The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1867-04-10


q, termination of the war, and to treat for
peace, on the best attainable terms, through
the agency of the individual States. The
cause of the Confedency was then clearly
desperate, and the further cffusion OF blood
useless and-wicked. Bnttthe leaders OF the
with their supporters and sympa.
thisers pronounced the movement treason
Its advocates were pronounced traitors and
loaded with every opprobious epithet calcu-
lated to degrade and destroy the reputation
of men. The movement failed-thc war
ragged with increased fury for few terrible
months, and peace came by subJugatlon.-
But in those few months how much OF desc
lation and woe fell to our lot How many
hearts were made desolate-how many
households robbed of their only light !
Upon whose hands is the blood of husbands,
fathers and sons thus uselessly she'd In the
mere wantonness of pride and obstinacy, or
from the viler motive of desperate revengeY
But it is more to our purpose to consider
the obstinate persistence of these men in Its
bearing upon the present. Had the peace
movements of 1S64-'5 been allowed, we
could then have easily stipulated for an i'm
mediate return to the Union, the restoration
of political rights and representation in Con-
gress. Such terms, and perhaps better, were
offered at the Fortress Monroe conference,
as late as February, 1865. Those who re-
fused to stop the war upon any terms, based
on the restoration of the Union, and pcrsis-
ted in the bloody contest to the point OF alb
solute subjugation, are responsible for our
present unfortunate relations with the Fede-
raj government.
1t is necessary to correct understanding
of subsequent events to inquire into the &C
tual political condition of North Carolina,
at the termination of the war, and to exam
inc the policy pursued by the government,
and the reasons upon which it was based.
Secession was treason. When the war be-
gam it was rebellion. When it was contin-
ued. from ohstinacy or revenge, beyond all
reasonable hope of success, it become whole
sale murder. Thus will posterity character
ize the guilt of those who inaugurated it, and
persisted until disarmed and subjugated by
actual force from legitimate authority. When
that occurred, the personal position of the
voluntary participators was that of culprits,
whose only screen from just and lawful pun
ishment was the mercy of the conqueror.
But the position of the State was anomalous.
The anomaly grew out of our peculiar form
of government. If secession was void, how
could State be considered out of the Union !?
If in the Union still, how could it he denied
the right to place in power, again, the most
guilty and rebellious of its citizens? If this
were permitted, could the nation escape the
present dangers; and if so, could it long sur
vive the precedent of having those fresh and
r. IL -
son and rebellion, Immediately re-instated,
as a matter of constitutional right, into the
high positions of trust and power, which
they had recently so crminally abused p
They might take advantage of such restitu-
ton of power to repeat their former, I'M
punished treason. and renew their efforts
against the nations life. They were toonum-
erous tor the remedy which the executioner
might justly afford, and such resort was
forbidden by the spirit of the age, and by the
dictates of Christian mercy The only other
remedy was disfranchisement, either partial
and temporary, or complete. These difficult
ties had to be met, and it was desirable that
it should be done upon established princi-
piles.
However much disputed before, the result
vi tuC VOL dSSidCu tioI q OtdtC III tuC CHlOLl
could not, Ivy any act, legally withdraw its
territory or its people from the authority of
the Federal Government. In this sense a
State could not go out of the Union. But a
State is an organized political community.
Without an organized government, it lacks
the essential quality requisite to consti-
tutc State. Although the citizens residing
within certain established boundaries NAV
still retain the political right to have such
an organization set Up. still, until this is
done, the corporate rights appertaining to a
State as such, are necessarily in abeyance.-
The insurgcnt States, by rebellion and vio-
lence, destroyed their organized governments,
and while they were not able to withdraw
their territory or their people from the right
full authority of the general government they
did succeed in upsetting their constitutional
organizations, and thus put in allegiance every
political right of their citizens, save one
And that was the right secured in the Con-
stitution of the United States, by the clause
guaranteeing to every State in the Union
a republican form of government" This
right subsisted even during the war, and is
as indestructible as the constitution ITSELF
But until its practical application is secured
by the necessary action on the part of the
government, every other political right must
remain in allegiance. As soon as the constitu-
tiOnal State governments were DESTROYED by
violence, it became the duty of the United
States to remove the disturbing force by the
military power of the nation, so as to enable
tie civil authority to discharge its constitu.
tional duty to the States, by re-establishing
therein governments republican in form" If
instead of rebellion, some foreign power had
destroyed those governments, the same duty
would have devolyed ON the United States.
It makes no difference whether the disturb
ing force came from without or within. The
same duty to remove such force. and open the
way for the practical application of tile right
guaranteed in the constitution arises in the
one case as in the other. Such is the safe
guard provided to protect republican liberty
in the several States, and to secure their per-
petual existence against both domestic and
foreign violence. The theory and principles
OF the government of the United States will
not permit the permanent loss of single
State. 1t could not be submitted to except
from overpowering necessity.
But this duty to " guarantee to every State
in the Union republican form of govern
ment," does not devolve on the President
alone, but is matter to be provided for by
Congress, Subject, of course to his veto,) and
to be executed by him as any other act of
legislation. The constitutional governments
of the insurgent States having been destroyed
by violence, and there being no law or pre-
cedent under which they could, themselves,
proceed to re-establish those governments,
the emergency contemplated in the constitu-
ton was presented, and it became the duty
of Congress to provide for it by necessary
legislation. The proceedings of the President
in setting up provisional establishments to
prpcprvp neana ap6 ordor fa,,,y,orar;Jy