The Hillsborough recorder. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1820-1879, 1866-04-25

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that the bill has not legally passed because
all the. States were not represented In Con.
gress. Without reply 10 this pertinent
question, the resolution passed. ~.
If there be any force 10 the inquiry, and
we must think there is, it was not settled
by the passage of the resolution, but will
come up again in different tribunal. If,
Congress be nctiegally constituted, is the
Civil Rights bill the law of the land and is I,
the President obliged to execute iti The
Constitution of the United States express.
Iy declares that each, State shall have at
least one representative" and that "the
Senate of the United States shall be COM.
posed OF two Senators from each State"
and also that " Representation and direct
taxes shall be apportisned among the sew
eral States according to. their respective
numbers" And again, the NEST emphatic
Of all the provisions of the Constitution is
one IN reference 10 prohibition to exclude
States from their JUST and legal representa-
tion, which is not lelt subject to the amend
ing power; this clause alone is guarded
from change BY the power which makes
other changes. Says the Constitution, !" No
State, ,Cithout its consent, shall be depriy-
ed Of its equal suffrage in the Senate"
Tried by these tests, that the present
Congress is not a legally constituted body,
there can be but little doubt. This ques-
tion is attracting the Attention and consid-
Grafton its importance demands. Probably,
should Congress have gone on enacting err
dnary and necessary laws, whether prop
ery constituted or not, they would have
been acquiesced in and made legal BY COM
mon consent or BY the healing application
Of a succeeding Congress. but when they
pass a hurtfui and unconstitutional meas
ure over the veto Of the President, having
FIRST violated the sacredness Of elections
and iguored the rights Of persons and prop
erty in order to accomplish this end, il
does not follow that their action should be
acquiesced in by the Executive.
That this matter is a.lracting the lhought-
ful consideration of the President, is DEM
ons,raied by the course Of the papers which
are friendly to his administration, and by
the following significant extract from the
comments Of the Memphis Argus. on q pri-
yate letter Of MIR. Johnson to friend in
Tennessee:
:" He (the PresidenD intends. firmly to
see that all the States have that represen-
tation in Congress to which the Constitu-
tion entities them, and 10 resognize a ma
Ijority Of The Representatives. Of all The &afss
as he Congress"
The entire vote in the Senate upon the
Civil Rights Bill was thrty-three in the
aft rmative and fifteen in the negative. A
full Senate is composed of seventy two
yo tes, and all of the Senators from the ex-
cluded States would have voted to sustain
the President, and against the bill. which,
with the votes of Mr.. Dixon and Mr.. Stock
ton, would have been thirty-nine in the
negative. It's thus shown that 10 full
Senate, the Radicals could not only not
have passed the bill over the veto, but
would not have been able 10 pass il at all.
The yets was thus overridden by a minor
lity OF those entitled to vote upon the ques-
ton. Can it possibly have been conlem-
plated BY the trainers Of the Constitution,
when authority was given to two-thirds TO
pass a bill over The veto. that, il could be
done BY minority of either bodyi