Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1867-01-11
TIE I1LP0BEAEr QUESTION

TIE I1LPOBTAET QUESTION
The question whether the States
lately in rebellion have by that act
Committed suicide" or 'lapsed into a
territorial condition" is of no practic-
al importance. The vital question
which underlies the whole subject of
reconstruction Is, haze these States for
fsited anything 6y their treason ? To
argue that they are out Of the Union
merely because they have forfeited
their rights in the Union grows out of
the foolish Democratic heresy that the
Union Is a compact and not consol-
idated Government. IF it is a com
pact, as Democrats teach, then Sc
eession is both possible and justiiable
for any one may Withdraw from a COM
pact if rs chooses, leaving those Rsth
whom he stipulated to their legal and
physical remedy. But our Union is
no such Aimsy arrangement. It is an
| imperisbable central power, depend
ing on no contingency whatever. We
/ have abundant evidence that it was so
understood By Washington, and it was
! so interpreted and explained by Ham
ilton, Madison and jay The Union
is perpetual and cannot be dissolved.
4 No State can be separated from it ex-
eept by actual revolution. No State
can by any possible act of its own es-
/ cape a single obligation to the Central
/ Government, But to say this implies
that no State can forfeit any right that
/ Government eonfers is unmitigated
nonsense. As we'll argue that because
a citizen cannot escape any of his OBJ
/ legations to obey the law he cannot by
committing murder for example, for
| felt any privilege the law guarantees to
those who observe It. Each State
when it entered the Union took sol
emn obligation to obey the Constitu-
ton and the laws Of Congress. That
obligation 1t may UjoIate but can never
escape 1t remains as strong during or
after the violation as before, though
by that violation every single right the
State has in the Union, or to use bet
ter language, under the government,
may be forfeited.
We come now to the important ques-
ton HaUe the i7surge,st States forfeit
ed anything By tbeir treason ? The
/ Democratic party says they have not.
Having taught that the Union is
mere compact and inculcated seces-
sion under the guise Of State sover-
eignity having extended sympathy
to the rebels In arms and encouraged
them to prolonged resistance, this cor
rups Democratic party now naturally
insists that rebellion is not a crime,
and that they who committed it shall
not only be Immediately and uncon-
ditionalIy restored to all their former
rights, but shall have greater represen-
tation and power in the Government
than before they took up arms to des-
i troy it. And upon what does it base
this outrageous claim Upon the
| Constitution, of course, for whenever
/ the Democracy wishes to justify any
thing particularly absurd or wicked
| it invariably resorts to the Constitution
OF the Bible. The Constitution, it
tells us, declares that 1.-The House of
Representatives shall be composed of
members chosen every second year
by the people of the several States,
and therefore requires that represen-
tatives be admitted to that body from
every State in the Union Again quotes
Democracy, 'the Senate of the United
States shall be composed of two Sena-
tors from each State. chosen by the
Legislatures thereof for six years, and
each Senator shall have one vote"
And again, mo State, without Its con-
sent, shall be deprived of its equal
suffrage in the Senate" But these
were just as much parts of the Consti-
tuition during the war as they are now,
and consequently, according to Demo-
cratic logic, the insurgent States when
In arms for. the destruction of the Gov
ernment were entitled to share in its
management, to dictate how the taxes
should be levied, how the public mon
/ eys should be appropriated, how our
armies should be filed, and how the
war against these same traitors should
be waged. Mr.. Ewing has, In behalf
Of the johnson Democracy, already
taken this very ground, and in his no
j torious letter recently published, ar
CUES that the rebel States were entitled
to representation in Congress during
the entire war. This conclusion can
not be evaded if the Democratic prem
1 ises are allowed that States guilty of
the act of rebellion shall without for
feiture have the full benefit of these
clauses of the Constitution. It fol-
/ lows also that during the war the eoun-
try had no Constitutional Congress, for.
! Democrats tell US Representatives from
all the States are essential to make one
The Senate shall be composed of two
Senators from each State" and the
House of representatives. chosen from
the several States" But eleven
States. chose not to be represented in Ell
ther body and by Withdrawing their
delegates in order to make war on the
4 Government they deprived the country
Of Constitutional Congress ! Trai-
tors in arms or traitors impenitent and
guilty Democrats tell US are essential
to legitimate Congress and no laws
made without their assistance are
valid 1T is unnecessary to trace the
consequences of such reasonable doc
trine. If it is true, the Government
was practically destroyed from the mo-
ment the Southern States seeded.
Congress. had no power to raise an
army, levy taxes or make apprOpria-
tons because eleven States were not