The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-08-20

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tions. We deny the right of Congress
to make these changes in the funda-
mental law without the concurrence OF
three-fourths of all the States, includ-
ing especially those to be most serious
~ affected by them; or to impose them
upon States or people, as conditions OF
representation, or of admission to any
of the rights, duties or obligations
which belong under the Constitution to
all the States alike. And with still
greater emphasis do we deny the right
of any portion of the States excluding
the rest of the States from any share in
their councils, to propose or sanction
changes In the Constitution which are to
auect permanently their political rela-
tions and control or coerce the legiti-
mate action of the several members of
the common Union. Such an exercise
OF power Is simply an usurpRtion, Just
as warrantable when exercised by
Northern States as 1t would be If exer-
cised by Southern, and not to be forth
past history, either of those by whom
1t is attempted or of those upon whose
rights and liberties It is to take effect
1t finds no warrant in the Constitution.
1t Is at war with the fundamental prin-
ctples of our form of government. If
tolerated in one instance, it becomes the
precedent for future inYasions of lib-
erty and onstitutlonaIr right dependent,
solely upon the will of the party in
possession of power, and thus leads, by
direct and necessary sequence, to the
most falkland iutOlerable of all tyran-
n1es-the tyranny OF shifting and ire
sponSble political factions. Il Is against
this the most formidable of all the dam
gers which menace the stability of free
government, that the Constitution ofthe
United States was intended most care
tul to PROVIDE We demand u strict
and steadfast adhesion to its provisions.
In this, and in this alone, can we find u
basis of permanent Union and pehce.
Fo'trth;-But is alleged, in justifica-
ton of the usurpation which we con-
denim, that the condition of the South
ern States and peopleis is not tsuch as REM
ders safe their re-ndmission to share
In the government of the country; that
they are still disloyal in sentiment and
purpose, and that neither the honor, the
credit nor the interests of the nation
would be safe if they were re-admitted
to a share in its councils. We might
reply to this:
/. That we have no right, for such
reasons, 10 deny to any portion of the
States or people rights expressly con-
ferred upon them by the Constitution
of the United States. a9
2. That SO long as their acts are those
of loyalty-so long as they conform in
all their public conduct to the require
ments of the Constitution and laws
we have no right to exact from them
in their sentiments and
opinion sto our own.
8. That we have no right to distrust
the purpose or ability of the people of
all contingencies and by whatever
means may be required, its honor and
its welfare. 4.t, lr- sI---I
These would, in our Judgment, be
full and conclusive answers to the plea
thus advanced for the exclusion of
these States from the Union. But we
say further, that this plea rests upon
complete misapprehension or an unjust
perverslon of existing facts.
ldWe do not hesitate to affirm, that
there is no section of the country where
the Constitution and laws of the United
States find a more promptand entiDS obe-
dience than in those States, and among
against them or where there is less
purpose or less danger of any future
attempt to overthrow their authority.
1t would seem to be both natural and
inevitable that, in States and sections
so recently swept by the whirlwind of
war, where all the ordinary modes and
methods of organized industry have
been broken up, and the bonds and in
huences that guarantee social order
have been destroyed-where thousands
and tens of thousands of turbulent
spirits have been suddenly loosed from
the discipline of war, and thrown with
out resources or restraint upon disor-
ganized and chaotic society, and where
the keen sense Of defeat is added to the
overthrow ot'ambition and hope, scenes
of violence should defy for time the
imperfect discipline of law, and excite
anew the fears and forebodings of the
patriotic and well disposed, 1t is lun-
questionably true that local disturb
anees of this kind, accompanied by
more or less of violence, do still occur.
But they are confined entirely to the
cities and largerltowns ofthe Southern
States, where different races and inter-
ests are brought most closely in contact,
and where passions and resentmentS are
always mostteasily fed and famed into
outbreak; and oven there they are
quite as much the fruitiof untiIneiy and
hurtful political agitation as of any
hostility on the part of the people to
the authority of the National Govern
ment. Hag ist,Il = si.it.
But the concurrent testimony ofthose
best acquainted with the condition OF
society and the state of public sei,ti-
ment In the South-including that Of
its representatives in this convention
establishes the fact that the great mass
of the Southern people accept, with as
full and sincere submission as do. the
people of the other States, the re.estab-
lished supremacy of the national au-
thority, and are prepared, in the most
loyal spirit, and with zeal quickened
alike by their interest and their pride
to corporate with other States and sec
tions In whatever may be necessary to
defend the rights, maintain the honor
and promote the welfare of our COM
mon country History affords no In
stance where a people, so powerful in
In f. IN
spirit after a war SO long in its dura-
ton, SO destructive in its progress, and
SO adverse inits issue, have accepted
defeat and its consequences with so
much good faith, as has marked the
conduct of the people lately in insur-
rectton against the United States. Be-
yond all question this has been largely
due to the wise generosity with which
their enforced surrender was accented
by the President ofthe United States and
the Generals in Immediate command
of their armies, and to the liberal meas
ures which were afterwards taken to
restore order, tranquility and law to
the States where all had been for the
time oxerthrown. No steps could have
been better calculated to command the
respect, win the confidence, revive the
patriotism and secure the permanent
and ahectiOnRte allegiance of the peo-
pie of the South to the Constitutiofan and
laws of the Union than those which
have been SO firmly taken and SO stead
fastly pursued by the President of the
United Statess And If that confidence
and loyalty have been since impaired /;
If the people of the South are to-day
less cordial in their allegiance than
they were Immediately upon the close
of the war, we believe It Is due to the
changed tone of fthe Legislative Depart
nent eof the General Government
fl