Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1867-11-21
N, The Cincinnati Con,nerc

says--A pamphlet on the dangerous
condition of the country, signed "a
Maryiander," is beng circulated
under the frank of Senator Reverdy
Johnson. and is attributed to his pen.
Senator Drake, of Missouri, having
received a copy OF it, has replied to
it in long and. strong letter. The
Missouri Senstor tells the Marylander
that 1t has been
practically proved past any posi-
biiity of future question, that the
American people, though divided in
to many States, are q nation; and
equally settled forever, that. State
or no State, every part of the people
must bow TO the lawful power of the
whole"
That is a good point TO begin
with. The nextis as to the differ
ence in the position of the rebels be
fore and after the rebellion. The
difference is in this most essential
particular:
"When their revolt was subdued
and the power of the nation fully re-
established over them, they were
without any lut0ful State Govern
ments. The people of each rebel
State was still the State, their cor
porate character, which had been
received from the nation, still existed,
fbut their governments were alien
and hostile to the Constitution of the
United States, and therefore utterly
unlawful And herein is the distinc
ton which solves the whole question,
namely, between people as a part OF
the nation, organized into q State,
and the government which thew, In
their corporate capacity as State,
possesses. The latter may be chang
ell, modified or overthrown, but
nothing short of successful revolution
can sever any portion of the people
from the Union"
Putting the >"war power" aside,
the right of Congress to provide
governments for the rebel States
"Results from the fact of our
national existence; that when any
portion of the people OF the nation
are without lawful local govern
ment, Territorial or State, there is
no power on earth but that of the
nation which can authorize them to
form one; and that the nation in this
matter can act only through its Con-
gress."
AS to the spirit of the Southern
people who were in rebellion, and
the charge of malicious persecution
by Congress, MIR. Drake says:
"For seven long years a spirit of
hostility, unsurpassed among Chris
tian people, has fired the Southern
heart toward the people of the
North, blazing out every where and
in every form all over the rebel
States, with fury defying all
quenching, all mitigation, all sooth
ing; and it burns there now, with no
less intensity than in the hottest days
of tie war. During the greater part
of that long period there has Lot been
q moment OF time when the South, if
it had had the power and dared,
would not have cut the throas of every
damned Yankee in the nation.
They would do it now if they could.
And their present bloodthirsty spirit
is not intensified by the action of
Congress, beyond what it would have
been by any action which deprived
them of power to rule the nation
which had crushed their rebellion and
their nascent empire of slavery. On
the other hand, l defy you to point
to any snch malignant manifestation
in the North toward them, before,
during, or since the war"
Concerning the effects Of magnani-
nous policy in restoring rebels to all
political rights, Mr.. Drake says:
''Kentucky did that in 1865, in a
gusk of maenanimity more Kentucki
an than loyal, and now her patriots
are under the heels of the very rebels
they had fought and conquered.
Maryland, too, not in gush Of mag
nanimity. but in cold blood, and with
the deliberate purpose to restore her
,rehel soldiers and citizens to the bal
lot and to Office. has done the same
IN 1867; and there, too, the rebels
are triumphant over their conquer
ers."
As to the October and November
elections, of which the Maryland
Senator says much, the Senator from
Missouri remarks:
'.The Democracy are welcome to
all the crumbs of success they can
pick up in the odd years; the Repub-
licans will take the loves in the even
years" r
ES The Dayton Journal relates the
following: "The newspaper discussion
touching the alleged conservatism of
Chief Justice Chase reminds US of
remark made by the rebel John c.
Breckinridge. The writer of this was
at Frankfort, Kentucky, to sketch the