Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-01-08
.0lllyol:. d .!Sstate?!gjrralrlll... !.
The Attempt 10 Obliterate thc Com
..nlltLnn .L hilluflOn. .l.nlD --.-

( fNlHNY Dl ptttutlOMs " Hoo sHI|
Party may succeedIdn obliterating the
Constitution. Itmay hereafter as in times
of the past, accomplish the overthrow OF
liberty. These disasters, are possible, be-
cause chat which has hitherto happened
under. the dominion Of party may occur
again JlnE ,h919LIu sEw asl ! 80 ID I'ry Il
But still. the fact cannot be disguised
that the war did not change the suprema-
cy and the limits of the Constitution. 1t
conferred upon Congress no new p0wersi
These remained preciselythe same as II there
had been no cicitI struggle. 51,e m Goyerisl
i9TaJ l9T,lJ was Va ohaigedr These were, SO far as
the organic law was concerned, still Re-
publican.
But the proposition now is, that the late
strife has destroyed the Constitution and
substituted for its checks and balances, the
dominion and will OF party. "'t
Hence, under the assumption of this sub
version of the ancient and accustomed
laws, it is proposed to take away the State
ship of ten Of these Commonwealths, and
establish territorial governments for them,
under the supreme Jurisdiction of Con-
gress composed of the other twenty-six Of
| the States. . .oi, f.H a.ui 0..tH -.1
| Now there was time, when no one was
bold enough to dispute that Congress could
only legally exercise those powers with
| which it was invested by the Constitution.
This Government was formed by the unan-
imots consent OF the States. 1t was then
expressly declared that "the powers not
delegated to the United States by the Con-
stitution, nor prohibIte by it to the States,
are reserUed TO the States respectively, or to
| the people,"
Il 60 ha a IN.
vain search that instrument for any power
delegated either to the United States or to
Congress, "Jy achich IL mag conUert a State
into Territory"
No such authority can be asserted. To
attempt this, is at once to announce the
Constitution as at end. --
Not only eaBnot a S. ate be thus put out
of existence, but, as has been illustrated in
the recent suggestion for the dismember-
ment of Maryland, no State can be divided
or others formed by the junction of two or
more StatTs,, or parts of States, without the
consent of the Legislatures of the States
concerned. This was part of the original
contract, which it was put out OF the
power of Congress for all time, to touch or
| legislate upon.
AS the Hartford Times pungently says,
| sCOngress has no more right to reluce any
State to territory than has the Parliament
of Canada. The Centralists are making
rapid strides. The idea that Congress, the
creature of the States, proposed to legislate
any State out Of existence, would, ten
years ago, have reused the people of this
| country to a state of intense excitement;
| for it is evident enough that such centrali-
cation of power would end the liberties of
the people. If Congress has right, to re-
solve one State out of existence, that right
| extends to all other States, and it has the
right to crush them all. ltcould finish of
PENNSYLVANIA on the preteXt of the whisky
rebellion, and bury Massachusetts on the
ground of Shay's rebellion. 1t could wipe
| out Connecticut for allowing the Hartford
| Convention to sit within her borders and
consider the question of secession by New
| Elgland, 1t would finish New York for
originally placing in her Constitution a
| clause reserving the right to secede, and
smother Rhode Island for standing out at
the adoption of the Constitution. And as
one pretext would be as good as another
for the Centralists, as it has always been
with tyrants in tisuEping power, they could
resolve the Western States into territories
on account of their youth and free trade
tendencies-thes rest not being enough &c
form, a respectable Government, would DC
| Cerr1JOrtdllZeu GOO-dnu InoH OnO OO"VA"
Directory might declare itself to be su'
preme and in perpetual power. T.. lib s6y .
Neither one of these steps would be more
in violation Of the Constitution, or a great
er shock to our free institutions, than th(
act proposed by the Radicals to resolve thu
Southern States into Territories. If th'
people of the country would submit t
such an act, their readiness to 90 into tn,
arms of .despotisnl could no longer b(
doubted pic hdrleston Courier. l'