Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1867-03-14

i oFcf polH white ana cOlOred persons
1t may be answered to this that the Off
GERS of the army are too magnanimous just
and humane to Cypress and trample upon
asubjugated people. do not doubt that
army officers are as we'll entitled to- this
kind OF confidence as any other class of
men. But the history of the world has
been written in vain, if it do not teach us
that unrestrained! authority can never be
/ safely trusted in human hands. 1t is al
most sure to be more or less abused under
any circumstances, and it has always re-
suited in gross tyranny where the rulers
who exercise it are strangers to their sub
jects, and come among them as the repre-
sentatives Of foreign power, and more es-
! pecially when the power that sends them
is unfriendly. Governments closely rescm-
bling that here proposed have been fairly
tried in Hungary and Poland, and the suf-
fering endured by those people reused the
sympathes Of the entire world It was
| tried in ireland, and though tempered at
/ first by principles of English law, it gave
birth to cruelties SO atrocous that they are
never recounted without just indignation.
The French Convention armed its deputies
with this power, and sent them to5the Sou
thern departments of the Republic The
massacres, murders, and other atrocities
which they committed show what the pas
sions of the ablest men in the most civil
lied society will tempt them to do'when
wholly unrestrained by law. IT, j.
The men of ouriraceiin every age have
struggled to tie up the hands of their Gov
ernments and keep them within the law );
because their own experience OF all man.
kind taught them that rulers could not be
relied on to concede those rights which
they were not legally bound to respect
The head of a great empire has sometimes
governed it with mild and paternal sway;
but the kindness of an Irresponsible depu-
ty never yields what the law does not ex-
tort from him. Between such master
and the people subjected to his domination
there can be nothing but enmity; he pun
ishes them if they resist his authority, and
if they submit to it, he hates them for
their servility. 81. noaaM4s 95 e.
come now to question which is, if
possible, still more important. Have we
the power to establish and carry into exc
cution measure like this Ianswer, Ger
tainly not. if we derive our authority from
the Constitution, and if we are bound by
the limitations which it imposes. sr
This proposition is perfectly clear-that
no branch of the Federal Government, ex-
ecutive, legislative, or judicial, can have
any just powers, except those which it de-
rives through and exercises under the or
ganc law Of the Union. Outside of the
Constitution, we have no legal authority
more than private citizens, and within it
we have only SO much as that instrument
gives us. This broad principle limits all
our functions, and applies to all subjects.
1t protects not only the citizens of the
States which are within the Union, but it
shields every human being who comes or
is brought under our jurisdiction. We
have no right to do in one place, more
than another, that which the Constitution
says we shall not do at all. If, therefore,
the Southern States were in truth out of
Union, we could not treat their people in
way which the fundamental law forbds.
Some persons assume that the success
of our arms in crushing the opposition
which was made in some of the States to
the execution of the Federal laws, reduced
those States and all their people-the inno-
cent as we'll as the guilty the condition
of vassalage, and gave us power over
them which the Constitution does not be-
stow, or define, or limit. No fallacy can
be more transparent than this. Our VIC
tories subjected the insurgents to legal obe-
dience, not to the yoke of an arbitrary des-
potism. When an absolute sovereign re-
duces his rebelhous subjects, he may deal
with them according TO his pleasure, be.
cause he had that power before. But
when limited monarch puts down an in
surrection, he must still govern according
to law. If an instruction should take
place in one of our States against the au-
thority of the State Governments, and end
In the overthrow of those who planned it,
would that take away the rights Of all the
people of the counties where it was favored
by part or majority of the population?
Could they, for such reason be wholly
outlawed or deprived of their representa-
ton in the Legislature? [ have always
fcontended that the Government Of the Il.
States was sovereign within it's cohstitu-
tional sphere; that it executed It's laws,
like the States themselves, by applying its
coerciye power directly to individuals
and that it could put down instruction
with the same effect as State, and no
other. The opposite doctrine is the worst
heresy of those who advocated secession,
and cannot be agreed to without admitting
that heresy to be right sa@
/ Invasion, insurrection, rebellion, and
domestic violence were anticipated when
the Government was framed, and the means
of rcpeiling and suppressiDg them were
wisely provided for in the Constitution
but it was not thought necessary to declare
that the States in which they might occur
should be expelled from the Union Re-
bellions, which were invariably suppressed
occurred prior RI tbat ont If N hiab fboso