The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-07-18

= ThsiT lPabIio Debts, ss"'ss'-
From 0,e World |
President Johnson's raising the question
whether Congress assumed the debts of ,bo |
Southern States by -extingaishing their State
Governments, has already had a benaacial
effect. 1t is admitted by everybody intelliOent
enough to have an opinion on such subieots
that the only escape of the nation from liability
for those debts consists in the fact that they
continue to be States. Even Senator Summer
places the Obliging of those States to pay their
public debts on the ground that they are
States. A message which extorted that ad
mission from him must at least be regarded as
dexterous, whatever may be thought of the
sOundness or unsoundness of its suggestions.
Mr.. Sumner, it will be recollected, has for
years publicly and persistently held that, by
the fact of rebellion those States were blotted
out and became as States non-existent. II is
unfortunate for the reputation Of public
man when his advocacy of a grossly untenable
doctrine becomes fixed in the public memory
by some terse descriptive phrase originated
by himself which causes the doctrine to stick
to him like a burr. Such is the famous estate
suicide" theory OF Senator Sumner, which he
has so often and so elaborately defended. But
now the summary of his remarks sent by
telegraph from Washington represents him as
saying: Gas question of law, nothing could
be clearer than that the Rebel States were re-
sponsible for all their just debts and obliga-
tions. The States still existed, and their just
obligations inhered in them and could not be
evaded." ..... .. -. ......
In point of law and of logic this is most un-
deniably sound; but it is quite remarkable
coming from such a quarter. The whole re-
construction legislation of Congress is incon-
sistent with the idea that the Southern COM
munities remain States; and the foremost
advocates of that legislation now suddenly
turn short corner, and put forward the fact
that those communities are States as the
| foundation of their continued obligation to
pay their just debts. Their continued liability
| for their debts can be maintained on no other
| ground. 1t will be seen, therefore, that the
| Presidents message is hot shot fred with
| admirable dexterity and precision into the
| very magazine of the radicals. It has ex-
| ploded the Estate suicide doctrine and the
"right of conquest" doctrine, and all the
other wild, unconstitutional theories on wtlich
Congress has been so recklessly legislating.
The State suicide doctrine being thus pub
h licly renounced by its author and chief apostle,
and all parties at last agreeing that none OF
the States have lost their Statehood the cues
4 tion necessarily comes up, "What constitutes
1 State ?" and what are the rights and immu-
mites that appertain to Statehood 2 A State,
|
what we call Territory; but Congress is
asserting and exercising over the Southern
States jurisdiction as complete and exclusive
| as it has ever exercised over any Territory. Il
| being at last admitted that the Southern States
are not Territories but States, the apologists o
Congress are bound to show in what th'
distinction consists. 1t would puzzle then
to tell; but if they were to return tn,
| question upon u.s. and ask us to point Ou
| 81, ch0
all. We should go directly to the Constitu
tiOn for the answer, and find it written there
in broad unmistakable lines. AS soon as any
O.. community ceases to be a Territory ano
becomes State, it has an indefeasible right
to two Senators; to at least one Representa-
tive, and as many more as corresponds tC
its population; to its proportional share
of Presidential Electors; and to the indie
pendent management and control of itS
strictly internal and domestic affairs. But
the Southern communities are stripped
of every right which appertaius to State, o
every right by which State is distinguished
from q Territory. What then do the late ad
vocates of the estate suicide" theory meaI
when they pretend to have given up theil
doctrine They are forced to admit State
hood, as the only means of evading the
obligation to pay the Southern debts
What, then, is Statehood Where, but to
the Constitution, shall we go to find out
But if the Rebel communities remain States
in the sense of the Constitution, all the Re-
construction acts are gross usurpation and
oppression. 1t will not do to admit that
those communities are States in one breath,
and straightway deny it in the next. Their
State existence has either been destroyed or it
remains. If it has been destroyed it is incon-
testable that the general Government succeeds
to their liabilities, and is bound to pay their
debts. If it remains, it is impossible to justify
the recent legislation.
We therefore consider the Presidents
message as a very adroit specimen of the kind
of argument called dilemma. By one or
the other of its horns Congress must be sadly
gored.
THE AMENITIES OF MARRIED LIPE.-In the Di-
vorce Court in London, last month, the case of