Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-05-25

the one hand, or Of lawless anarchy on
the other. The party Is the samei It's
principles ana convictions are the same !
they will continue as long as the Gov
eminent shall endure, but each day and
year produce their questions to be answer
ed. their problems to be solved--and thus,
while parties and principles remain policies
change. The duty of the hour Is to meet
the questions of the hour, aud to modify
the application of principles, as the exlgen-
cy OF the times may require.
Toe question of to-day Is Union or Dis
.union--the old Constitution or new Con
stitution--the old Government as our Faith
ers gave it to us, or revolution and change,
and a new system. The Constitution Is In
danger. The Union Is broken, not by the
collision of farms, but by the political action
Of parties. Its enemies are in the high
places of power--they sit In the seats OF the
Capitol-they have their grasp upon It's
throat--tbey throttle 1t to the agonies OF
dissolution. The President confronts them
---and the question presented to-day to the
Democratic party and the people OF ONO
is simply this, whether they will support
the PRESIDENT In his effort to maintain
or the Congress in its effort = o
overthrow the Government? The Con-
stitution grants certain powers 70
the Federal Government. 1t reserves all
other powers to the States, and guarantees
certain rights to the people. The same
powers were granted alike by all the States,
The same powers were reserved alike to all
the States. The same rights were guaran-
teed to the people of all the States. The
States are equal. They were equal before
the Constitution was adopted. They con-
tinued to be equal by the terms OF the Con.
stitution itself. They must remain equal
as long as the Constitution shall be main
tained, and the Federal Union created by 1t
shall endure. Mr.. Seward in his speech at
Auburn, day before yesterday recognizes
this fundamental truth. And in my judg-
ment those powers and those rights belong
to-day as we'll to the States, and the people
of Georgia and Mississippi as to the States
and the people of Ohio or Pennsylvania.
Why should it not be so? The Constitu-
tion provides that "this Constitution and
the laws made in pursuance thereof shall
be the supreme law, anything In the Con.
stitution and laws of any State to the con-
trary Notwithstanding" This is the meas
ure of the lawful authority of the Federal
Government. This Is the limit of its law
full demand upon the States. When this Is
conceded, the measure is tull to overflow
ing-when this is conceded, the States
have fulfilled their Fe leral duty-they have
discharged their Federal obligation-nO
more can be eXacted from them, and they are
entitled to the unObstructed enjoyment Of
all the power reserved and the rights guar
anteed by the Federal Constitution.
Is not Federal authority rs promptly
obeyed tO-day-is it not as unimpeded to-
day in Georgia rs in Onio? There is not
an armed enemy in the Confederate States.
There is not show of opposition to Fed
eral authority even as great las the shallow
when it declineth," and yet for months,
the equality of the States has been yioaedt
and the people of those States have been
denied the first great right guaranteed by
the Federal Constitutlon-tbat right which
is essential to free gOvernment-that right
without which all government is lawless
usurpatiOn, which it is always right and
frequently duty to resist with all the
means which God and nature have put into
our hands, mean the right of representa-
tiOn.
We have wonderful spectacle pre-
sented to us. Scarcely year has elapsed
since Lee surrendered-yet the Confeder-
ate Government has entirely disappeared
and the Federal Government has taken its
place. In the States old constitutions have
been abolished and new ones have been es-
tablshed-old governments have been
thrown down and new ones set up-old
officers have been expelled and others Sc
lected. The States are exercising all the
functions of government necessary to the
preservation of civil society. They pre-
serve order, punish crimes, protect life and
property. They regulate the relation OF
husband and wife, parent and child, cred
itor and debtor. They collect debts, en-
force contracts, regulate descentS, establish
corporations, charter cities, control public
education, And who has said they were
not sufficient tor these things? Mr.. Sew
ard, in the speech from which | have quot
ed says that the return of the Southern
people to their Federal allegiance is with
out parallel in history. Yet Congress for
six months has devoted itself to the inven-
tion of odious Constitutional amendments,
which were intended to deprive the States
of their Just powers; and to the passage OF
odious laws, which we're intended if obey
ed to reduce the people to the most degrad
ing submission, or if not Obeyed to produce
irritation and bitterness and threats of re-
sistance from which it was hoped to deduce
the necessity of establishing military gov
ernments and enforcing martial law.
And why Is this? 1t is because they
hate the Constitution OF the United States
because they hate our system of Govern
ment. They hate its two fundamental ideas
confederation: granted and reserved
powers. They admire the strength of
consolidated government and confide in the
wisdom of an overshadOwing, absolute,
irresponsible majority. They prefer to in-
trust the rights and liberties of the people,
the amelioration of the condition of our
race to such maj j1rity rather than to the
progress which consists with the checks
and balances of our system speak of
men with whom have been long ASSOCIATE
ed, whom know intimately. | recognize
their intelligence and their private worth.
do not question their integrity, or the sin
cerity of their motives. Yet, | repeat, /
believe they hate our system of gov
ernment aud desire its overthrow.
What is that system? | will not detain
you either with an analysis of its parts or
q history of its formation. The exigeHcy
of their condition required that the inter-
national affairs and the commercial inter-
course of the States should be placed un-
der one head. They were committed to the
Federal Government. All other powers
aud subjects we're reserved to the States.
The States were to regulate the civil and
political rights of their citizens, and so
guarded were those who made the Consti-
tulion. that while in respect to foreign af-
fairs, they gave to the Federal Government
absolute, exclusive Jurisdiction, in domes-
tic affairs they so entirely excluded it that
it has no power to try or punish an assault
by one citizen of Ohio upon another, or col
lect a simple promissory note as between
the same parties. And this is the system
which Congress has determined to subvert
and destroy.
Let me illustrate more particularly my
meaning. Take the Freedmen's Bureau
hill law intanded To ansWer the same