Indiana American. [volume] (Brookville, Ind.) 1865-1872, 1867-12-13

their domestic and local affairs according
to the mere will of strange and irresponsi-
BILE agents sent among them for that pur-
pose. These are powers not granted to
the Federal Government or TO any one of
its branches. Not being granted we vo-
late our trust by assuming them as palpa-
bly, as we would by acting in the face Of
positive interdict, for the Constitution
forbids us to do whatever it does not
affirmatvely authorize either by express
words or by clear implication. If authori-
ty we desire to use does not come to us
through the Constitution, we can exercise
il only by usurpation, and usurpation is
the most dangerous Of political crimes. By
that crime the enemies Of free govern
ments, in all ages, have worked QUO their
designs against public liberty and private
right 1t leads directly and Immediately
to the establishment of an absolute rule,
for undelegated power is always unlimited
and unrestrained. The acts Of Congress
in question are not only Objectionable for
their assumption of ungranted power, but
many Of their provisions are in conflict
with direct prohibitions of the Constitu
tion, which commands that a republican
form Of government shall be guaranteed
tc all the States; that no person shall be
deprived Of life, liberty, or property with
out due process of law; arrested without
judicial warrant, or punished without a
fair trial before an impartial jury; that the
privilege of habeas corpus shall not be de-
MED in time of peace; and that no bill of
attainder shall be passed, even against
single individual. Yet that system of
mea >ures, established by these acts Of
Congress, does totally subvert and destroy
the term as we'll as the substance of Re-
publican government in ten States to which
they apply. 1t binds them hand and foot
in absolute slavery, and subjects them to
strange and hostile power more unlimit-
ed and more likely TO be abused than any
other now known among civilized men.
1t tramples down all these rights in which
the essence of liberty consists, and which
free governments is always most careful to
protect. 1t denies hopeds corpus aud trial
by jury. Personal freedom, property and
life, if assai!ed by the passion, prejudice or
capacity of the ruler, have no security
whatever. II has the effect of bill Of at
tainder, or bill of pains and penalties, not
upon a few individuals, but upon whole
masses, including the millions who are in
habitants of the subject States, aud even
their unborn children.
These wrongs being expressly forbid
den, cannot be constitutioually inflicted
upon any portion of our people, no
matter how they may have come within our
jurisdiction, and no matter whether they
live in States, Territories or Districts l
have no desire to save from the proper
and just consequences of their great
crimes those who engaged i'll the rebellion
against the Government, but as a mode
OF punishment, the measures under con-
sideration are the most unreasonable that
could invented. Many of those people
are perfectly innocent; many kept their
fidelity to the Union untainied TO the last;
many are incapable Of any legal offense.
A large portion of persons able to bear
arms were forced into the rebellion against
their will, and of those who are guilty
with their own consent, the degrees Of
guilt are as various as the shades of their
character aud temper. But these acts OF
Congress confound them all together. One
common indscriminate vengeance upon
classes, sects and parties, or upon whole
communities, for oifenses committed by
portion Of them against the governments
10 witch they owed obedience, was com
mon in barbarous ages of the world, but
Christianity and civilization have made
such progress that recourse to a punish
ment SO cruel and unjust would meet with
the condemnation Of all unprejudiced and
right minded men. The punitive justice
of this a,e. especially of this country,
does not consist in stripping whole States
of thei liberties and and reducing all their
people without distinction to the condition
OF slavery. 1t deals separately with each
individual, confines Itself to forms of law,
aud vindicates its own purity by an inn
partial examination Of every case before
competent judicial tribunal. Ii this does
not satisfy all our desires with regard to
the Southern rebels, let US console our
selves by rejecting that a free Constitu-
ton triumphant in war and unbroken in
peace is worth far more to Us and our
children than the qualification of any
present feeling.
am aware it is assumed that this sys-
tenn Of government for the Southern States
is not to be perpetual. 1t is true that this
military government is to be only provi-
sionally, but it is through this temporary
evil that greater evil is to be made per-
petual. II the guarantees Of the Consti-
tuition can be broken Professionally, to
serve temporary purpose, and in part
Of the country, We can destroy them ev-
erywhere and for all time. Arbitrary
measures often change, but they generally
change for the worse. 1t is the curse of
despotism that it has no halting place
intermitted, for exercise Of its power brings
no sense Of security to its subjects, for
they can never know what more they will
be called to endare when its red right
hand is armed to plague them again. Nor
is it possible to conjecture how, or why
power unrestrained by law, may seek its
next victims. States, that are still free,
may be enslaved at any moment, for if
the Constitution does not protect all, il
protects none 1t is manifesty aud ayow-
edly the object of these laws to confer
upon the negro the privilege of voting,
and to dis!ranchise such a number of
white citizens as will give the former
clear majority at all elections in the South
ern States. This, to the minds Of some
persons is so important that violation Of
the Constitution is justified as a means of
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