The Tiffin weekly tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1859-1868, 1866-10-04

under one constitution. Suppose that ~ |
given State all the Inhabitants should
die, what becomes of the State theni
[L1uehter.] Suppose all the inhal itants
should emgrate, what becomes Of the
Statoi Tho land Is there---the peoplo
have gone. Suppose all the inhabitants
become public nlou enemies, what be-
comes Of the State us part Of the govern
ing power? 1t is said that State can
never die, because they say there Is no
right in a State u secedc. agree. But
the question Of right and the question Of
fact are two things. Suppose that when
you came here you bad founnd on the
Sidewalk tho corpse Of a man, with the
blood pouriog from lis throat, with
razor 10 his hand, and life just extinguish.
ed. You would say here is man dead.
llc had committed suicide. No, saws a
Democrat standing by, he Is not dead;
he has no right to kill himself; done you
see it's very clear he is not deadi
Laughter lilo has no right TO commit
suicide; the Constitution is az inst Il.
Great laughter.l SO with tho States.
/ agree that they had no right to do any
OF these things; but having done them,
what is the cfsetl
Having shown that tboso 3 a'es aud
the rebel people had no rights in the
Union, q beg your pardon they had one
right which they could not forfeit; one
which was guaranteed to them by the
Constitution aud the laws; right
inalienable, indefcasible, aud that was
tho right to be hanged) [Grcat cheers.
When, by the success Of our arms, those
people were captured. what was done
with thcml They surrendered oil their
rights. Their nrmed organization was
surrendered by Lee aud Johnson, and
heir civil organization, what there was
left Of it, was travelling down South in
the person of jeff Davis, who was also
captured. Nothing was left Of aud rights
except the one last mentioned.
by the act of the 18Th Of July, 1861
Congress declared and provided for an
existing public war. That question was
submitted TO the Supreme Court OF the
United States, u Court composed almost
equally at that time of Democrats
Judges aud Of the new appointces of
Lincoln. Thut Court unanimously de-
termined upon this question in this case:
On Red river lived on old lady by the
name of Alexander, 10 years old. She
owned scvoniy bales Of cotton, which
WIS captured by Admiral Porter. lIc
labeled ii as n prize OF war. Mrs,
Alexander came In md defended, claimed
the cotton as her own, because, although
living IN an cnomy's territory, on account
OF her age, aud because OF her loyalty,
she had never donc anything against the
United States, aud therefore her property
was not conliscbtcd. After full hearing
The court unanimously determined: lsl.
That n public territorial war existed
between two belligerents, IN which
bolligorcnt rights had been conceded to
the South. I'd. That the United States
had two rights in carrying on this var;
First, rights us belligarcnt.; second
rights os sovereign over its insurgent
citizens. Again, that public territorial
war existing by act of Congress on the
territory below the lino of our bayonets
for all constitutional, legal governmental
action, every man. woman aud child must
be taken, deemed and dealt with, as
public enemies; that all their properly
} was liable TO cOniisc alton when captured
aud th msoves liable to be captured as
prisoners Of war; and that after declaration
of war, unless they used due diligence u
= get into loyal territory, they must be
deemed to be alicu enemies, and that
E therefore Mrs. Aloxcuder could not haye
, her cotton, and II was ccuiiscatcd 10 the
r United Stated.
What did this decision mean! 1t
. meant that every mln, woman and child
by intendmcnt Of public law, beyond our
llno Of bayOnets, was a public enemy, OF
at least, alter zine wnen, by due dill
gence, they might have brought them
selves withE the Union linas.
President Johnson, assuming that tho
civil Government was at an end, said he
would require Of them three things
What were those States in the iutcnd
mcnt oC the law! They had armed pnb-
lie enemies; they became disarmel public
enemies aud went homo. Thcrcin. then
in the intcndment of the law, the len
States became simply ten camps of pa-
rolled prisoners Of war, [chccrs1 surren-
dered To the armies Of the United States;
aud allow mo 10 say here, very poor stuf,'
To make States OF the American Union
out OF. President Johnson a, that time
said in his proclamation, that all civil
government was there ovcrthrown; and
no proceeded to establish military or
provisional governments. What were
these provisional governments 10 do!
They were, first, to call conynn.
lions of the people within the boundaries
OF what had boon states, and then ,hsy
Were TO say that nobody should vote thai
had taken part in the rebellion. AT that
time Johuson seemed determined that
rebels should take back seats. Then IL
they would do these things they might
be admitted into the Uuion, us Johnson
said then, however, if Congress agreed tn
IL. Since then ho has changed his miLd.
Let us see whet were these things
they were to do.
Firsl, they were to agree that slavery
was abolished and adopt the constilu.
tional atscndment. WHY agree To this!
Slavery had been abolished amid the roar
of cannon and the clash of arms, when
900 000 slaves shouldored their muskcts
in defense Of tho Union, aud by the war
proclamation of President Lincoln, by
the action OF nine teuths Of all the loyal
states, and il was abolished fsrever.
Whether these men accepted the feet or
not, under the law Of war aud by the
constitution of the United statos and the
law OF God there never could be auolher
slave. Applause,
What nexll They were to repeal
the ordinances OF secession. But the
soldiers of tho Union had repealed their
ordinances OF secession with their bayu'
nets, lcheers uever agaiu to be re'enact'
ed, Another vain thing for them to be
required to do, was that they were to
agree never TO pay the Confedrsto debt.
But as before the war they generally
repUdiated their honest debt, there was
not much need OF this condition. In
some form or other, after repeated telo;
grams and orders. these eoniItions We re
agreed to.
! Nest ihrss States STATES wsfs found knock ng at
tho dasfs VI cangfess - snaission. Marx you,