The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1867-07-18
COLUMBIA. !
Thursday Morning, July ls. 1867.
RecoIastruction--something New.


Mr.. s. s. Nicholas has recently is.
sued at Louisville, KY, a pamphlet
entitled Conservative Essays, Legal
and Political. In the opening arti-
Gle, the power and policy of exclud-
ing the Southern States from all par
ticipation in the Government, is
discussed in q philosophic and ca
tholic spirit, and the conclusion ar
rived at is, that the power in question
does not legally exist, and that the
policy is the worst that can possibly
be pursued. Federal authority over
the States which attempted to secede,
was only temporarily suspended, and
as the Union was never broken,
"there can be no such issue as that
of reconstruction" The preserva-
tion of the Union was, from the first,
the battle-cry of the North; the war
against the Confederates was neither
declared nor prosecuted as against o
foreign Government.
When the war ceased, and the peo-
pile of the South returned to their
allegiance, by accepting the condi-
tions announced in President John
sons proclamation, they became
wholly free from all taint of rebel
lion, and were restored to all their
rights as citizens. Judge Sprague,
in one of his decisions, declared that
"belligerent rights cannot be excr-
cised where there are no belligc-
rents;'' and again:
''No nation ever made conquests of
its own territory. If hostile power,
either from without or within, takes
and holds possession and dominion
over any portion of it's territory, and
the nation, by force of arms, expels
or overthrows the enemy, and sup
presses hostilities, it acquires no new
title, but merely regains the posses
sion of which it had been temporarily
deprived"
If these conclusions of enlightened
reason were universally recognized,
the question of reconstruction would
at once disappear, and the Constitu-
tlon and laws would be enforced from
one extremity of the country to the
other. The people of the South are
no longer hostile to the Government
or the flag; they are anxious only for
the exercise of their inalienable
rights-for security and the peaceful
pursuit of happiness. But it almost
appears impossible to make the real
facts OF the case apparent to those
who have possession of the reins of
authority; and whether they will or
not, our people are to be reconstruct
ed, under the programme already
published, under the pretext of qua
ranteeing to them ga republican form
of government. We're the natural
rights of the Southern people al
lowed. there would be no difficulty in
the case.
hIr. Nicholas seems to think that a
panacea for all our troubles might be
found in national convention.
wherein all the States would be rep
resented. Among the subjects sug-
gested as proper to be decided by
such a convention, are: Paper money
as legal tender, conscription, inter-
nal Improvements, power over public
lands, confscation, filing any tenn
porary vacancy in the Presidential
office, Adbeds corpus, the right to en-
forco martial law, conflict of power
between the President and Congress,
the pretended rights of secession or
notification, the citizenship of ne
groes, fixing the number of Judges
of the Supreme Court, sc. We would
be pleased to see such convention
meet, but doubt very much its utility
or any benefits that could be derived
therefrom. We simply must be Ia
watch and wait"
ALL EUROPE on BREEZE. The
Nlw York TJo,,o.