The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1867-03-07

thics Of the entire world. 1t was tried II
| Ireland, and, though tempered at first by
| principles of English law, it gave birth to
cruelties so atrocious that they arc never re
| counted without just Indignation. Iht
French Convention armed its deputies VIII
| this power, and sent them to the Southern Gle
partmcnts of the republic. The massacres
murders, and other atrocities winch they
committed show what the passions of the
ablest men in the most civilized society will
tempt them to do when wholly unrcstralnct
by law.
The men of our race in every age have
struggled to tic up the hands of their Gov
crnmcnts and keep them within the law be
cause their own experience OF all mankind
taught them that rulers could not be relied
o.. 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 kind
ness of an irresponsible deputy never yields
what the law does not eXtort from him. Be-
tween such master and the people subject
ed to his domination there can be nothing
but cnnlity he Furnishes them if they resist
his authority, and, if they submit to it, he
hates them for their scrvility.
come now to question which is, If pos
sible, still more important. Have we the
IA measure like this? l answer, certainly
not if we derive our authority from the Con-
stitution, and if we are bound by the limi-
tations which it imposes.
This proposition is perfectly clear-that
no branch of the Federal Government, exec
utive, legislative or judicial, can have any
Just powers, except those which it derives
through, and exercises under, the organic
law of the Union. Outside of the Constitu-
ton, we have no legal authority more than
private citizens, and within it we have only
50 much as that instrument gives us. This
broad principle limits ali our functions, and
applies to all subjects. It protects not only
tie citizens of States which are within the
Union. but it shields every human being
who comes or is brought under our .jurlsdic
ton. We have no right to do in one place,
more than another, that which the Constitu-
ton says we shall not do at all. Ii, there
fore, the Southern States were in truth out
of the Union, we could not treat their peo-
pie in a way which the fundamental law for
bids.
Some persons assume that the success of
our arms in crushing the opposition which
was made i'll some of the States to the exc
cution of the Federal laws, reduced those
States and all their people-the innocent rs
laec, and gave us q power over them which
the Constitution does not bestow, or define,
or limit. No fallacy can be more transpa-
rent than this Our victories subjected the
Insurgents to legal obedience, not to the yoke
Of an arbitrary despotism. When an abso-
Lutte sovereign reduces his rebellious subjects,
he may deal with them according to his
pleasure, because he had that power before.
But when limited monarch puts down an
instruction, he must still govern according
to law. IF an instruction should take place
in one of our States against the authority of
the State government and end IN the over
throw of those who planned it, would that
take away the rights of all the people of the
counties where it was favored by a part or a
majority of the population Could they, for
such reason, be wholly outlawed and de-
prived of their representation in the Legis-
laturc have always commended that the
Government Of the United States was soTer-
eign within its constitutional sphere; that it
executed its laws. like the States themselves,
by applying its cOercive powers directly to
Individuals and that it could put down in |
surrection with the same effect as State
and no other. The opposite doctrine is the |
worst heresy of those who advocated seces- |
sion. and cannot be agreed to without adj |
uniting that heresy to be right.
Invasion, Instruction, rebellion. and do |
meStic violence were anticipated when the |
Government was framed, and the means of |
and suppressing them We're 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. Rebellions, which !
were invariably suppressed, occurred prior to
that cut of which these questions grow but |
the States continued to exist and the Union |
unbroken. In Massachusetts, in ,
Pennsylvania, in Rhode Island, and in New
y ork. at different periods in our history. Vi
olent and armed opposition to the United
States was carried on but the relations of !
those States with the Federal Government
were not supposed to be interrupted or
changed thereby, after the rcbcllious portions
OF their population were defeated and put
down. 1t is true that in these earlier cases
there was no formal expression Of a deter
to withdraw from the Union. but
it IS also true that in the Southern States
the ordinances Of secession were treated by
all the friends Of the Union as mere nulities.
and are now acknowledged to be so by the
States themselves. five admit that they
had any force or validity, or that they did in
fact take the States in which they were pas
sed out Of the Union, we sweep from under
our feet all the grounds upon which we stand
in iustifJing the use of Federal force to
maintain the integrity of the Government.
This is bill passed by Congress in time
Of peace There is not in any one OF the |
States brought under its operation either |
war or instruction. The laws of the States I
and of the Federal Government are all in I'M
and harmonious operation. The |
courts, State and Federal, are open and in
the full exercise of their proper authority
Over every State comprised in these five mil
itary districts, life, liberty and property are
secured by State laws and Federal laws, and |
force and everywhere obeyed. What, then,
is the ground on which this bill proceeds |
The title of the bill announces that 1t is in
tended "for the more efficient government"
Of these ten States. 1t is recited by way of |
preamble that no legal State governments,
50 nor adequate protection for life or proper
ty," exists in those States, and that peace |
and good order should be thus enforced
The first thing which arrests attention upon
these recitals, which prepare the way for
martial law, is this-that the only founda-
ton upon which martial law can exist under
our form of Government is not stated or so
much as pretended. Actual war, foreign in
vasion, domestic instruction of these
appear and none of these in fact exist. 1t is
not even recited that any sort of war or in
is threatened. Let US pause here
to consider upon this question of constitu-
+;ooo1 Io,p ord bo Of Coprrrocc