The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-07-18
Presidential Theories versus AcknOw-
ledged Facts.


ledged Facts.
THE theory propounded by President John
son, that if Congress abolishes his sO-called
State Governments in the late Rebel States the
general Government will become responsible
for the State debts of these States contracted
before the war, while too absurd to be received
otherwise than with almost undisguised CON
tempt by members of all parties in Congress,
is seized upon by some of the Democratic
newspapers that sneeze every time Mr.. John
son takes his snuff as most remarkable affair.
The New York World, for instance, calls it a
Shot shot fred with admirable dexterity and
precision into the very magazine of the radi-
Gals, /" Dilemma" etc.
II is amusing to see with what facility these
conservatives forget facts which everybody
else remembers. If the overthrow of these
Johnson State Governments by the United
States entails upon the country the old debts
contracted before the war by the afterward
Rebel States, it is difficult to see why we have
not already incurred that liability. Nobody
denies that we overthrow the State Govern
ments that were in existence in the Rebel
States st the closing of the war. If any La
bility for the old State debts could be incurred
by the United States, then was the time when
it was done. If conquest entails the debts of
the conquered upon the conqueror, then we are
''in for it," beyond a doubt, for we did CON
quer and subdue and annihilate the State
Governments of the Rebel States. Sherman
sought to save them in his celebrated outline
a. ia DoL ToI,n
but the Government refused to listen to the
proposition, and the Rebel State Governments
went out into utter nothingness.
The fact is, the continuity of existence in
the State Governments of the late Rebel States
has been fatally broken. If we take any of
the loyal States, Pennsylvania for instance
we find an unbroken chain of existence from
the first moment of its being down to the pre-
sent time. Each successive State Government
has grown legitimately out of its predecessor.
Eaoh successive constitution has grown legally
out of that which went before it. There has
been no break-no hiatus. But in the case of
the late Rebel States different phenomenon pre-
sents itself. we trace the chain of their govern
mental existence downwards we come at the
close of the Rebellion to break. We reach
a period when the State organization perishes
It does not take a new form, but it absolutely
ceases to be. A gulf yawns across which no
line Of continuous organized government ex-
tends. II is like one of those catastrophes in
nature of which geologists tell us, in which
all previous organisms perish and go out of
being.
Or again, if we start from the present and
go backwards, taking Mr.. Johnson's illegal
but de JactO State organizations as starting
point, we quickly reach a place where the
line breaks. We find his governments having
NO bond Of connection with any that nave gone
before. They do not grow out of their prede-
oessors in time by any legal or constitutional
process. Their history runs back to PreSi-
dental decree, and there it stops. Between
them and all that were before there is an i'm
passable ohasm. They are mere usurpations,
without the faintest shadow Of legality or con-
stitutionality.
The truth of the matter is, that there have
been no constitutional State Governments in the
Rebel States since their old loyal Governments
we're superseded by the Rebel organizations at
the breaking out of the war. Everything, from
that time down to this, calling itself State
Government there, has been as foreign to our
Constitution and laws as was the now over
thrown empire of the dead Macmillan. The
people remain. The State, so far as we use
that word as synonymous with the people-and
that is one Of its legitimate uses-has abided
amidst all the changes that have occurred in
its outward organization. ALI the obligations
honestly incurred by the people before this
era of rebellion and revolution began, remain
in full force, and must be assumed by them
the moment they obtain once more legiti-
mate organ through which to act in a corpo-
rate capacity. The idea that the general Gov
arnment, in relieving these people from the
iaeeal and unconstitutional and foreign
State Governments that have from time tc
time been thrust upon them during the last
ak years, has thereby absolved them from
paying their just debts, is an absurdity
80 wild and Illogical that 1t could only hav
originated in the brain Of a man blinded b.
passion and drunk with the spirit OF faction
The people viii scout it, as they have alread
secuted its author and his foolish 'policy."
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