The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1867-12-04

States; 10 regulate the WnOle aumlnlS-
tration of their domestic and local af'
fairs according to the mere will Of
strange and irresponsible agents, sent
among them for that purpose-these are
powers not granted to the Federal Gov,
ernment, ortO any one ofits branches. Not
being granted, we violate our trust by
assuming them as palpably as we would
by acting in the face of positive inter
dict; for the Constitution forbids ms tc
do whatever it does not affirmatively au'
thorize, 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 dangerous Of
political crimes. By that crime the
euemies of free government in all ages
have worked out their designs against
public liberty and private right. II
leads directly aud Immediately to the
establishment of absolute rule; for un,
delegated power is always unlimited
and unrestrained.
MILITARY RULE FATAL TO REPUBLICAN
.. GOVERNMENT.
Tie acts of Congress in question are
not only Objectionable for their assump.
tion of ungranted power, but many OF
their provisions are in conflict with the
direct prohibitions of the Constitution.
The Constitution commands that a re-
publican form of government shall be
guaranteed to all the States; that no
person shall be deprived of life, liberty,
or property without due pro cess 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 at
tainder shall be passed even against a
single individual. Yet the system of
measures established by these acts of
Congress does totally subvert and de-
strey the form as well IS the
substance of republican government
in the ten States to which they
apply. 1t binds them hand and
foot in absolute slavery, and subjects
them to a strange and hostile power,
more unlimited apd 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 gov
ernment is always most careful to pro-
| tect. 1t denies the hdbeds corpus and the
trial by jury. Personal freedom, pro-
perty and life, if assailed by the pas
sion, the prejudice. or the rapacity ofthe
ruler, have no security whatever. 1t
has the effect of bill of attainder, or
bill of pains and penalties, not upon "a
few individuals, but upon whole masses,
including the millions who inhabit the
subject States, and even their unborn
children. These wrongs, being express
ly 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 i'll States, Territories,
or districts.
BRIGADIER GOVERNMENT UNREASoNBLE
AS A PUNISHMENT.
have no desire to save from the pro-
per and just consequences of their great
crime those who engaged in rebellion
against the Government; but rs \ mode
of punishment the measures un-
der consideration are the NEST unrcason-
able that could be invented. Many
of those people are perfectly innocent;
many kept their fidelity to the Union
untainted to the last many were inca
pable of any legal offence; a large pro-
portion 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 to-
gether in one common doom. lndis-
criminate vengeance upon classes, sects,
and parties, or upon whole communl-
ties, for offences committed by portion
of them against the governments to
which they owed obedience, was COM
mon 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 I'M
prejudiced and right-minded men. The
punitive justice of this age, and espe-
cially of this country, does not consist
i'll stripping whole States of their liber-
ties, and reducing all their people, with
out distinction, to the condition of sla-
very. 1t deals separately with each in
diviGual, confines itself to the forms of
law, and vindicates its own purity by an
impartial examination of every case be-
fore competent judicial tribunal. ii
this does not satisfy all our desires with
regard to Southern rebels, let us console
ourselves by rejecting that free Con-
stitution, triumphant in war and un-
broken in peace, Is worth far more to us
and our children than the qualification
of any present feeling.
DEsPoTISM NEVER HALTs.
l am aware it is assumed that this
system of government for the Southern
States is net TO be perpetual. 1t is true
this military government is to be only
provisional, but it is through this tenn
porary evil that greater evil is to be
made perpetual. If the guarantees of
the Constitution can be broken provis-
ionally to serve temporary purpose,
and in part only Of the country, We
can destroy them everywhere and for
all time. Arbitrary measures often
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 sub
jects; 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 epslaved ut any moment: for if
the Constitution does not protect all, it
protects none.
NEGRO DOMINATION THE AvowED OBJ
JECT. .Ir....
1t is manifestly and avowedly the
object of these laws to confer upon ne
groes the privilege of voting, and to
disfranchise such q number of white
citizens as will give the former clear
majority at all elections in the Southern
States. This, to the minds of some per-
sons, is so important, that n violation
of the Constitution is justified as a
means of bringing it about. The NOR
ality is always false which excuses a
wrong because it proposes to accom-
plish q desirable end. We are not per-
mitted to do evil that good may come.
But in this case tho end itself is evil, as
well as the means. The subjugation Of
the States to negro domination would be