Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1867-06-27
General Longstreet's Letter.

reconstructed SOulD Tie UNION 1lepuOIlcal
: party is to be an element of power, ant
: that it will be able te contest the control o
the late rebel States with the so-calleC
Democrat, if it does not place that party
in the minority We have noted, from
time to time, the declarations of SOutheT1
. newspapers, and Of eminent Southern poll
ticians, against allaying that section will
the defeated Democracy of the North, bu
the most marked argument in favor of tht
Republican party is the letter of Gen
Longstrect, which we published on yester
day. This distinguished officer of the hate
rebel army enunciated truth too little
considered by those who imagine that po
litical conflicts can now he waged on the
disputed questions prominent before The
war, and which were necessarily deter
mined by the war. He says: IL shall SET
out by assuming proposition that | hOld d
TO he self evident, viz, that the highest o
human laws is the law that is established
by appeal to arms"
The failure or inability Of Democratic
Ipoliiicisns 10 recognize this obvious truth
explains their attempt to galvanize the old
and buried dogmas of the reserved rights
of individual States TO resist or annui the
laws enacted by Congress, if. in the iudg-
ment Of a State Legislature, they are not
expressly authorized by the Constitution.
The idea that war expresses nothing, led
the Maryland Convention to place in the
COnstit ton II is forming, the absurd no.
iiOn that the United States owe the late
Maryland shareholders compensation for
their human chattels manumittcd by the
! Sta.e herself in obedience TO necessity
gro wing out of the events of the war. 1t
| is upo,, the theory that the relation of the
rebel Statcs to the Union was in no way
changed bv their secession and subsequent
hnstilities against the United States, that
the argument is preiics ed that the recon
struction acts passed v Congress are in
fractions of the Constitution and all pow
ers exercised Hereunder are usurpailons.
Ii is claimed that what Congress- could not
do while all the States were rendering 2De-
dience to the Constitution and peacSfuliy
performing their functions as members of
the Union, ii may not do at The end of a
rebellion which compelled the nation to
enforce its rights against the revolted in
habiiants Of part of the States by force
of arms. This doctrine is so repugnant to
common sense that when presented in the
modified form of Mr.. Johnson's policy of
reconstruction, the people repudiated it by
| a majority as decisive as that by which
they determined to prevent a disruption of
the Union by secession
The truth is, that abstract legal rules
have little to do in settling the destiny Of
nations when the sword has been invoked
to decide controverted questions.
Before the Revolutionary war British
statesmen asserted as legal principle the
right Of the British Parliament 10 impose
taxes upon the people of their American
colonies. The right was denied by the
latter. and ultimately the dispute led 10
war. Great Britain failed i'm the attempt
to enforce this assumed power by arms,
and was not only compelled TO abandon its
assertion, but to acknowledge the absolute
independence OF her colonies.
Prior to our war with Mexico. California
and New Mexico were legally and right
fully part Of the former Republic, but, as
one of the conditions Of making peace. our
Government demanded their ccssion To
The United States, and they have since been
in fact and in law incorporated into the
the territory of the United States. 1t was
then claimed by Mcxicans that their Gov
crnment had no right 10 ALLEVIATE any nor
tion of the Republic, and by some of our
statesmen and lawyers that the United
States had no constitutional power to ac
quire territory hy conquest; yet nobody
would be so foolish rs to dispute our title
to California on that ground.
The success of our Government in over |
com ne the revolutionary Government es-
tabl'shed by the revolted States, gave il the |
right to impose upon the defeated party [
such terms of peace as in its judgment |
were necessary TO prevent resistance to IFS /
authority. and TO harmonic the political |
and industrial institutions of those States
with the other sections the Urion. The |
right of State 10 seccde was pat in issue /
by the war. and the decision vas against !
the assumed right. The right 10 maintain !
slavery in any portion OF the Union became |
a question during the progress of the war /
and the result of the conquest was against /
slavery, consequently that Institution no
longer exists within the United States. and |
the amendment of the Constitution forever /
prohibiting it was not so much an abolition |
of the institution, rs a legal declaration |
that it should be revived.
BY their rebellion the people of the Sc
ceded States forfeited their rights as citi- |
Zens of the United States. and their so
called State Governments having thrown
off their allegiance to the Constitution, and |
rcnounced their obligations to the Union. |
were necessarily Revolutionary and illegal. |
Consequently, how and when the latter
should be established and tn people re-
stored to the privileges of citizens. was
question for the sole decision Of the law
making power of the United States.
This truth is recognized by General
LOngstrcet. and because it is denied by the
Democratic party, and because they op-
pose the enfranchisement of colored citi-
zens whose votes must hereafter he an i'm
portant element in the politics of the South.
he secs that it would be contrary to the
policy and interest of that section to look
to the Democracy as allies.
This sensible view Of the situation will
gain strength, and it is not improbable that
the South will, in few years, be as strong
ly Republican as the Northwest is now
The southern white people were very gen
orally disposed to renew their former re-
lations with the Democrats of the North.
but the foolish counsel of the latter, which
lee to the rejection of the constitutional
amendment, has disguised many of them.
and the extension of the elective franchise
to the Negroes by Congress. has made it
impossible for the South to support the
Democratic party with its old unanimity
Gen. Longstreet describes the military
bill, and amendments, as peace offerings.
and SO they are. They will bring peace
and return of civil government to the
South. and prevent any one political party
from obtaining the absolute supremacy in
the late rebel States which the Democratic
party had before the rebellion, and to which
more than any other cause. the rebellion
| owed its cxistence.-Ind. Jour.
T.