The New era. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1865-1871, 1867-02-14

iIohi tiic eultOf OF the La crosse De732O-
e1ff, possesses not only local but general
interest:
DAYTON, OHIO, January 3, 1867.
NJ. NJ. PoMERoY, ESQ.,
LII Crosse Wis:
Dear Sir: Yours of the 3lst ut.
with the card enclosed, have Just re-
ceived, and will answer it inproaapfa.
Asto your first inquiry; Congress, in
my opinion, has no more Constitutional
power TO 'sterritoriaize' the ''seceded
States" fso-caled1 than to make terrific
ries of OHIO or Wisconsin. Neither has
any other department Of the Federal
Government, nor all the departments
combined. The States made the E1ede-
raj Government, III the beginning; but
now the fable of Saturn is reversed and
the child devours the parent.
As to your second inguify-the prob
able result if the radical scheme be ear
ried ont Or attemptedn -pardon me u
little Latin: ne ear1hagi1e satius est siz-
ere qstfnh },d1ftW dicere.p Only general
results, at the most. can be torseen by
the Wisest OF mortals, and in these dark
times, when every lesson Of history,
and every law OF Gad, Of man, of poiit-
ieal economy and Of finance, seem to be
broken with inpanity, and when either
folly or treachery, Or eoWardice, OF All
three together, tEWart the Wisest, most
honest, most patriotic plans for the pub
lie good, | have ceased even to specie
late as to the future; much less do ven
ture to prophecy. Yet think that had
the programme for the political cam
paign of 1866, as agreed upon, formally,
at Washington, in April and May last,
been honestly, courageously and vigor-
ously carried out, instead of being set
aside, for that combination Of procured
abortion and accidental miscarriage, the
Philadelphia Convention, Of August
l4th, we should have had as great a vie
tory in the fall elections, as we suffered
decisive defeat. As it is, fear that the
last hope of the reaction persisted then,
and that the "Great American Revolu-
ton of 1862 must now go on uncheck-
ed. till either it shall have overturned
totally in form, as already substantially
il fact, that grand old Federal Repub-
lie which our fathers set up; substitu-
ting in it's stead, imperialistic despotism,
under the shadow Of the name and form
and the cant Of free institutions; or have
preeipitated a eounter-revolution, thro'
which, by the expiration of fire and
blood, and suffering, it may be, the
American people shall recover that
light, free, cheap system of government
which they so eagerly and recllIessly
have thrown away. All this, indeed,
was implied by the late civil WARRIOR
the Union"-when it commenced; and
L for one, have no neW quarrel with
radicalism and its opponents, for striv-
ing to attain the natural, legitimate,
and inevitable results of changing our
system from a government of consent
to government of coercion or force.
At the same time am not prepared to
compete with them in the race of radi-
calism; and if were, | should aim at
that which alone could command sue
cess; to "out-herod Herod," and go at
one bound, so far beyond its present
demands, that even Republican radical
ism would stand aghast. should "cut
under' so deep that no slower deep"
could be found OF iat,lomeu. For, Ia
good sooth, am not one OF those Vac
delude themselves with the ainnotiOn,
that by yielding one-haH the other can
be made secure. Such s'sops to Cerbe-
rus" never silence the triple headed
dog Of fanaticism. And there is but one
way to deal with a revolutions; either to
go with it totally, and ahead of it, or
fight it every inch and crush it. We
have not SO fought the battle,
and by consequence, we have gone
down before the bold, dashing charge of
the Black knight with his visor up.
And so it has ever been; and SO it will
ever be, world Withoutend. l cannotadd,
ADen; it ''sticks in my throat" For
still | would remember the sublime old
Roman maxim, and never despair Of
the Republic; for even now, with more
than eight hundred million of paper
money, having 40 other basis than cred
it upon credit, four-ply, and a taxation,
State and Federal, Cor Imperial,) quite
equal in amount, am not sure that a
blessed stranding" in the.way of finance
might not, at any moment prove the
very salvation of the ship in her last
lurch. For, as NJ. Guizot in his History
OF Cromwell, profoundly observes: cit
is by exhaustion and necessity that God
imposes justice and good sense upon ma
TONS"
Meantime, however, deriving such
it is both great and
sweet-as springs from the recent decis-
ions of the Supreme Court ofthe United
States, convicting Abraham Lincoln
md his Administration, of high crimes
against the Constitution ana! public and