Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1866-12-22
RrcoNsrRUCrION .INsANITY.


The Washington correspondent Of the
Cincinnati Commercial says: kx-Goy-
ernor Thomas, Of Maryland, will intro.
duce a bill into the House after the holi-
days, superseling the present State gov
eminent Of Maryland, and providing for
one based on the loyal people Of the
State" twill be remembered that a
bin has been introduced in the House Of
Representatives by ME- Stevens providing
for the reorganization of the State govern
ment of North Carolina, while a more
sweeping bill has been introduced by
Mr.. Julian, of Indiana, providing for
territorial governments for the ten
Southern States not represented in Con-
gress Ifauthority for recognizing the
governments Of these States can be found,
it will not be lacking to authorize the su-
persedure of the present State govern
ments in Maryland and Kentucky, and
Tennessee, if the Conservatives should
carry the August election. There is no
limit to this power, if it exists at all, short
Of the reorganization Of the governs
ment Of every State in the Union that
may elect officials entertaining. political
opinions contrary to those held by the
dominant party in Congress The Radi-
Gals endeavor to justify their course
towards the Southern States by the
specious plea that under the constitution
Congress is bound to guarantee to every
State n Republican form Of government,
and they contend that the exclusion of
the negro from the hallot-box is anti
republican. The trainers Of the consti-
tuition must have entertained the very
opposite of this construction of the pro
vision of the Instrument upon which the
Radicals rely for authority TO reduce
States to territories, for in very few of
the States at that period were free negroes
allowed to vote or to testify in q case
where a white man was a party. In
several of the States there existed free
hold qualification even to entitle q white
man to vote According to Radical ideas
these were anti-republican, yet the States
in whose constitutions these provisions
were contained, were protected in their
enforcement by the very constitution now
relied upon TO sustain the opposite course,
Il will hardly be contended that the war
has given new meaning to this clause
Of the constitution Whatever was the
Interpretation put upon it at the time oil
its going into operation, and by the men
who framed that instrument, must be the
Interpretation which ought to be given it
now Mr. Madison, who perhaps under
stood its meaning as well as the Radicals
of our day. in the Fsderalist puts this
construction upon that clause
"But the authority extends no further
than TO guarantee a republican form Of
government which suppOses a pre-existing
government of the form which is to be
guaranteed As long, therefore, as the
republican forms Of government are con-
tinued by the States, they are guaranteed
by the Federal constitution. Whenever
the States may choose to substitute ether
forms they have a right so to do, and claim
the Federal guarantee for the latter"
If Mr.. Madisen's construction of the
constitutional guarantee be correct, what
becomes of the sophistries of the Radi-
Gals ? According to Mr. Madison, and
he ought to know what he meant BY this
provision, the Southern States would
have q right to claim the Federal guar
antee if every negro within their borders
should be excluded from civil as well as
political privileges. .r..-
The fact that Mr. Thomas, of Maryland,
is talking of introducing bin to super
sede the present State government Of
Maryland, shows the point of insanity to
which success has carried the leaders of
the Radical party. 1t has never been
claimed that Maryland got out OF the
Union, yet we are grayely told that one
Of her Representatives in Congress in
tends introducinga bin to have her State
government superseded by zone based
upon the loyal people" which means that
a minority shall reconstruct and control
the State as in Tennessee. We are
drifting toward as centralized govern
ment SIS can be found in Europe with a
rapidity well calculated to alarm the
thoughtful We have to make but a few
more strides to reach that point