The Portland daily press., 1866-04-23

per FOlulHe, anu Will DC resluy lOr uellpcTy Tile
present month"; Subscriptions should be adj
dressed to Samuel II. Merrill, Box Piss, Port
land Me. 9i-4 sH3Ii. @lf lalu
The Present Governments in the Rebel
,f..e States Should be Annulled.
When person undertakes to perform an
act for which he has no legal authority, the act
is illegal. But if the party who should have
performed the act, afterwards ratifies such as
sumption of authority, the act is thereby
made legal. Although the present military
governments in the rebel States of Louisiana,
Arkansas, North Carolina, South Carolina,
Georgia, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi,
are illegal, and the one in process of organiza-
ton in Texas, will be illegal, still Congress
may ratify these organizations. Such rati6
cation would make these State governments
legal and valid. s1eel o. i.sailJ a1a1W ~S8
The important question arises, whether
Congress, having the sole power to re-organ-
ize them, should set them all aside and begin
the work from the foundation. We have no
hesitation in expressing the opinion, that all
these governments should be set aside and
treated as utilities. - 49,
One reason why this should be done, is to
teach the President lesson. He should not
be enQDlraged nor sustained in his usurpa-
tons. u "a p0IIa2 q VA LANIDIaO
A more important reason is, that these mil
litary governments do not represent the
loyal citizens Of those States, but the traitors
Consequently it will not be safe for Congress
to recognize these illegal governments. 1t will
be safe neither for the loyal citizens of those
States nor for the national government. You
cannot make loyal State out of traitors
Let us see how that is. Let us begin at the
beginning. o ei'ies q ,s5l'.js i-'fi'i'} 'tlj
The beginning of President Johnson's mil
itary States, was the appointment of provi-
sional Governors. All of them except Ham
ilton of Texas, were traitors, and justly OBJ
noxious to the punishment of death. This
does not look very well. How does it COM
pare with the Presidents former declaration
that TRAITORS must take back seat."--
Here he places them in the front seat. Traitors
would be likely to favor traitors. According
lyw find these treacherous Governors filling
all or nearly all the subordinate offices under
them by appointing the same traitors, that
held the offices under the rebellous govern
ment of Jefferson Davis.
The next step was the Presidents act de-
filming the qualifications of voters and officers.
He says: "No person shall be qualified as an
elector, or shall be eligible as member of
such convention, unless he shall have previ-
ously taken and subscribed the oath of amnes-
ty, as set forth in the Presidents proclamation
May ~, 1860, and is vn.or qualified q, pres
cribed by the Constitution and laws of North
Carolina in force Immediately before the Doth
OF May, A. d. 1861, the date of the so-called
ordinance of secession" And so of South Car
DINA and the rest. Here the President COM
mits the government of the state to the con-
troll of the very same men who chose the
members OF the convention, that passed the
ordinance of secession; namely, to the men
who passed the ordinance of secession and
commenced the war. 1t is true he requires
them to take the oath of amnesty. But of
what value was that? Do we not know that
all the leading men among the traitors had
taken an oath to support the Constitution of
the United States in several instances? A
traitor will take any oath required in order to
obtain political power; and then he will vio-
late any oath he takes in order to obtain polit-
ical power This we have seen done by whole
| sale. .ts,-., .fF a t.qd5ta.l5 slfos.s.sf coz.
But it may be said the President did not ex-
clude the loyal citizens from voting. We know
he did not exclude them as such; but still he
excluded them in fact. Take the case of South
Carolina. Mr.. Johnson's Provisional Govern
or Perry admits that he had appointed seces-
sionists to Office. He says he was compelled
| to do that, for there were not twelve men in
the state, that had not been implicated in the
rebellion, that is to say, not twelve white men.
fthere were not twelve white men that had
not been implicated in the rebellion, then all
the rest were traitors. Here's the testimony
of Johnson's own agent, traitor himself, con-
Tossing, that among all the men to whom the
President committed the right Of suffrage in
South Carolina, there were not twelve loyal
citizens. Whole battalions of them had taken
an oath TO support the Constitution of the
United States and broken it in great exulta-
tion. According to the census of 1860, the
number of the negroes and of the men of mix
ed color was 393,044 and all these are thor
oughly loyal and have been all through the
war. The number of the whites was only
274,563, and among them not twelve patriots.
Nearly every one is traitor. Yet President
johnson claims to put all political power into
the hands of these traitors and to perpetuate
it in their blood forever, for he says "the said
convention when convened, or the legislature
thereafter assembled, will prescribe the quail
fications of electors and the eligibility of per-
sons to hold Office under the constitution and
laws of the state" President johnson places
the power in the hands of traitors to the ex-
clusion of loyal citizens to begin with, and all-
thorizes his agents to exclude them forever;
and by the constitution they have done it'll
ili si4td J. CIV.
x,..-z.-.s....u., =.
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