Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-06-29

mittng to all the States forming the Union
before the insurrectiOn a constitutional
amendment makes the inquiry whether all
at this time are in or out of the Union,
vital one. If they are not, all should not be
consulted. IT they are, they should be, and
should be only because they are. The very
fact, therefore, of such a submission con-
cedes that the Southern States are and new
er ceased to be States of the Union. Test
ed, therefore, either by the nature Of our
Government or by the terms of the Consti-
tuition, the insurrection, now utterly and
happily suppressed, has in no respect
changed the relations of the States where
IL prevailed, tn the General Government.
On the contrary they are to all intents and
purposes as completely States of the Union
as they ever were; and in further support
of this propositions, IL it needed any, we
confidently appeal 10 the fact that the very
measure recommended, constitutional
amendment to be submitted to such States,
furnishes such support. For, looking to
! and regarding the rights of the other States,
| such submission has no warrant or found
alton, except upon the hypothesis that they
are as absolutely States of the Union as any
other States. 1t can never be, under any
circumstances, "profitless abstraction
whether, under the Constitution State is
or Is not q State In the Union. Itcan never
be such an abstraction whether the people
of State once in the Union can voluntari-
ly or by compulsion be freed from the OBJ
| legations it enjoins, or be deprived of the
| rights it cOnfers or the protectioni it affords.
A different doctrine necessarily leads to
dissolution of the Union. The Constitution
| suppOses that Instructions may exist In a
State, and provides for their suppression
by giving Congress the power TO provide
for calling out the militia for that purpose"
The power is not 10 subjugate the State
within whose limits the insurrectiOn may
| prevail, and to extinguish 1t as State of
the Union; but to preserve 1t as such by
subduing the rebellion, by acting on the
| individual persons engaged In it, and not
on the State at all. The power is altogeth-
er consei vative; it is to protect a Stare, and
not destroy tito prevent her being taken
out of the Union by individual crime, not
in any contingency to put her out. The
continuance of the Union of all the States
Is necessary to the intended existence of
the Government The Government is
formed by constitutional association OF
Sta es, aud its integrity depends on the con-
| tinmnce of the entire association. If one
| State is withdraw from it by any cause, to
that extent is the Union dissolved. Those
that remain may exist as Government,
| but iG is not the very Government the Con-
sttutiOn designs; that consists of all, and
its character is changed and its power is
diminished by the absence of any one. A
| different principle leads to disintegration
| that must sOOLer of later result in the sep
aration of all, and the consequent destruc-
| tion of the Government. To suppose that
q power to preserve may, at the option Of
| the body to which it is given, be used to de-
stroy, is a proposition repugnant to COM
mon sense; and yetas the late insurrection
was put down by means of that power, that
| being the only one conferred upon Congress
| to- chat end, that proposition is the one on
which alone it can be pretended the South
ern States are not in the Union now as well
| as at first. v.'u..-. .D.l .g ....rr ...r..
| The idea that the war power, as such, has
| been used, or could have been used, to eX
| tinguish the rebellion, is, in the judgment
of the undersigned, utterly without foun-
dation. That power was given tor a,ditfer-
ent contingency-for the contingency of a
| conflict with other Governments; an inter-
national conflict. I. If it had been thought
that that power was to be resortedto TO sup
press domestic strife, the words appropri-
ate to that eUd would have been used. But,
| so far from this having been done, in the
same section that confers it an express pro-
vision is inserted to meet the eXigency of
| domestic strife or insurrection. Whether
| in the progress of the effort to suppress an
] instruction, the rights incident to war as
between the United states and foreign ma
tiOns may yet arise, is a question Which in
| no way changes the character of the con-
| test as between the Government and thein-
| surrection. The exercise of such rights
| may be found convenient, or become neces-
| sary to the suppression Of the rebellion, but
| the character of the conflict Is in no way
| changed by resort to them. That re-
mains as it was at first, and must, from its
| very. nature, during its continuance, re-
| main a mere contest In which the Govern
ment seeks, and can only seek, to put an
end to the rebellion. That achieved, the
| original condition of things is at once re-
| stored.
Two judicial decisions have been made
| by Judges of eminent ability and unques-
toned loyalty, which fully sustain our
view In one, that of the Amy Warbick,
before the United States District Court of
Massachusetts,, Judge Sprague, referring to
the supposed effect OF belligerent rights
which it was conceded belonged to the Gov
ernment during the rebellion, in giving it
| when suppressed, the rights OF conquest,
declared: ".
at has been supposed that ifthe G overn-
ment have the right of a belligerent then,
after the rebellion is suppressed 1t will have
/ the rights of conquest, and that State and
its inhabitants may be permanently divest-
\ ed of all political advantages and treated as
a foreign country conquered by arms. This
is an error, a grave and dangerous error.
Belligerent rights cannot be exercised
where there are no belligerents. Conquest
of foreign country gives absolute, unlim-
tied sovereign rights; but no natiOnfe ever
makes such a conquest of its own territory.
M hostile power, however, from without
or within, takes and holds possession and
dominion over any portion of its territory,
and the nation by force of arms expels or
overthrows the enemy and suppresses hos
i tilities, it acquires no new title, and mere
ly regains the possession of that of which
it has been temporarily deprived. The
i nation acquires no wsssovereignty, but
simply maintains its previous rights. When
the United States take possession of a
rebel district, they merely vindicate their
pre-exIsting title. Under despotic gov
ernments the confiscatiOn may be unlimit-
ed but under our Government Othe right
of sovereignty over any portion of State
is given and limited by the Constitution,
and will be the same after the war as 1t was
before.n1 iaI ruHt.H ,H-u .a H''g ei.u,
I'm the other an application for the hd6eds
l corpus to Mr.. Justice Nelson, one Of the
Judges ofthe Supreme Court of the United
States, by James Eagan, to be discharged
from an Imprisonment to which he had
been sentenced byIias military commission
in South Carolina, for the otense of MUIR
der, alleged to have been committed In
that State the discharge was ordered, and
h, - sill