The Portland daily press., 1867-12-04

We can exercise it only by nsurpatiou ana |
usorpatlon Is the most dangerous of polttc3l
elllnes, by that crime the enemies o. ne, nee
government IN all ages have worked out their
designs AGAINST public liberty and private
right. 1t leads directly and Immediately TO
the establishment of absolute fule-1or uhdei-
egated power is always unlimited ana unre-
strained. -a- zs-ss
The acts of Congress in'question are not on
" Objectionable for their assumption of un-
granted power hut many of their provisions
are in conflict with the direct prohibitions of
the Constitution. The Constitution commands
that a republican form of government shall be
guaranteed to all the States; that no person
shall be deprived of life liberty or property
without due process of law, arrested without
Judicial warrant, or punished without a fair
trial before an impartial jury; that the prvi-
lege of habeas corpus shall not be denied in
time OF peace, and that no bill of attainder
shall be passed even against o single indiyidu-
al-yet the system of measures established by
these acts of Congress does totally subvert and
destroy the form as well as he substance of
republican government in the ten States to
which they apply. II binds them hand and
foot in absolute slavery, and subjects them to
strange and hostile power more unlimited
and more likely to be adjusted than any OF ler
now known among civilized men. 1t tram
pies down all those rights in which the es-
senee OF liberty consists, and which free gov
eminent Is always most careful to protect. 1t
denies the habeas corpus and the trial by Jury.
Personal freedom, property and life, if assailed
by the passion, the prejudice or the rapacity
OF the ruler, have no security whatever. 1t has
the effect of bill of attainder or bill of pains
and penalties, not upon few individuals, but
upon whole masses, including the millions
who inhabit the subject States, and evtn their
unborn children. These wrongs being ex-
pressly forbidden cannot be constitutionally
inflicted upon any portion of our people, no
matter how they may have come within our
jurisdiction, and no matter whether they live
in States, Territories or Districts. L have no
desire to save from the proper and just conse-
quences of their great crimes those who en-
gagged in rebellion against the Government, but
as mode of punishment the measures under
consideration are the most unreasonable that
could be invented. Many of these people are
perfectly innocent; many kept their fidelity to
the Union untalnted to the last; many were
incapable of any legal offence; and large pro 4
portion even Of the persons able to bear arm 4
were forced into rebellion against their will, 4
and OF those who are guilty with their own con-
sent, the degrees of guilt are as various as the
shades OF their character and temper. But
these acts of Congress confound them all to- 4
gether in common doom. Indiscrminate ven
geance upon classes, sects, and parties, or up 1
on whole communities, for offenci committed 4
by portion of them against the Government
to which they owed obedience, was common in
the barbarous ages of the world. But Christ
iality and civilization have made such prog
ress that recourse to punishment so cruel
and unjust would meet with the condemnation
of all unprejudiced ard right-minded men
The punitive justice of this age and especially
of this country, does not consist in stripping
whole States of their liberties, and reducing
their people, without distinction, to the cond-
ton of slavery. 1t deals separately with each
individual; confinesIitself to the forms of law,
and vindicates its own purity by an impartial
examination OF every case before a competent
and judicial tribunal. IF this does not satisfy
all our desires with regard to Southern rebels
let us console ourselves by rejecting that
free Constitution triumphant in war and I'M
broken in peace is worth far more to us and
our children than the qualification of any pres
ent feeling.
1 am aware it is assumed that this system of
government for the Southern States is NOT To
he perpetual. 1t IS true this military Govern
ment is to be only PROVISIONAL but it is through
this temporary evil that a greater evil is to be
made perpetual. If the guarantees of the
Constitution can be broken Professionally to
OF the country, we can destroy them every
where and for all time, Arbitrary measures Of
ten change, but they generally change for the
worse. 1t is the curse OF despotism that it has
no haltIng place; the intermitted exercise of
its power. brings no sense of security to its
subjects, for they can never know what more
they willbe called to endure when its red
right hand is armed to plague them again.
NOR IS 1t possible to conjecture how or where
power unrestrained by law, may seek its next
victim. The States that are still free NAV be
eHslaved at any moment, for if the Constitu-
ton does not protect all, it protects none 1t
is avowedly the object of this law to confer
upon negroes the privilege of voting, and to
disiranchlse such number OF white citizens
as will give the former a clear majority at all
the elections in the Southern States. This to
the minds OF some persons, 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
DrOD0SpS TO arcnnnliqh a dQeipahla and "a
are not permitted to do evil that good may
come. But in this case the end itself is evil
as well as the means. The subjugaton of the
States to negro domination would be worse
than the military despotism under which they
are now suffering. 1t was believed beforehand
that the people would endure any amount Of
military 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 es-
tabllslied by act of Congress and the military
off1cers were commanded to superintend the
process OF clothing the negro race with the
political privileges torn from white men. The
blacks in the South are entitled to be we'll and
humanely governed and to have the protection
OF just laws for all their rights of person and
property If it were practicable at this time
10 give them government exclusively their
own, under which they might manage their
own affairs in their own way, it would become
grave question whether we ought to dc SO or
US to save them from themselves. But under
the circumstances that is only speculative
point. 1t is not proposed merely that they
shall govern themselves, but that they shall
rule the white race make and administer State
laws, elect Presidents and members of Con-
gress, and shape to greater or less extent the |
future destiny OF the whole country. Would |
such trust and power be safe in such hands !
The peculiar qualities which should character
ize any people who are fit to decide upon the
management of public affairs for a great State |
have seldom been combined 1t is the glory |
Of white men to know that they have had
these qualities in sufficient measure TO build |
upon this continent a great political fabric |
end to preserve its stability for more than
ninety years, while in every other part of the |
world all similar experiments have failed. |
But II anything can be proved by known
facts, II all reasoning upon evidence is not |
abandoned, 1t must be acknowledged that in
the progress of nations negroes have shown
less capacity for government than any other
race of people. No Independent government
of any form has been successful in their hands |
On the contrary, wherever they have been lett |
to their own devices they have shown con-
slant tendency to relapse into barbarism. In
the Southern States, however, Congress has
undertaken to confer upon them the privilege
of the ballot. Just released from slavery, it |
may be doubted whether as class they know
more than their ancestors how to organize and
regulate civil society. Indeed, it is admitted
that the blacks of the South are not only re-
CARELESS of the rights of property but so ut
terly ignorant of public affairs, that their vot-
ing can consist in nothing more than carrying
a ballot to the place where they are directed
to deposit it, ,s ~ n.
NEGRO SUFFRAGE
T. L need not emind you that the exercise of |
the elective franchise is the highest attribute
OF an American citizen and that when guided
BY virtue, intelligence, patriotism and prop
Ell appreciation of our free institutions it con- |
StltilteS the trUp haSic Of q 1amnpratio of
government in which the sovereign power is
lodged in the body Of the people. A trust, ar
tihcaly created, not for its own sake, but sole
" as means of promoting the general well
fare, its influence for good must necessarily de-
pend upon the elevated character and true al
leglance OF the elector. 1t ought, therefore, to
be reposed in none except those who are fitted, |
morally and mentally, to administer it well, |
for II conferred upon persons who do not just
~ estimate ITS value, and who are Indifferent |
as to its results, twill only serve as means OF
placing power in the hands of the unprinci- |
pied and ambitious, and must eventuate in the
complete destruction of that liberty of which |
1T should be the most powerful Conservation I |
have, therefore, before urged upon your atten-
ton the great danger to be unprecedented from |
an untimely extension of the elective franchise |
to any new class in our country, especially |
when the large majority of that class, in WELD
ing the power thus placed in their hands, can |
not be expected correctly to comprehend the |
duties and responsibilities which pertain to
suffrage. Yesterday, as it were, four millions
of people were held in a condition of slavery
that had existed for generations; to-day they
are freemen, and are assumed by law to be cit
liens. 1t cannot be presumed, from their pre-
vlouS condition OF Servitude, that as a class |
they are as well-informed as to the nature OF
our Government as the intelligent foreigner
who makes our land the home of his choice
In the case of the latter, neither residence of
five years, and the knowledge of our nstitu-
tons which it gives, nor attachment to the
principles OF the Constitution, are the only