The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1867-10-14
THE LAW AND THE RECONSTRUCTION
ACTS.

by reason OF the action OF the haulcal party,
is not only anomalous. but is full Of future
| trouble. In many Of these States military
commanders, in the exercise of their real or
supposed powers, under the Reconstruction
Acts, have removed officers of the law and ap-
pointed other persons to perform their duties.
That the acts of the Rump Parliament, which
calls itself Congress, will be declared uncon-
stitutional, at least on the subject of reconsruc-
tion, whenever those acts are: presented In
proper form for the adjudication of the SUI
preme Court of the United States, no one can
doubt, unless he is satisfied that the purity of
the bench is destroyed, and that corruption
has taken as firm hold on the Judiciary as
it has on the party which has been SO crush
ingly condemned by the voice of the people of
Pennsylvania and Ohio.
The war decided but single point, and
that point was that no State could dissolve
its connection with the American Union.
Chief Justice CHASE, as radical az he is,
when he lays aside his ermine, was obliged
to admit this, when sitting as a Judge in
North Carolina. If no State ever ceased to be
State, then no reconstruction was necessary,
and any and every move in that direction is
| unconstitutional The States, when they pre-
tended to secede, all had Constitutions. Un-
der those Constitutions, they were members Of
tbe political body known as the United States
! of America. Those Constitutions the Consi-
tuition of the United States guaranteed 10
them unless they were changed in the manner
provided by their own organic laws. Fail
ure to establish other forms of government by
war was rebellion, and nothing more Re-
bellon defeated, brought the people of the
States back to their allegiance to the organ
ic law. Under that organic law, and under
that alone cou id any Constitutional action be
had 1t is vain to talk about de .facto State
governments, when those governments are
framed in defiance of the Constitutions of the
States themselves and of the Constitution Of
the United States Those instruments must
and will be the guides by which the Supreme
Court of the United States will be directed,
| and the decision Of that branch of the Gov
ernment will at the proper, time be given in
favor of: Constitutional liberty.
Suppose however, that the madness which
pervaded the people of the North, when they
allowed the self styled Congress to fasten ty-
rauny on the South, should also find its way
in;o the Supreme Court, and that it should
sustain the governments framed by the opera
ton of the Reconstruction Acts, can the pre-
/ tended legal acts of the officers appointed by
the military commanders be sustained? If
there are no State governments, Districts one,
two, three, four and FIVE certainly are not ter
ritories of the United States. This the Radi
Gals even did not venture to declare. 1t would
| have given the lie too broadly to their pretend
ed love of the Union and to the issues on
(which the fight was won. If they are not ter
ritories, then Congress can pass no laws at
all for their local government. If Congress
can pass no laws, then it cannot delegate to
military officer powers which it does not
possess. No principal can place in the hands
Of his agent more power than the principal
himself could exercise. No one certainly will
deny this If these districts are foreign terri
tory, held during the continuance Of war,
then military rulers may preserve order, but
even Congress does not pretend that war 'ex-
lists. The Chief Justice of the United States
when sitting in North Carolina, certainly
recognized that she is State of the Union,
and also, State in which no insurrection eI-
lists. A Constitutional amendment now forms
portion Of the organic law of the United
States, after having been ratified since the
end of the rebellion, by the States, now de-
graded by Congressional legislation with the
names of Districts, and placed under the rule
Of military commanders. The President has
declared that peace is restored in all of the
States, and even Congress has declared in
the Reconstruction Acts that the so-called, Dis
tricts are States. If they are States, even if
the Reconstruction Acts are Constitutional
Congress is hound, until the reorganization
of their governments to be framed under those
acts to see that they are ruled by their own
organic laws. They certainly have not perish
ed with our brothers, sons and friends. They
them, no act done without their sanction, will
ever be sanctioned by the lberty-loving por
tion of the American people or the Courts
of justice
The District Commanders have declared who
shall and who shall not be jurors. The con-
stitutions and laws of the Southern States
which are now called Military Districts,
also hare similar declarations. The laws pro-
mulgated BY the District Commanders vary
from the laws on the Statute books Of those
States Which will the Supreme Court sustain:
Which will the people of the United States in
sist on having observed? Does any lawyer
North or South, believe that criminal con-
vcted in South Carolina by jury on which
negro sits to-day could lawfully be hung;
Would any sentence of court which may sit
under the military orders contrsvening the
laws of the State be binding! Would not the
writ of haJeas corpus open wide the doors of
every penitentiary to every rascal so convicted,
whenever that application can be heard with
out fear of bayOnet unseating the judge, who
may give an honest decision {? 1t is idle to talk
about acting outside of the Constitution The
Constitution is the law of the land, and it is TO
be earnestly desired that the day is not far dis
lant when judges and people will alike do it
reverence and return to its principles When
that day comes the present will stand on trial,
and will be judged by the whole country as it
has been judged in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Granting that District Commanders have not
acutod tho nowers Given to them hv the