohstitu-
ton clause which looks to the perpetuity of
the union of the States.
IT seems to us if as there were a purpose in
this There is method in this radical |
1t is q great crime it is sin
to resist any impositions of power or inius-
tice coming from Them, for saints have the
right to persecute Others. But they evidently
wish to preserve an uncertainty in the Con
stitution which will enable them not only to
break the unity Of the country by permanent
exclusion Of the Southern States, but also to
themselves il, at any future time,
their interests should be found outside the
Onion The New England States advocated
the doctrine of secession in 1914, and under
The pressure Of a foreign war they then threat
aped the disruption Of the. Union by with
drawing from it. Their negative action in
to this question during the late ses-
sion Of Congress leads us to think that event
now the leaders of the radical party may be \
secessionsin some new, form rather
han submit to see a. conservative polieylil
hat Of President johnson heal completely
the wounds Of the country. Their omission
to act On 50 important d question as that to
which We have called attention is singular, if |
not oniinous 'sN a atat 9 aaiar sa3 4
.saiss.e2 A REMARKABLE CASE. s5A 4.
Among the causes ceIebres Of the. present
day, the case of AIRS, Ryves, recently tried
beforean English jury, will not be the least