The Conservative. (M'connelsville, Ohio) 1866-1871, 1867-01-18

ResOlUed, ThRtthe States which lately
attempted to secede are still States in
the Union and have been recognized
as such by every department of the
Government. BY President Lincoln
who in the midst Of the war, invited
them to elect members of Congress-
By President Johnson in various proc
lamations and official acts. BY Con-
gress, which permitted Andrew John
son to sit in the Senate as a Senator
from Tennessee, by his Inauguration as
Vice President and President of the
Senate, and by the admission of mem
bers from Virginia, Tennessee and
Louisiana to sit IN tho House of Repre-
sentatives, after those States had pass
ed their ordinances of secession and
while the war was being carried on,
and which further recognized them as
States in the Union by the Congressio-
nal Apportionment act providing for
the due representation in Congress; by
various tax laws and especially the
District tax Act; by the resolutions
submitting Amendments to the Con.
~stitution for their approval-and by
various other acts and resolutions i'm
porting the same recognition, all
which were passed since the attempted
secession ofthese States. By the Judi
ciary of the United States which holds
Federal Courts in all Of those States,
and especially by the Supreme Court
which entertains jurisdiction of cases
coming from them, which it could not
do were they not in the Union. That
being thus in the Union, they stand on
an equal footing with their sister
States-States with unequal rights-a
thing unknown to the Constitution
That by the express terms Of the Con-
stitution, each State is entitled to have
two Senators and a due proportion Of
Representatives in the Congress, and
to vote at all elections of President and
Vice President. That though these
rights are subject'to interruption by a
state OF civil war, they cannot by civil
wal be extinguishcd, or in time of
peace, be 50 much as even suspended,
without a plain violation Of the Constr
tuition. Thatthe assent ofthree .fourths
of all the States, whether represented
in Congress or not, is essential to the
validity OF Constitutional amendments.
That Congress has no power to de
prlve u State Of its reserved rights and
reduce it to a territorial condition
That, therefore, the exclusion by the
so-called Congress of all representation
from ten States, the proposed exclusion
Of those States from all voice in the
next Presidential election, the threat
ened overthrow Of their State Govern.
ments, and reduction Of those States'to
tho condition of territories, are, each
and every one of them, unconstitution
al, revolutionary and despotic meas
ures, destructive not merely of the
rights Of those States, but also the
rights of every other State in the I'm
ion, That those measures arc parts Of
a plan to nullify the Constitution, to
erect a consolidated d~espotism on their
ruins, and 10 establish and perpetuate
a tyrannical rule of q minority over a
majority Of the American people
That the people cannot, without q loss
oftheir liberties, prosperity and honor,
submit to such a result; and We, there
fore, in the nope that the warning will
be needed, and the danger to our in
stitutions be peaceably averted do
solemnly warn the advocates. Of the
plan that 1t will not DO submitted to.
ResOired, That Congress is not an
cmnipotent law making power. That
the Constitution provides that no bill
shail became law without the appro.
val OF the President, unless it be pass
ed by two-thirds Of each House of Con
gress. That one Of the objects Of the
present SO called Congress in excluding
ten States from representation is to
pass bills by a two-thirds vote which
were all the States repre-
sented, could not so pass;
and thus TO virtually abolish the Con
stitutional provision aforesaid. That
if this precedent be acquiesced in,
there will be nothing to prevents bare
majority Of Congress, at any time in
the future from multiplying the Consti-
tutional veto of the President and
usurping uncontrolled Legislative power
by an exclusion of the minority from
their seats. That the exclusion of
even q single State might give the on
troll, and a pretext for such an exclu-
sion would not be wanting to an un-
scrupulous and revolutionary party.
ResoIred, That the people, and es-
pecialIy those Of the agricultural
States, have suffered too long the exac-
tons Of high protective tariffs, and, as
the representatives of an agricultural
and laboring population, we demand
that their substances shall no longer
be extorted from them in order to
fill the pockets Of the Eastern monopo-
lists.
Resolusd, That unequal taxation is
contrary to the first principles OF
Justice and sound policy; and We call