The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1866-08-29

asserted and exercised is absolute, without
qualification or restriction, not confined to
States in rebellion, nor to States that have
rebelled it is the right of any Congress in
formal possession of legislative authority, to
exclude any State or States, and any portion
of the people thereof, at any time, from rep
resentation in Congress and in the Electoral
College, at its own discretion and until they
shall perform such acts and comply with
such conditions as it may dictate Obvious
ly, the reasons for such exclusion, being Who'll
~ within the discretion of Congress, NAV
change as the Congress itself shall change
One Congress may exclude State from all
share in the Government for one reason and,
that reason removed, the next Congress may
exclude it for another. One State NAV be
excluded on one ground to- day, and another
may be excluded on the opposite ground to-
morrow. Northern ascendency may exclude
Southern States from one Congress as
tendency of Western or of Southern interests
or of both combined, may exclude the Nor
them or the Eastern States from the next
Improbable as such usurpations may seem,
the establishment of the principle now assert
ed and acted upon by Congress will render
them by no means impossible The charac-
ter, indeed the very existence of Congress
and the Union is thus made dependent sole
ly and entirely upon the party and sectional
exigencies or Performances of the hour.
We need not stop to show that such action
not only finds no warrantin the Constitution
but is at war with every principle of our
Government, and with the very existence of
free institutions. 1t is, indeed, the identical
practice which has rendered fruitless all at
<o,, - cfaI I'll, III 49,
free governments in Mexico and the States of
themselves as superior to the fundamental
law, which is set aside in reckless obedience
to their behests. Stability, whether in the
exercise of power, in the administration of
government. or in the enjoyment of rights,
becomes impossible; and the conflicts of par
ty, which, under constitutional governments,
are the conditions and means Of political pro-
gress, are merged in the conflicts of arms to
which they directly and inevitably tend.
1t was against this peril, so CONSPICUOUS
and so fatal to all free governments, that our
Constitution was intended especially to pro-
vide. Not only the stability, but the very
existence of the Government is made by its
provisions to depend upon the right and the
fact of representation. The Congress- upon
which is conferred all the legislative power
OF the National Government, consists of two
branches, the Senate and House of Represen-
tatives, whose joint concurrence or assent is
essential to the validity of any law. Of
these, the House of Representatives, says the
Constitution, (article 1, section ~ ''shall be
composed of members chosen every second
year by the people of the several States"
Not only is the right of representation thus
recognized as possessed by all the States and
by every State without restriction, quali6ca-
ton Or condition of any kind, but the duty
of choosing representatives is imposed upon
the people of each and every State alike,
without distinction, or the authority to make
distinctions among them for any reason or
upon any grounds whatever. And in the
Senate, so careful is the Constitution to Sc
cure to every State this right of representa-
ton, it is expressly provided that mo State
shall without its consent, be deprived of its
equal suffrage in that body, even by an
amendment of the Constitution itself
When, therefore, any State is excluded from
such representation, not only is right ofthe
State denied, but the Constitutional integrity
of the Senate is impaired, and the validity
of the Government itself is brought in ques-
ton. But Congress at the present moment
thus excludes from representation. in both
branches of Congress, ten States of the I'm
ion, denying them all share in the enactment
of laws by which they are to be governed,
and all participation in the election Of the
rulers by which those law are to be enforced.
In other words, a Congress in which only
twenty-six States are represented, asserts the
right to govern, absolutely and its own dis
cretion all the thirty-six States which COM
pose the Union-to make their laws and
choose their rulers and to exclude the other
ten from all share in their own government
until it sees fit to admit them thereto. What
is there to distinguish the power thus assert
ed and exercised from the most absolute and
intolerable tyrannys
". Nor do these extravagant and unjust
claims ON the part of Congress to powers and
authority never conferred upon the Govern
ment by the Constitution find any warrantin
the arguments or excuses urged on their be-
half 1t is alleged,
First, That these States, by the act of re-
bellion and by voluntarily withdrawing
their members from Congress, forfeited their
right of representation, and that can only
receive it again at the hands of the supreme
legislative authority of the Government, on
its own terms and at its own discretion. If
representation in Congress and participation
in the Government Were simply privileges
conferred and held by favor, this statement
might have the merit of plausibility. But
representation is under the Constitution not
only expressly recognized as right, but it
is imposed as a duty and it is essential in
both aspects to the existence of the Govern
ment and to the maintenance of its authori-
ty. In free governments fundamental and
essential rights cannot be forfeited, except
against individuals by due process of law
nor can constitutional duties and obiga-
lions be discarded or laid aside. The enjoy
ment of rights may be for time suspended
by the failure to claim them, and duties may
be evaded by the refusal to perform them
The withdrawal of their meubers from Con-
gress by the States which resisted the Gener-
al Government was among their acts of in
surrection-was one of the means and agen-
cies by which they sought to impair the au-
thority and defeat the action of the Govern
ment: and that act was annulled and render
ed void when the instruction itself twas sup
posed. Neither the right of representation
nor the duty to be represented was in the
least impaired by the fact of insurrection;
but it may have been that by reason of the
instruction the conditions on which the en-
joyment of that right and the performance
of that duty for the time depended could
not be fulfilled. This was, in fact, the case.
An insurgent power, in the exercise Of usur-
ped and unlawful authority, had prohibited
within the territory under its control, that
allegiance to the Constitution and laws Of
the United States which is made by that
fundamental law essential condition of rep
resentation in its Government No man
within the insurgent States was allowed to
take the oath to support the Constitution of
the United States, and, as necessary conse-
quence, mo man could lawfully represent