Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1867-05-23
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ment of the United States is administered
in accordance with tho principles Of the
Constitution, claims that which IS not
true in point Of fact. Under the forms
of the old instrument, the principles oil
new one ure administered. Suppose, as
a contemporary suggests, the following, or
.ome similar form Of amendment TO the
Constitution, be submitted to the people,
or. as the will of more than half OF the
people is entirely ignored, adopted at
once by Congress, and promulgated by
that body as part Of the Constitution;
ARTICLE =.
Sec / In all future elections in the
limited States, no one who is not loyal
citizen shall vote for any officer, or be
voted for for any Office.
Sec. 2, Congress shall define by law
who is and who is not loyal citizen
nroyided, however, that every negro
shall be deemed to be loyal.
ARTICLE :.
Sec l. The supreme power Of govern
ment Is hereby vested in Congress, whose
functions are executive and Judicial, as
we'll as legislative.
Sec. 2. In the exercise Of its supreme
power, Congress may, of right, enact
laws TO supersede the Constitutions OF
the several States, and the laws enacted
in conformity thereto, and by such acts
Congress may delegate its sovereign
power to military satraps, whose acts,
however arbitrary, despotic and tyran.
meal, shall have all the force OF acts OF
Congress, and be valid and effective as
acts of Government
Sec. 3. The Congress as at present
constituted may refuse to admit to either
of its Houses any person elected thereto
who is not recorded as loyal, or who
might be suspected of holding different
opinions, politically, from the majority
of the present members
Sec 4. If any person shall be admit
ted as a member to either House of Con-
gress, whose political opinions do not
accord in sentiment with those OF the
majority, Congress shall have the power
TO get rid of such member by expulsion,
who NAV be ousted by direction OF the
he may claim to be a member.
ARTICLE -.
Sec |. In States where the negro pop.
ulation constitute one.third or more OF
the whole people, Congress shall provide
for the enfranchsement Of the negroes
and for the disfranchisement of such a
pertion of the whites as will place the
control of the State Government and OF
municipal governments therein, In the
power of the negro race.
Sec. 2. 1t shall also be the duty and In
the power of Congress to deprive the
white people in such States of their prop
erty, and appropriate such portion OF 1t
to the use of the members and their par
tisan friends as can conveniently be ear
ried away, and to divide among the ne
groes such other portions of it as Con-
gress may see fit to dispose of in that
manner
On the above, the paper, quoted from
makes this comment. Is it not startling
and true2
Is not this, practically, the Constitu-
ton of the United States now, or rather
is it not the principle on which the peo-
pie are governed, and on which the Gov
eminent is conducted No one will
gainssy it; and yet people generally be-
iieve, without rejecting on the real
relation they sustain to the Government,
that they are still living in a country
whose government is OF Constitutional
form, established so originally by the free
will and consent of the people of that
day, and acquiesced in ever since by |
succeeding generations.
Theoretically we have Constitution;
the Constitution, in fact, formed by the
convention over which Washington pre-
sided, and approved by the free will and
judgment of the people, after thorough
scussion-amended by the Jealous and
prophetic forethought which antici-
pated the usurpations of power we
are all now experiencing-but prac-
tically, we have just such Government |
as would be legitimate only under such |
a Constitution as would vest in Congress
power; as would require every
white man to prove his loyalty; as would
invest the inferior race with supreme |
political power; as would invest in nail
itary satraps the attributes of SOY
ereignty, and endow them with the evil
of demons in the exercise
of these attributes.
Such is our Government as it now is.
Is this what the Constitution makes it |