The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1866-05-02
HERE is specimen brick Of the kind Of
argument and the style of literature which
prevail in the higher Copperhead circles:

HERE is specimen brick'' Of the kind
argument and the style of literature which
prevail in the higher Copperhead circles:
4"And who il Mr.. Stevens /? Not aPenn
sylvanian, thank God, but a Yankee intruder
into this State, Whose reputed wife is a negro
and whose children are mulattoes! And who
Is Carl Schur1 A wretched adsentprer, who
traitor to his native land, fed hither fol
refuge. kepta lager beer saloon in this city,
aud failing in that, has lived ever since on the
government that has rescued him from the
penalty of treason and the obscurity of q
scullion.'i
lhe Copperheads insist that the present i
q Rump Congress, an constitutional Con.
gress, or rather no Congress at all, because
the rebel States are not represented in it.
They insist that the Constitution provides
that the Senate, for instance, shall consist oi
two Senators from each State, and that as
long as any State is unrepresented by two
Senators it is not Constitutional Congress.
On this mode Of reasoning it would follow
that the refusal of New Jersey, or rather Of
the Copperhead Senators of that State. to
elect Senator to the United States Senate,
and thereby leaving the State to be represent
ed by only one Senator, had vitiated the
entire Congress, and rendered it an uncon-
stitutional body. And until Senator is
elected in New Jersey, and takes his seat,
Congress is .functas o6icio, .dead as mack
erel.' in the estimation of Copperhead
Constitutional lawyer.
The logical result of such position is that
the absence of . Senator from any State in
the Union effectual by blocks the whole Of the
Government, and until the vacancy is filed
there can be no Constitutional legislation
whatever. If the phrase in the Constitution
of the United States, .sthe Senate shall be
composed of two Senator'S from each State"
implies Constitutional necessity that the
States shall at all times be represented as an
essential and indispensable element of Con-
stitntional Congress, then all our legislation
for the last five years is nullity, and in all
time to come all legislation may be blocked
by an accidental or intentional vacancy in
the Senate of the United States from any
State in the Union.
Clearly such an Interpretation Of the Con-
stitution is absured, because the Government
under it would be practically impossible, and
any State could put an end to the practical
workings and efficient action Of the national
Government simply by declining to send
Senators to Washington, a much cheaper
mode of destroying the Government than
CALHouS's nuuifcationism or JEFF. DAVIS
secessiouism.
This doctrine is, in effect, the same as that
put forth BY JOHN C. BgEcKrNRIpGE at the
opening of the war, and supported by mos
of the stricter State sovergnity Democrats.
He insisted that the voluntary withdrawal of
State from the Union broke and annulled
the compact bstween the States, as that class
Of Constitutional politicians are pleased to
call the Constitution Of the United States.
It is time that ali such miserable crudities
were effectaslly and forever abandoned and
repudiated by those who have promulgated,
and that the people at large should stamp
them with the seal of universal eon@emsstion,
as destructive alike OF practical Government
and Constitutional liberty.