The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-08-31
The Issue between the PresIdent and the
People.

The Issue between the PreaIdent and the
People.
From the N. Y. Tribune.
The worst deeds-acts of the most fatal con-
sequence-are often committed in the holiest
name. James Buchanan acted on the prin-
ciple that if one portion of the Union secedes,
the other portion has no right of coercion; and
he appealed in proof to the object of the
peoples veneration-the Federal Constitution.
Had the people followed his lead, the South
would have had her own way. She would
have enforced her claim to take her property,
including her slave property, into any part of
the United States, and to use it there. The
American Union would have become a slave
empire. The great experiment of self-govern-
ment in North America would have proved
failure. But the people, whose common sense
is too strong for fine drawn sophistry, said -
1--WE have right to preserve our Union, peace
ably if we can, forcibly if we must" They went
to war, in spite of Buchanan's constitutional
argument. Senator Andrew Johnson sus-
tanned and justified the war. He was very
wrong then, or else he is very wrong now. If
war is justifable, as not in violation of the
Constitution, so also are its necessary Incl
dents. But the present state of things in the
South and the provisions enacted by Congress
for its regulation are, in the strictest sense in
cidents to the late civil war. Mr.. Johnson de-
clared it to be his duty, under his oath of
office, to veto these provisions; and ever since
his veto was overruled he has done what one
man may to defeat their operation. The rea-
son he gives is that they violate the Constitu-
tlon. That reason would be sound if the
people of the Southern States had never levied
war against the Government, and never by
that act, become public enemies.
But war gives new rights. War imposes
new duties. War annuls all previous treaties,
conventions, agreements, how solemn soever.
The rights which these secured during peace
are lost when war is waged to those who levy
it. The ordinary rights of war alone remain;
and these, during civil war like ours, do not
include protection under a Constitution which
it was the object of those who commenced that
war to destroy. By our Constitution the
home and effects of the citizen are inviolate,
except after warrant issued, upon probable
cause and under OATH specially describing the
premises. Does this apply to the house of
Rebel in an insurrectiOnary State The Con-
stitution declares that the citizen shall not be
deprived of life, liberty, or property, without
due process of law. But what process of law
did we serve on the COnfederates at An
tietam or Gettysburg before we opened a
battery on their ranks What process of law
preceded the confinement of our prisoners of
war, or our appropriation of the enemy's am
munition or commissary stores The Consti-
tuition is admirable in its place, but it does not
embrace all subjects. 1t has no article treat
ing of the rights of war. Its trainers we'll knew
that the nation might engage in war, foreign
or civil; but they knew, also, that for such
contingency there were rules provided outside
of the Constitution. They knew that we were
not only nation whose organic law was EN-
bodied in a written Constitution, but also one
8 - -, II H.
governing which spring from the common
consent and usage of that society. They knew
that we were bound by these laws, but they
| did not think it necessary or proper to insert
them in the Constitution.
| Mr.. Johnson alleges, in justification of the
exertiOns he has made, and is making to de-
feat the will of Congress, that the cOnstitu-
| tional rights of Southern citizens, suspended
only during war, revive as soon as the enemy
lays down his arms. That is bad law. A
treaty, or any other compact, made during
peace and cancelled by war, does not revive
with the cessation of hostilites. The matter
is then as open to negotiation as if no treaty
or compact had been made. A treaty in tn,
same words OF with different conditions ma,
be entered into but this depends on the con
cuTence of the parties who may contract.
avails, therefore, nothing to tell us that the
Constitution provides that each State shall b,
represented in the Lower House, that no Stat,
shall, without its consent, be deprived of III
equal suffrage in the Senate; and tina
inasmuch as Congress withholds from the ex
| insurrectionary States representation in tn
House and the Senate, the Constitution suffer
J violation. 1t suffers violation Just as mucl
as it did during the Rebellion, when III
enemy was deprived of his life, liberty, am
property, without due process Of civil law
) just as much, and no more. The incidents q
3 war do not cease as soon as the sword