The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1866-01-31

81 Neither party sought to destroy, but to
sayeSa republican form of government in
| each of those States.
/ Neither party sought to::take from the peo-
/. pie of those States the right to choose their
: Governors and Legislatures, and to have
| their own judicial officers, nor to take away
the right of representation in the National
Government.
: But the real issue was whether these off
. GERS would bear allegiance to the Federal
Union or to the rebel confederacy. Neither
party struggled to take from the people OF
those States their right to govern themselves,
I, under their own State laws-which, after all,
. is republican govcrnment-nor to disturb the
3 great body of those State laws. Except in
! SO far as they aided the Union or the rebel
! cause, neither sought to make any change,
. or claimed the right to make any, whatever.
4 1t is true that slavery, to defend which was
the avowed object of the rebellion and
which became during the war the chief sup
i port of its armies, was put directly in issue.
1t was the cornerstone Of their confederacy;
and when the confederacy fell, its corner
/ stone was Of course buried in its ruins, |
can affirm, then, that neither the State nor its
government, neither its Office of Governor,
| Its Legislature. nor its judiciary, were, dur
/ ing the rebellion, sought to be destroyed or
| changed in any manner by either belligerent
| party, any further than it bore upon the ques-
| ton of allegiance to the Union upon one
side, or to the rebel confederacy upon the
/ other, and to the existence or the destruction
| of slavery.
But for slavery, and questions growing out
of it, and ambitions and ideas fostered by it,
here never would have been any rebellion
| at all. r 49,
| No change was sought in the status of the
| States, in the forms of their governments or
| in their laws, except for an account of slag-
| cry alone. --5....,.... -s-.g,.s.e5,,
| Take the case of Georgia, the empire State at
the South. Did the rebellion attor.p to de-
| stroy the State of Georgia as Stale? Not of
| ALL 1t didattemptto dissolve all relations with
| the United States and transfer them to the
| rebellious confederacy; to throw off allegi-
ance to the Federal Constitution, and come
under the confederate constitution: in short,
to take Georgia, as State, out of the Union
and put it into another Union in new
| confederation. Had the rebellion succeeded,
would the Stale of Georgia have been de-
stroyed9 1t would certainly have ceased to
be q State in this Union, but it would have
| Territory, in its new political relations The
great body of its constitution would remain
the same; the great body of its civil and
I criminal laws the same, as before the re-
! bellion. All the laws on contracts, bargain,
sale, and conveyance of real estale; all the
laws concerning real or personal estate; the
laws of marriage; the family relations; and
generally all the rights and remedies affect
ing persons and property and personal lib
erty would have remained the same. No
effort was made materially to change them.
The only effect, in case the rebellion had sue
ceeded, would have been to make Georgia a
State outside of this UnioI, State in an
other Union.
Now that the rebellion has utterly failed
tOput the State OF Georgia into new union,
did the attempt to do so, and the crushing
of that attempt, put Georgia as State out
of.lthis Union |. or destroy Georgia as State
in this Union; or reduce Georgia from a
State'int tins Union tobe a Territory? This
seems to be. the view advocated by my col
league IN his elaborate and ablespeech upon
this resolution. T. 1t is due to him and to the
important questions involved that I give
some further attention TO this part Of the
subject. .zsaa.z 10 .,.-,.s .,tt No..
i shall not go over the ground I hare al
ready trod; 1 will only observe that it is be-
yonti belief to suppose that the rpseple!or the
State OF Georgia themselves ever intended to
reduce themselves from, the, condition of a
Territory, The ruling idea, their ,intensest
VISA, WAS to exalt tue State, and make IFS
sovereignty paranleant. aItwas, with them i
passion. ut became their frenzy. Fhe Uni
tee. States had no such purpose. either,,e .ss
hEaEe already shown you that by all the
legislation OF Gongrs So, by; every ,proe!ama-
tea Of the President. neither Congress nor
the President ever held any other language
than was expressed in the hast clause of the
resolution eff July * SCI, that our purpose
was to maintain the sfsuprenlacy Of the Con-
sttutioni and all laws made. in, pursuance
thereof. and to preserve the Union, with, all
the.dignity, equality. and rights of the sew
eral States unimpairedi.r.,a firt. .t,.i.-o,,
But to pursue the case. of Georgia a
| little furtl.er.s7 While, asriI, haze shown,
nGither party .helligerent sought to, DESTROY,
\ and.beth sou9htto save and TO- hold tie State
OF Georgia, the one as q State in. this Union,
anditte other as State in the. rebel confed-
-eration, did the issue Of arms, which. decided
1t should not be Estate in the confederation,
and should remain under the supremacy OF
the Constitution, reduce Georgia TO, the terri
itosial condition, against her, own wish and
the iavowed pWpQseiief Congress2f III have
already shown that Georgia was not changed
from State itoai Territory By the rebellion
Was it 50 changed: BY our crushing the re
bellion2 ..,-.a - - 9,A' Iiis'
III I admit, that pending fie progress Of this
great civil war, the greatest tile world evel
saw, the growth of military power was such
In all those States of the South as ito,almost
suspend the civil laWs-ce certainly during the
last tsEesyears of the rebellion that robe
martial law dominatedbth whsle: Confe,d
esaey, and subjected at will the civillawIto
its dominion. 1t became for the time being
ablQody rebel military despotisin.,,. ~ 20, % =
&; When our armies entered o Georgia ,an6
overcome the rebel array, ithen wlsas sYas thu
efectg The first and immediate effect wa.
to Substitute Union, martial rule for febe
martial rule. Neither the one mol, the. other
as we have seen, DESTROYED the existence O
the State. But t-tid what war always doe
more! or less, suspended; for the time being
the. civilians and the functions Of, civil gov
ernment in the clash of arms. 5, It ,neithe
1 suspended nor destroyed the State;dbut i
changed the ruling pow eri in it from the com
maneler of the rebel army to the commando
on the Union army. zasaaITk 10 .,.s,s .,of ~
e. Just before General Sherman entered Geor
i gia, What was the law of Georgia7S The vii
Cof the rebel general. Just after his tst1rrenl
9derfwhat became the lawhof Georgia. then
stooThe viii of General Sherman. dnder the Com
lmalifieri n-chief bothFunder the Constitution
Of fhe United States..uuo file Whole people q
4 iGteorgia. Black aifH Iwlfiiesf.oaas and free
II becaiie subject, for the tiaIe being stog mifi