The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1866-07-31
Chief Justice Ruffin against the New
COnstitution--He denounces President
johnson as a Despot and Usurper!

|
by the Sentinel, the organ of Gov. Worth,
that the long and able argument recently
published in the Wilmington Journal against
the new Constitution and the powers of the
late State Convention, and copied with SO
much gusto by the secession press of the
State is from the pen of Chief Justice Ruff
fin We regret we have not space to lay this
argument in full before our readers, but we
give the following extracts which will afford
some idea of its intent and spirit The
Chief Justice says:
Il consider, that this is no Constitution,
because your Convention was not legiti-
mate Convention, and had no power to make
! Constitution for US, or to alter that which
we had and have and that it cannot be made
Il Constitution, even by popular SANCTION
If these positions be correct, it ought to be
rejected by the people, as the easiest SIM
pies and most efficient method of setting the
points at rest, and avoiding many perplex-
ing and dangerous questions before the Ju-
dietary. 1 object to the organization of your
| Body as convention, because it was called
without the consent of the people of North
Carolina, by the President of the United
States, or under his orders ; an act of clear
and despotic usurpation, which could not
give the Body any authority to bind the
State or it's inhabitants. If it be said the
President, or his satrap-his Governor of ii
! Province-did not call, or rather constitute
! the Convention, but the delegates were cleo
ted by the people, and thereby the body was
duly constituted, deny it directly and posi-
| lively. The delegates were not the choice of
| the people for in the proclamation calling
it the qualifications of the persons who might
be eligible and those of the persons who might
vote for them We're strictly presented in
|
and excluding from each class a large por-
tion-some would say the best portions-of
our qualified citizens. In many case our
people were not represented. but, in fact
were nlisrepresented. The acts of such Il
body cannot be said to be those of the peo-
pie of the State They are not entitled to
obedience, and cannot be, or, at least. ought
| not to be, judicially recognized. The whole
proceeding arose out ofarbitrary assumpt-
ion, overthrowing all notions of popular gov
eminent, and destructive of the very first
principles of Republican freedom and when
| it is put to the people for their sanction or
rejection, then let every man who was ex-
cluded from voting for delegate say No!
had no voice in makingit-in choosing the
men did make it, and wish not now to be
dragoOned into its adoption ; and let every
man whose neighbor or friend was thus ex-
Guided also say No the best men in the
country were not allowed voice in cOnsti-
tuting the Convention or electing its mem
bers, and will not sanction their ostracism
by fixing on them Contitution-an unal-
terable law-imposed on them by body in
which they were net heard, and from which
they were expressly excluded by irresponsi-
BILE military power or its subordinate and
servile instruments :" and let every citizen of
North Carolina, too, say: mo l scorn and
reject instrument rendered to me under
the name of Constitution of North Carolina
which the people of North Carolina did not
make, and which was made for them by
men in the guise of our reprepresentatives,
who were not our representatives, but those
of power exercising at the time the au-
thoity of conqueror in military possession
of our territory, and arrogating to itself the
right of superseding all our civil officers and
abrogating our laws.
Mr. johnson required Convention to per
form certain specific acts; to annul the
dinance Of secession and tender a return to
the Union. claim its continued existence
under the Constitution of the United States;
to emancipate the slaves and ordain that
slavery shall never hereafter exist in this
State, and to repudiate the State war debt"
All these were done the two first promptly,
and in satisfactory terms and the third, at
the last moment, under subsection and in
conformity to ORDERS after having once re-
fused to adopt the measure. All was done,
say, that was required and Mr.. johnson
proclaimed that he he had got all he wanted;
that we were back as a State and might
choose our representatives in Congress in
conformity to our rights as State, and to
our law regulating elections. Was there any
thing more for TINT Convention to do e? Were
they chosen for any other purpose, even by
those who were allowed to vote for members;
How dare they, then, go on to frame Con-
stitution, a law, for all time, which is to be
binding on those who elected them for the
ends, and also on that large portion of the
patriots and heroes unpardoned rebels
who were not allowed to vote at all ? The
pretension is without parallel or precedent,
until the present term of Radical assumption
of power in a dominant military or numer-
ical majority without respect for rights or
the Constitution As far as they safely can,
and whenever they can, the people ought to
resist that pretension. This they can peace
fully do, when called on and allowed to vote;
and trust they will do so on this occasion
without cornmotion, in support of the great
principle of human iberty-that people
have the right to make their own Constitu-
ton, and not be made subject to one impos-
ed on them, by force or fraud, by any extra
neous power, or by a fraction of their fellow
citizens"
Here it is assumed that the Convention
was not legitimate'-that it had no right
to alter the Constitution of the State
that its assumption of such right cannot be
made good by popular safction-that the
delegates to the Convention were not the
choice of the people, because suffrage was
restricted to so-called loyal voters, and be-
cause those "patriots and heroes" who were
unpardoned were not allowed to vote-that
the President, in recognizing the State,
treated the State as a Province,-tha the
President, in arrogating" to himself the
right to supersede our civil officers and
abrogate our laws" was guilty of g an act OF
clear and despotic usurpation'-and that the
people of the State, 6 as far as they safely
can," ought to oppose this Constitution and
"resist'' this action of the President.
We do not hesitate to characterize these
views. and these appeals to our people in
this crisis, as seditious They are calculated
and intended to excite our people to resist
ance to lawful authority f" as far as they