Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-02-13

Rights Of War and the late constitutions
amendment, and based his argument on 'ths
necessity Of the case and constitutions
injunction 70 guarantee to the States a repuh-
lican form Of government" Upon the first
we quote:
= The demand which make stands on necessity
The Senate must grant IT, or peril the peace Of The
Republic and postpone indefinitely the great day
Of security and reconciliation. Therefore. IN the
law, begin my appeal. Hhaessr Z rec,sred s
the nafsondl safefD u c0asfssaianal Not only II
maF be done. but il must be done. Not to do It il
TO fail in duty. This Republic mast be saved"
Upon the other, the 4th Article Of the
Constitution, enioining the government to
guarantee to each State republican form Of
government, he said:
Here is the positive text of tbs Consultation,
and yon must Hots afr ifs Meaning. You can not
evade IT.; You can not forget il. without an aban-
donment Of duty. Others in vision or aspiration
have dwelt on the idea. Of a republic. and they
not merely in vision or aspiration but practically
as legislators. in order TO settle its precise deni
ton. 70 the end that the constitutional guarantee
may be performed Your powers and duties are
involved In this definition. The character Of the
Government founded by our fathers is also in
volved in i. There Is another consideration which
meaning TO this text. and determining what is
republican government V0H act q court IN the
TAFT resorf, from rhich there IL no appeal You
are the sole and eoctasiDe Judges. Yon may decide
os voE pfease" ees
Upon such a foundation the Senator from
Massachusetts proceeded to build his oracu-
lar structure. It is not surprising that Mr..
Sumner "put aside all illustration derived
from the 'speculations of ancient pbiloso-
phers,"-"the examples of history as abso-
lutely inapplicable," as well as 'the defini-
tions Of European writers and lexicogra-
piers" and relied upon what he styled sthe
American definition of republican govern
ment." Heunqnestionably has new theory
Of government and he is its prophet. No
one has heretofore entertained correct
notions Of free government, and we must
take Sumner as the only living person who
is in possession of the secret. Our fathers
knew absolutely nothing of the matter.
While the Middletons and Rutledges were
holding slaves, the Hancocks and Adamses
were sending ships from Boston to Guinea to
bring them to Charlestan. In those days
slaveholding was not unrepublican. When
our ideas on this subject were formed and
embodied in the constitution all the States
were either slaveholding or engaged in the
slave traffic, and their rights in this respect
were "guaranteed"-and no question of their
republican form" was raised Mr.. Sumner
is not TO be blamed for putting aside history.
We agree that the era Of that slavery
which the fathers transmitted to us, is passed
away forever. But the fathers, the plan
tiers of civilization and the trainers
Of free constitutional government in
America, had higher aims than those
relating to the negro, either as a slave
or a freedman. The Mayfower brought
no negroes to Plymouth Rock. In the
beginning the negro was not thought of
Northern cupidity and Southern necessities
for labor, combined, in about equal degrees,
TO bring the African to our shores. After
he came he was never thought Of as an ele-
ment of political power for great many
years, and then only as an indirect and incl
dental quantity in estimating the sum of
representatives in the national councils.
The founders Of republican institutions in
America had far different objects. Neither
thinking nor caring for the negro, except in
the interests of charity and humanity, they
bent their great powers TO forming govern
mental structure, regardless Of the presence
or absence Of the negro, which shoald be
They accordingly adopted the
form of a representative democracy, resting
upon the broad basis of written Constitu-
ton, which embodied certain fundamental
principles that were considered indispensi-
BILE. Under ii they and their descendants
lived and prospered for three-quarters of
century. The negro became subject of de-
bate in Congress, in the interests of shallow
place-holders; but the great government,
which was created without his assistance,
and regardless of his existence, went on.
That government does not suit the latter
day political saints. To force thenegro into
an awkward and unnatural attitude, to make
him the equal or the superior of the white
man, is now the supreme want--the abso-
lutte necessity of the case" To have the
exquisite pleasure of clasping the negro to
heir breasts, Sumner and his co-workers in
niquity would overturn the sure foundations
Of our government. They would assume the
existence of necessity, and thereupon de-
clare Congress the final and exclusive Judge
of what ought or ought not to be the true
American definition Of republican govern
nent." They invoke the authority of the
Constitution to justify this absolutism of Con-
yress II is a matter, under this new inter-
probation, in which neither the Executive,
he Judiciary nor the People have any power.
A radical, fanatical, crazy Congress, exclud-
ng a large number of the legitimate repre-
'entatives of the people, in defiance Of every
principle upon which the government was
bundled and has been conducted sets itself
up as the supreme arbiter Of the liberties
md laws of a free people 1t Is to this body
hat we must look for the DEGREES which
IRE to guide in the duties Of citizenship. To
nurmur against them is to court death.