Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1867-12-14

without fair trial before an impartial
Jury: that The privilege OF habeas cor
nus shall not be denied in time OF
peace. and that no bill OF attainder
shall be passed, even against single
individual, yet the system of measures
established by these acts of congress
does totally subvert and destroy the
form as well as the substance OF repub
Iican government in the ten states to
which they apply. 1t binds them hand
and foot IN absolute slavery, and sub
| iects them TO a strange and hostile pow
or, more unlimited and more likely to
be abused than any other now kaown
among civilized men. It tramples
down all these rights in which theees
sence of liberty consists, and which
free government is always most careful
10 protect. lt denies. habeas corpus
and trial by jury; personal freedom,
property and life, If assaulted by the pas
sion, prejudice, or the rapacity of the
ruler, have no security whatever. 1t
has the effect of bill of attaindeI, or
bill of pains and penalties, not upon
a few individuals, but upon whole
masses. iucluding the millions who in
habit the subject states, and even their
unborn children, These wrongs, being
| expressly forbidden, cannot be consti-
tulionally inflicted upon any portion of
orr people, no matter how they may
have come within our jurisdiction, and
no matter whether they live IN states,
territories, or districts ! have no de
sire save from the proper and Just
consequences of their great crime those
who have engaged IN rebellion against
the government, but as mode OF pun
lishment, the measures nnder consider
alton are the most unreasonable that
could be invented. Many OF these peo-
pie are perfectly innocent; many kept
their fidelity TO the union untainted TO
the last; many were incapable OF any
legal offense; large portion even of
the persons able to bear arms were
forced into the rebellion against their
will, and of those who are guilty with
their own consent, the degrees of their
guilt are as various as the shades OF
their character and temper. Bat these
acts of congress c0ntound them all
together in one common doom.
Indiscriminat9 vengeance upon classes,
sects, or parties, or npOn whole com
munIties, for otfenses committed by
portion of them against the govern
ment ID which they owed obedience,
was common in barbarous ages of the
world, but christianity aud civilization
have made such progress that recourse
to punishment so cruel and unjust
would meet with the condemnation OF
all unprecedented and right minded
men.
THE ENsLAvEMEET OF STATES.
The punitive justice of the age, es-
pecially IN this country, does not con
q st 10 stripping whole states of their
liberties, and reducing all their people,
without Distinction, 10 a condition OF
slavery. IL deals separately with each
individual, confines itself to the forms
of law, aud vindicates its own purity
by an impartial examination OF every
case before a competent judicial tribu-
nal. III this doe not satisfy all our de-
sires with regard to the southern reb.
els, let rs console ourselves by re-
fiecting that a free constitution, tri-
umphant IN war and unbroken in peace,
is worth far more to us and our child
rem than the ratification of any pres
ent feeling.
/ Lam aware it is assumed that this
system of government for the southern
states is not to be perpetu al. Ii as true
this military government is to be only
provisional; but it is through this ten-
pOrary evil that a greater evil as to be
made perpetual. Ii the guarantees of
the constitution can be broken provis
ionally to serve temporary purpose,
aud in part only of the country, we
can destroy them everywhere aud for
all time. Arbitrary measures often
change, but they generally change for
the worse. IL is the curse OF despot-
ism that il has no halting place; inter
mitted exercise of its power brings no
sense of security to its subjects, for
they can never know what more they
will be called to endure when it's red
right hand is armed to plague them
again. Nor as it possible to conjecture
how or where power, unTestlalned by
law, may seek its next victims. States
that are still states may be enslaved at
any moment, for, it tie constitution
does not protect all, it protects nome
1t il manifestly and avowedly the OBJ
lect of these laws to confer upon the
negroes the privilege OF voting, aud to
disfranchise such number OF white citi-
zens as will give the former clear ma
iority at all elections in the southern
states. This, TO the minds of some per-
sons, is so important that violation of
the constitution is justified as means
of bringing it about. The morality
is always false which excuses wrong
because ii proposes to accomplish a
desirable end We are not permitted
to do evil that good may come. Bat
in this case the end is itself evil, as
well as the means. The subjugation of
states to negro domination would be
worse than the military despotism mn
der which they are now suffering. 1t
was believed beforehand that the peO-
pie would endure any amount of mill
tary oppression for any length of time,
rather than degrade themselves by
subsection to the negro race, therefore
they have been left without choice. -
Negro suffrage was established by act
of Congress, and military officers were
commanded to superintend the process
of clothing the negro race with the po
litieal privileges withheld from white
men. The blacks in the South are en-
titled to be humanely governed, and to
have the protection of just laws for all
their rights of person and property. -
| LII ii were practicable, at this time, to
give them a government exclusively
their own, under which they
might manage their own affairs an their
own way, il would become a grave
question whether we ought to do so,
or whether common humanity would
not require us to save them from them
selves. But, under the circumstances,
| this is only speculative point. 1t is