The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-01-04
THE DUTY OF CONGRESS.

THE DUTY OF CONGRESS.
The People Higher than Courts---whO
Is TO settle the status OF the Govern
ment.
From the Washington Chronicle Of Wednesday.
Congress will reassembIe tomorrow
with the necessity of energetic and
prompt action before it. The great work
of National reconstruction has, in the
course of its progress, developed the
necessity of State reorganization
Whenever a people are compelled to re-
sort to arms for the ad justment of polit-
icaI questions and institutional anarchy
ensues, all attempts to patch up the
defunct system with its own old lum-
Der will prove futile. 1t is an error
fraught with danger to try to accom-
modate existing exigencies to ancient
habits of thought, or to qualify a senti-
Inent of generation for that which is
past and gone, by linking it to instant
demands for progressive action. There
is always this difficulty to contend with,
however, that the revolutions of the
human mind are slower, and the mass
eS do not comprehend the full meaning
OF those convulsive phenomena in
which they are themselves actors. Des-
ignate it by any name we may, the re-
bellion or civil war through which our
country has passed, was practically IA
revolution, and affects the whole sys-
TEN of our government. Organized in
the interests of slavery il resulted in the
triumph of freedom. The sentiment
of patriotism preponderated over the
fanaticism Of caste, and the vindication
OF the principles of the Declaration OF
Independence show that we have en-
/ tered upon period of better and no.
/ bier growth. The nation has gained a
more elevated idea and demands Cd.
| pOrtunity of its realization. Instead
| OF retrOceding into the dark ages OF
slavery,it has struck; slavery down and
dispossessed the Oligarchy which
| ruled by slavery. But there is still left
"A great deal of the old machinery of the
/ Government by means of which the
/ people were kept in subjectiou to the
1 slave power. The pro-Slavery habit OF
mind became stamped upon our laws,
our courts, and our executive depart
ments, and there is no truer proverb
than that "the force of habit is second
nature" During an intensely bitter
warfare, men do not consider so much
the propriety or lawfulness of their &C.
ton as the probabilities of their success
Whatever may happen afterwards
their paramount duty is to win. After
the fight is over the machinery oil
peaceful times is resorted to, and the
creaking doors of courts are opened
and dusty tones of old decisions ire.
ferred to. Nobody is surprised to lind
that the law has not kept pace with
armed revolution. or that the statutes
passed for condition of society before
the war, do not equitably apply to its
condition now
The Supreme Court has no right tc
go back OF the rebellion and adiudicatt
I nnAQfinna fatnrunfVa1 HY- ha ~
ment of arms according to laws anG
presidents anterior to rebellion. Thi.
question of the Federal relations of tht
conquered States is Il political question
to be- determined by the conquerinI
power, and that power will not permi
an agent of its own, created for the pur
pose of administering justice between
loyal citizens, to ignore the great act Of
rebellion, and treat patriot and traitor
true State and insurrectionary State, u.
equals.
Alexander II. Stephens maintained
| that secession was constitutions
right. Had the Supreme Court agreed
with him, it would not have altered tn,
determination of the American peopl,
to crush out secession.
The right of continuous representa-
ton has been cluimed under the Con
stitUtion, as the right to present repre-
sentation is claimed now; and one righ
Is about as good as the other, and Meth
or can exist without the other; vet tn,
people of the United States have settled
the question, and he will be a bold mar
who forces them to reassert their deter
mination-
The constitutional amendment will
not, of course, receive three fourths O.
all the States, including the insurrec
tionary States; and we presume that the
President means that any declaration
by Congress of its adoption by three,
fourths of the loyal States only will be
overruled by the Supreme Court us un.
constitutional.
If he suppoSes that will settle the
question, he does not understand the
American people. They are neither
fools nor slaves. They have not gone
through n terrible war of five wears.
sacrificed thousands of lives, and in.
Cured millions of Indebtedness. 10
throw away the fruits of victory upon
n law opinion. The thing is too pre-.
posterous to be credited for moment
The men who did the fighting wrot.
the law of this question upon the bat.
/ tle-tield with their blood, and have re-
asserted il at the ballot-boX.
| The President regards the Southern
/ States as practically restored to All
their old relations, and by the frequent
reiteration of his opinion has bound
I himself to net accordingly. ANY mt.
tempt, therefore, by Congress, to sub.
autute new State governments in place
of those which he has usurpinGly ere
ated, by enabling acts or otherwise
will of course be resisted by him witt
all the power of the Executive arm II,
may also try to throw this question int,
court. We do not know what the courl
would do with 1t, but we are clearly OF
/ opinion that the American people will
not concede the right of settling thf
great political questions of reconstruc
ZION to any tribunal but themselves,
! They rightfully consider that the
I political construction of society is one
which concerns every body; that thf
old system of pro-slavery rule has beer
Z done away with, and it is necessary 70
reorgantZe In such u manner as to pra.
/ vent its revival. AT present, slavery
in the Southern States Is not uprooted
I IL Is only generalized. The iudiyidnoi
I relation OF master and slave is gone
but there is still another class. and !
Serf class. The master class owns the
land and makes the. laws, and the SER
class does the labor and forms a better
basis for political organization than
the old slave system, because it iden.
tities the, interests OF the master class
which the security of slave property
before the war permitted to differ.
The new system that has Supervened
upon the slave system is as fataIIy
organized as was the latter against re-
publican government. 1t has no place
for the honest, self-respectiug working
man, or the great middle class, The
oligarchy still rules it, and it carries in
itsvery constitution the seeds of future
war.
How, then, can the people settle upop
such a basis? They cannot and they
will not, but Congress will have 10 cut
the Gordian knot of reconstruction by
decisive and prompt action.