Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-10-04
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laws enforced at the point of the bayonet.a
Accordingly, the reconstruction acts are
prepared and passed, and the whole ma
chihery put In operation by which all r
these great ends are TO be accomplished.
Therightof suffrage Is extended to the me- p
groes fuhabiting those States. and large
proportions Of 1.-THE whites disfFanchised..
The Generals inacommand are authorized. r.
to make a registration of the persons thus
declared to be legal voters I a convention
ofdelegates elected by these voters islto be- =
called to form a new Constitution; a fegis-9
lature is to be elected; and, finally, when all
this Is done, the Constitution may be pre-
sented to Con gress, and IL Congress approve =
,lit such State may be admitted to the Union, =
and Representatives may or may not take o
their seats at the discretion of Congress. g.
Such is the Congressional scheme, called
~ Who does not ( see
through this plan of Reconstruction? And !
who will believe tor moment that
these same gentlemen who but yesterday 9f
were the advocates IOf taking the ssuffra2eai
from the educated white foreign horn
citizen, who had submitted to a five years. q
rprobation. and who now grant IInrestriet-
ed, unqualified suffrage to the uneducated
! negroes of the South, are guided in their
action by any other motive than that of s
party supremacy !? eiItis plain they1ar not
; lactuated by regard for universal Suffrage, l1
as aprinciple, But they see in this i'm r.
1mense negro Tete'a power by which they
rex peet ITO elect Congressnaen Governors
and Presidents, and thereby control the
Government or this country. It o matters
Z not to them, that one of the first ffditsiof
this wild experiHaent will be the aDpearahce
of negroes in the1halls of Congress. as Sem
iators and Representatives, and that soon
they will idenia1d a place on the Presiaen-
till ticket. lC is folly to suppose that these
people, ignorant and untutored as they are,
will not find out their POWER and exercise
it. The Radical whites may, indeed, fora
/ time, be able to cajole and curry favor with
them; but it will not be-long until they
will demand at least division of the
offices. And the Radicals will be COM
compelled to grant ft, for the negroes have
the power to enforce it. Nay. they have
lin nearly all these States the absolute pow
er to control all the offices under the So
called reconstruction acts The whites are
completely at their mercy, and thus. are
these States Afrieanized, to all intents and =
purposes. Next in order, L suppose, will
be the annexation of Hayti, with full priv
|, ileges of citizenship; and soon the white p
voters of the North and West will be also
overwhelmed by this wave of black suf-
b frage, which, If once started as now pro-
posed, will not be checked until it has ac-
'complished supremacy in the whole Gov
/ ernment, or received a quietusl by a new
Ievolution. Fellow citiZtns,is this the en-
tertainment to which you were invited?
/ Look atithis. programme, and say whether
| you feel free to commit yourselves and the
! country to it.a Are you ready to
| submit to be governed by the eman-
cipated negroes of the South? and
| will you sanction and sustain the in
| auguratiOn of this scheme, devised and
| attempted to be carried out in utter con-
| tempt and violation of the Constitution ?
| 1t is not pretended that there is any Con-
| stitutional authority for this legislation
i These men boldly avow that they act inde-
| ;pendently and outside of the Constitution.
| Mr.. Thaddeus Stevens, the leader in all
| this business, frankly admits this. He says:
| Il 'yHhe President starts by asserting in his
message what, if true, will support all the
+ rest of his arguments. He says the Consti-i'
J tuition of the United States is theoretically
operative in the conquered provinces Of
| the South. If that were true then all we
| have done is rank etstupdtioR. / deny that
h the Constitution is either theoretically or .
actually in operation in anyRo those p
States" " Hl f-'. i'fh s2lihlHtc- 20 lt IfI1H
poo Mr.. Stevens is consistent, at least
/ Throughout all this portion of the Union,
|, he says the Constitution is Imperative
I dead; and he declares that if this be not so,
4 then all that Congress has done is frank
+ usurpation." Let us consider this mo.
ment. II, indeed, it be true that the Con-
/ stitution is not operative in these States,
| how and by what means has this condition
of affairs been brought about? Was it by
4 the so-called secession ordinances? These
| have been declared void and of no effect
4 from the beginning, VAST the act of re-
have suppressed the rebellion, and the war
| has come to an end. Was it by the estab-
| lishment of the so-called Confederate gov
ernment? That so-called government was
| never recognized By any government on
4 earth it has vanished into thin air. and
not vestige remains. Its Officers, its ar
mics, all have surrendered and acknowl-
| edged the rightful authority of the United
States Government, and the supremacy of
J. the Constitution and laws. How is it that
in this hour of victory, when every shadow
| of resistance to the authority of tire con-
! stitutional government has ceased, party
! rises up and asserts the virtual success of
| the rebellion in wrestling ten States from
the Union and that the Constitution from
| which all the powers of the government
are derived, is paralyz in those States,
| having neither practical or Theoretical op
! Grafton in any of them? If that be so, how
does Congress, which derives all its power
| from the Constitution, get any authority in
| the premises over these ten States? By
what provision of the Constitution does
Congress derive any power or authority
over territory where the CONSTITUTION itself
idoes not extend, or is inoperative? We
| look in vain for any such provision. The
fallacy of the doctrine is apparent. 1t is
secessionism in its worst form. 1t is say
ing that the Constitution may, be rendered
| imperative in any State, or number of
States, by the legislature passing seces-
sion ordinance, thus plicng the legisla-
VI q -OIdC6 dUONO blc supTcIut- law OI
the land. Not only this, but it places the
Constitution at the mercy of any set of
| conspirators who may get up an insurrec-
ton in one or more States, and when put
| down by the lawtal authorities, enable the
| party in power to declare the obliteration
| of the States and their acquisition as con-
| Quered territory. This is precisely what is
| claimed by Mr.. Stephens and those who
| act with him. They claim that twenty-siX
States of the Union have subjugated and
/ conquered ten other States of the Union.
In other words. the United States has con-
9,tered one-third of Itself, and over this ter
ritory so conquered the Constitution has
become imperative and of no effect. Such
is, the position of Mr.. Stephens and
| his followers. Thus, if by any con-
spiracy it should happen that the
Legislatures of all the States were to unite
in, passing ordinances of secession, or an
insurrection became so general as to have
an existence in all the.States, after its sup
preston through the instrumentality of
the Government, we would find ourselves
without any Constitution operative in any
part of the country, and of course no Con-
gress, tor without Constitution we can
have no legal Congress. notwithstanding,
therefore, the authority of the Government
and the supremacy of the Constitution
should be main tanned, both would be life
less on this theory, and we would be lett
without any legal Government whatever.
Shades of the heroic and immortal dead
was it for this you shed your blood and
yielded up your lives on the battle field?
Aud from Gettysburg, and Antietam, aud
ChancellorvIlle. and Chiekamauga the an
swer comes back: s"We devoted ourselves q,
sacrifice on the altar of the Constitution
of our country that it might LIVE and not
IL, A,,1 II atfsx -.