The Ebensburg Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1865-1871, 1867-12-12

dence of men. 1t would make the war
not only failure, but fraud.
Being sincerely convinced that these
views are correct, 1 would be unfaithful
tc my duty if l did not recommend the
repeal of those Acts of Congress which
place ten of the Southern States under
the domination of military masters. If
calm reflection shall satisfy majority of
your honorable bodies that the acts re-
ferred co are not only violation of ma
tional faith, but in direct conflict with the
Constitution, dare not permit myself to
doubt that you will Immediately strike
them from the statute-book. To demon
strate the unconstitutional character, of
those acts, / need do no more than refer
to their general provisions. 1t must be
seen at once that they are not authorized
to dictate what alterations shall be made
In the constitutions of the several States,
to control the elections of State Legisla-
lures, State officers, and members of Con-
gress, and electors of President and Vice
President, by authority declaring who
shall vote and who shall be excluded from
that privilege, 10 dissolve State Legisla-
lures, or prevent them from assembling,
to dismiss judges aud other civil fuuc-
tionaries of States, and appoint others
without regard to State law, to organize
and operate all political machinery of
States, to regulate the whole administra-
tion of their domestic and local affairs
according to the mere will of strange and
irresponsible agents sent among them tor
that purpose. These are powers not gran
ted to the Federal Government or to any
one of its branches, and not being granted,
we violate our trust by assuming them as
palpably as We would by acting in the face
OF positive interdict, for the Constitution
torbids 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 :he Constitution, we can
exercise it only through usurpation, and
usurpation Is the most dangerous of polit-
ical crimes. BY that crime the enemies
Of free government in all ages have work
ed out their designs against public liberty
and private right. 1t leads directly and
| immediately to the establishment of abso-
lutte rule, for un delegated power is always
unlimited and unrestrained. The acts of
| Congress In question are not only objec-
| tionable for their assumption of ungranted
power, but maby OF their provisions are in
conflict with the direct prohibitions of the
| Constitution. The Constitution commands
| that a republican form of government
| shall be guaranteed to all the States that
no person shall be deprived of life, hber-
ty, or property without due process of
| law, or be arrested without a judicial
warrant, or punished without fair trial
before an impartial jury; that the privi-
| legc 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 Con-
| gress does wholly subvert and destroy the
| form as we'll as the substance of republi-
can government iii 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 unlim-
tied and more likely to be abused than
any other now known among civilized
men. 1t trampes down all those rights
in which the essence of liberty consists,
ard which free government is always
most careful to protect. 1t denies the
habeas corpus and the trial by jury
Personal freedom, property, and life, if
assailed by the passion, the prejudice, or
the rapacity of the ruler, have no security
/ whatever. 1t has the effect of bill of
attainder, or bill of pains aud penalties,
not upon few individuals but upon whole
masses, including the millions who inhab-
it the subject States, aud even their un-
| born children. These wrongs, being
expressly forbidden, cannot be constitu-
tionally inflicted upon any portion of our
| people, no matter how they may have
come within our jurisdiction, and whether
| they live In States, Territories or districts.
l have nc desire to save from the proper
and just consequences of their great crime
those who engaged in rebellion against the
| Government, but as q mode of punish
ment the measures under consideration
are the most unreasonable that could be
invented Many of those people are per-
fectly innocent; many kept their fidelity
to the Union untainted to the last many
were incapable of any legal offense; a
large proportion even of the persons able
! to bear arms were forced into rebellion
against their will and OF those who are
| guilty witt. their own consent, the degrees
of guilt are as various as the shades OF
their character or temper. But these acts
of Congress confound them all together in
one common doom. Indiscrimlnate ven
geance upon classes, sects, and parties, or
! upon whole communities, for oHenses
committed by portion of them against
the Government to which they owed obe-
| dience, was common In the barbarous ages
of the world. But Christianity and civil
izatien have made such progress that re-
course to punishment so cruel and unjust