The Hancock Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Ohio) 1857-1870, 1867-12-06


Estates that 30 person shalt be de.
Dprived Of life, liberty, or property,
without due process of law !; arrested
without judicial warrant, or pun
ished without 3 fair trial before an
impartial jury; that the privilege OF
habeas corpus shall not be denied in
. time of peace; and that no bill Of at
: tainder shall be passed, even against
a single individual. Yet that system
of measures, established by these
acts Of ofCongress, does totally subverI
and destroy the form as well SIS the
substance of Republican Government
in ten States to which they apply
1t binds them hand and foot in abso
lutte slavery, and subjects them to a
strange aud hostile power more un-
limited and more likely to be abused
than anyother now known among civ
ilizei men. 1t tramples down all
these rights in which the essence of
liberty consists, and which free gov
eminent is always most careful to
protect. Itdenies habeas corpus and
trial by jury. Personal freedom,
property and lie, if assailed by the
passion, prejudice or capacity Of the
rnler, 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
are inhabitants Of the subject States,
and even their unborn children.
These wrongs being expressly for
bidden, cannot be constituti0nally
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. ] have no
desire to save from the proper and
just consequences of their great
crimes those who engaged in the re-
oelion against the Government, hut
as mode of punishment, the meas
ures under consideration are the most
unreasonable that could be inven-
ted. Many Of those people are per-
fectly innocent; many kept their
fidelity to the Union untainted to
the last, many are incapable of any
legal offense. A large portion Of
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 guilt are as various as the
shades Of their character and temper.
But these acts Of Congress confound
them all together. One common
indiscriminate vengeance upon clas-
ses, sects and parties, or upon whole
communities, for offenses committed
by portion Of them against govern
.ments. to which they owed obedience,
was common in ,barbarous ages of
the world, but Christianity and civil
cation have made such progress that
recourse to q punishment so cruel
and unjust would meet with the con-
demnation Of all unprejudiced and
right minded men. The punitive
Justice of this age, especially Of this
country, does rot consist In stripping
whole States Of their liberties and
reducing all their people without dis
tinction to the condition of slavery.
1t deals separately with each indi-
yidual, confines itself to forms of law
and Yindicates its own purity BY an
Impartial examination of every case
before competent judicial tribunal.
II this does not satisfy all our de-
sires with regard to the Southern reb-
els, let us, console ourselves by le-i
fecting that a free Constitution tri-
umphant in war and unbroken inl
peace is worth far more to US and
our children than q qualification of
any present feeling. h.os ns-, - |
I am aware it is assumed that this |
system of government for the South
ern States is not to be perpetual. It'll
is true that this military government
is to be only Professionally, 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 serve
a temporary purpose, and in a part
OF the country, we can destroy them
everywhere and for all time. Ar
bitrary measures often change. hut
they generally change for the worse.
1t is the curse of despotism that it
has no haltlng place intermitted for
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 Its red
right hand is armed to plague them
again. Nor is it possible to coDjec-
.ure how, or why power unrestrained
BY law, may seek its next victims.
States, that are still free, may be en-
slayed at any moment, for if the Con-
stttntion does not protect all, it pro-
,ects none, 1t is manifestly and
ayoMedly the object of these laws to
confer upon the negro the privilege
Of voting, and to disfranchise such |
! number Of white citizens as will
give the former a clear majority at
al elections in the Southern States.
This to the minds Of SONG persons is
20 important that q violation of the
Constitution is justified as means
Of bringing it about. That morality
s always false which excuses q wrong
because it proposes to accomplish q
desirable end. We are not permitted
20 do evil that good may come But
n this case the end itself is evil as
veil as the means. The subjugation
If States to negro domination would ,
,e worse than the military despotism
lnder which they are now suffering.
It was believed beforehand that the
people would endure any amount of I
military oppression, for any length
If time, rather than degrade them
selves by subjugation to the negro
ace. Therefore they have been left l
Without choice. Negro Suffrage
vas established by act of Congress,
md the military officers were COM
handed to superintend the process {
If clothing the negro race with the
political privilege to govern white {
men. The Blacks in the South are I
entitled to be well and humanely l.
and to have the protection
IF just laws for all their rights to
person and property. % &
If it were practicable at this time to K
yive them a government exclusively L
heir own, under which they might =,
manage their own affairs in their own {
way, it would become grave 9ues- t