The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-11-01
A Well Authenticated Letter.

which was written to some OF his
/ former constituents i'll Illinois, and
which, it is stated, on being sub
mitted to the President, he fully APP
proved and desired to be made public,
with the understanding that it fully
represented his present position.
The paper opens with a consideration
of the tendencies to danger in public
affairs, chiefly from the centraliza-
ton of power III the General Govern
ment, and the absorption Of many of
the powers and prerogatives of the
executive and the Judiciary by the
Legislative department.. The argu-
ment upon these premises is clear
and forcible, and chiefly directed
against the tendencies of the proposed
constitutional amendment, the writer
concluding that cit is impossible to
maintain our wise and happy form of
Government without preserving the
independence and sovereignty of the
States within their appropriate and
constitutional spheres:''
"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 i'll power, equal in the control,
absolute and unconditional, Of all
things pertaining to their internal
and local policy and interests. An
other blow which the proposed amend
ment aims at the Government which
our fathers founded, is in the change
of the true basis of representation
No matter how the elective franchise
be disposed of-whether exercised by
few or many-all classes of the com
munity are represented. The inter
ests of all classes of people in the
same community are SO interviewer
and commingled that they cannot be
separated, and whoever Yields the
representative power must do it for
the good OF 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,
benefiting all, OF to injure and op-
press one class without, to Il greater
or less extent, injuring and opprcss-
ing all. There are always, even in
this country, where the right of suf
frage is most widely extended, large
numbers who do not vote at all,
whose interests, nevertheless, are
cared for, and whose numbers, being
computed in the apportionment of
representation, widen the founda-
tlons Of the representative 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 the ratio of repre-
sentation? They are not allowed to
vote because they are not supposed
to be sufficiently instructed in politi-
cal economy and governmental affairs
to be entrusted with the elective
franchise. They are computed in
fixing the ratio because they are a
part of the same community with
those who do vote, having interests
in common with them, and their in
iuence ought to be felt in shaping
the laws by which their rights of life,
liberty and property are to be deter
mined; and although they do not
vote, their influence is felt and their
interests are cared for, precisely be-
cause they are counted in fixing the
relative weight of the communities
to which they belong in the legisla-
tive assemblies, although their voices
are not directly heard in determining
who shall represent them
The letter concludes with an elabo-
rate defence of Mr.. Johnson's policy
for the restoration of the Union,
showing that in principle it is the
same as that of Mr.. Lincoln, which
the radicals attempted to overturn at
their Cleveland Convention, called
after Mr.. Lincoln's denomination to
the Presidency, and which the people
triumphantly vindicated in his re-
election as President, with Mr.. John
son as Vice-President.
THE FENIANS. The New York