Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1867-12-10

administration OF their domestic and local
affairs according to the mere will of strange
and irresponsible agents, sent among them
for that purpose-these are powers not
granted to the Federal Government or to
any one of it's branches. Not being gran
ted, we violate our trust by assuming them
as palpably as we would by acting in the
face of a positive interdict; for the Constitu
tion forbids us to do whatever it does not af
frmatively authorize either by express words
or by clear implication IF the authority
we desire to use does not come to us through
the Constitution, we can exercise it only by
usurpation and usurpation is the most dan
gerous of political crimes By that crime the
enemies of freegovernment in all ages have
worked outtheir designs against putlis liberty
and private right It leads directly and i'm
mediately to the establishment of absolute
rule for undelegated power is always un-
limited and unrestrained
The acts of Congress in question are not
only Objectionable for their assumption Of
ungranted power, but many of their provis-
ions are in conflict with the direct prohbi-
tions of the Constitution The Constitution
commands that a republican form of gov
ernment 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 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 attainder shall be passed
even against a 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 republi-
can government in the ten States to which
| they apply. It binds them hand and foot
| in absolute slavery, and subjects them to
strange and hostile power, more unlimited
and more likely to be abused than any other
now known among civilized men, 1t tramples
down all those rights in which the essence of
| liberty consists, and which free government
is always most careful to protect. 1t denies
the habeas corpus and the trial by jury. Per-
sonal freedom property, and life, if assailed
by the passion, the prejudice, Or the rapaci-
ty of the ruler, have no security whatever.
It has the effect of bill Of attainder, or bill
of pains and penalties, not upon few indi-
viduals, but upon whole masses, including
the millions who inhabit the subject States,
and even their unborn children. These
wrongs, being expressly 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.
/ have no desire to save from the proper
and just consequences Of their great crime
those who engaged in rebellion against the
Government; but as a mode Of punishment
the measures under consideration are the
most unreasonable that could be invented.
( Many of those people are perfectly innocent;
many kept their fidelity to the Union un-
tainted to the last; many were incapable of
any legal offence; large proportion even
Of the persons able to bear arms were forced
into 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 in one common doom. Indiscrim-
mate vengeance upon classes, sects, and
pa rites, or upon whole communities, for Of
fences committed by portion of them against
the governments to which they owed obedi-
ence, was common in the barbarous ages of
the world But Christianity and civilization
have made such progress that recourse to a
punishment so cruel and unjust would meet
with the condemnation of all unprejudiced
and right-minded men. The punitive JUS
lice of this age. and especially of this coun-
try, does not consist in stripping whole States
of their liberties, and reducing all their peo-
ple without distinction, to the condition of
slavery. It deals separately with each in
dividual, confines itself to the forms of law,
and vindicatcs its own purity by an impair
tial examination Of every case before a COM
pentent judicial tribunal. If this does not
satisfy all our desires with regard to South
ern rebels. let US console ourselves by reflect
ing that free Constitution, triumphant in
war and unbroken in peace, is worth far
more to us and our children than the gratif-
cation of any present feeling.
am aware it is assumed that this system
of government for the Southern States is
not to be perpetual It is true this military
government is to be only provisional, but it
is through this temporary evil that greater
evil is to be made perpetual. IF the guar
antees Of the Constitution can be broken
Professionally to serve temporary purpose,
and in part only of the country, we can
destroy them everywhere and for all time.
Arbitrary measures often chan eoc, but they
generally change for the worse. It is~,tbe
curse of despotism that it has no hafhg
place. The intermitted exercise of it's pow
er 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 conjecture how or where
power, unrestrained by law, may seek its
next victims. The States that are still free
may be enslayed at any moment; for if the
Constitution does not protect all, it protects
none.
It is manifestly and avowedly the object
of these laws to confer upon negroes the
privilege of voting, and to disfranchise such
a number of white citizens as will give the
former clear majority at all elections in
the Southern States, This, to the minds Of
some persons is so important, that a viola
ton of the Constitution is justified as a
means Of bringing it about. The morality
is always false which excuses wrong be-
cause it proposes to accomplish a desirable
end We 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
subjugation of the States to negro domina-
ton would be worse than the military des