Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-10-29

allege that the State tribunals have de-
prived him of his property without due
process of law, and take the case be-
fore the Federal tribunals for revision.
SO, If man be indicted for larceny or 9TH
S5r crime, convicted and sentenced, upon al
legation of deprivation of liberty without
due process of law, we may bring the case
before the Federal tribunals tor revision
and reversal. So, too, if a murderer be ar
rested, tried, convicted and sentenced to be
hung, he may claim the protection of the
new Constitutional provision, allege that a
State is about to deprive him of life with
out due process of law, and arrest all fur
ther proceedings until the Federal Govern
ment shall have inquired whether State
has right to punish its own citizens for
infractions of its own laws, and have grant
ed permission to the State tribunals to pro-
ceed. Under such system the liberties of
the people could not long be maintained.
AS already remarked, free governments can
be preserved only by keeping the
power near the people, to be exer-
cised through local agencies. Under this
new system State and local authority would
not at once disappear. For some time they
would contest jurisdiction with the Fed
eral Government; but the inevitable and
constantly increasing tendency would be
for the control OF domestic affairs. to steal
away from the people, the States and
local municipal bodies, and centraliZe and
concentrate in the hands of the Federal
Government, and as party conflicts inten-
sify and party victories alternated, the
power would be more aud more ineXorably
used by the dominant party to punish its
enemies, reward its friends and strengthen
and perpetuate its hold upon the power and
patronage of the Government. Be assured,
If this new prol ision be engrateG In the
Constitution, it will, in time, change the
entire structure and texture of our Gov
ernment, and sweep away all the guaran-
tees Of safety devised and provided by our
patriotic sires of the revolution. 1t is i'm
possible to maintain our wise and happy
form of Government without preserving
the Independence and sovereignty of the
States wiJhin their appropriate and consti-
tutiOnal spheres. They are of primary and
vital importance. The States may exist
and perform all their functions without the
Union or the Federal Government. The
Union and the Federal Government cannot
exist without the States, and they must be
States OF equality-equal in dignity, equal
in rights, equal in power, equal in the con-
troll, absolute and unconditional, of all
things pertaining to their internal and local
policy and interests. la.l..r
Another blow which the proposed
amendment aims at the Government which
our fathers founded, is the change of the
basis of representation. This would be of
very pernicious effect. Aggregate popula-
ton is the true basis of representation. No
matter how the elective franchise be dis
posed of, whether exercised by few or many,
all classes of the community are repre-
sented. The interest Of all classes of peo-
pie in the same community are so inter-
woven and cOmmingled that they cannot be
separated, and whoever wields the repre-
sentative power must do it for the good or
i'll of all, perhaps not precisely in the same
degree, but he cannot use it so as largely to
benefit one class without to some extent
benefitting all, or to injure and opp~ess one
class without to greater or less extent inr
juring and expressing all. .s...-g.. =
There are always, even in this country
where the right of suffrage is mostlwidely
extended, large numbers who do not vote
at all, whose interests, nevertheless, are
cared for, and whose numbers, being COM
puted in the appOrtiOnment of representa-
ton, widen the foundations of the represen-
tative assemblies. Such are all persons
under twenty-one years of age, females Of
all ages, and unnaturaliZed foreigners.
Why are they not permitted to vote And,
not being permitted, why are they counted
in fixing che ratio of representation? They
are not allowed to vote, because they are
not supposed to be sufficiently instructed
in political economy and governmental
affairs to be entrusted with the elective
franchise. They are computed in fixing
the ratio because they are part of the same
community with those who do vote, having
interests in common with them, and their
influence oughSto be felt in shaping the
laws by which their rights of life, liberty
and property are to be determined; and al
though they do not vote, their Influence is
felt and their interests are cared for, pre-
cisely because they are counted in fixing
the relative weight of the communities to
which they belong in the legislative assem-
hlies, although their voices are not directly
heard in determining who shall represent
them. 1t is not true, as is constantly al
legged, that the relative strength OF the
States which were in rebellion will be in
creased by the results of the war If they
are now allowed representation in the ma
tional councils. The present ratio of rep
resentation is adjusted by the census of
1860. Till that time therefore, the relative
strength of the several States of our coun-
try must remain precisely as it was under
the census of 1860. After the census of
1870 the positive and relative strength of
the Southern States in Congress and the
Electoral College will both be diminished,
even if the non voting black population be
included in the basis. In 1860 three fiiths
of all the black population of the Southern
States was counted. The census iof 1870
will show the whole of the non-vOting
black population to be less than the three
fifths of 1860, Nor is it true that vote in
the South will outweigh vote in the North,
if the nOn-vOting negro population be in-
cluded in the basis of representation. If
the proposed amendment be adopted all the
non-vOting black population of the South
will be excluded, while all the non-vOting
unnaturalized foreign population of the
North will be counted. Tue great prepon-
deranee of unnaturalized and con-
sequently non-voting foreigners, is in
Northern and Northwestern States.
They and their families number
hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions,
and yetthey are all counted In fixing the
rate of representation. This is right. do
not object to it. They are part of the
community. They help to make up the
strength and productive wealth of the
State, and ought to be computed in fixing
its political power, But If it is rightOto
count non-voting population in one State,
it is equally right to count it in another;
/ and If counted in one and not in the other,
J it gives the one an advantage over the
other incompatible with the equality of the
States, and Of dangerous and revolution
airy tendency. While the non-voting un-
naturalized population of one section of the
country will be increasing, the non-voting
black population of the other section, by
I obvious causes not now necessary to be
mentioned, will be as constantly decreas-
ing. lt'would be better for all parties and
interests. and far more hOneful for tho ner.