Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1867-03-07

abolished slavery. In all their labor
ed arguments they ignore that radi-
cal change in the nations fundamen-
tai law. Industrious in their labors
of exhuming the resolutions of 1898,
and adroit in reciting the doctrines
of Calhoun based upon them, they
seem oblivious to the amended char
ter of freedom and the rights flowing
theretrom
CART. 13. Sec. l. Neither slavery nor in
voluntary servitude, except as punishment
for crime, whereof the party shall have been
duly convicted, shall exist within the Unit
ed States or any place subject to their ju-
risdiction.
"SEc. 2. Congress shall have power to
enforce this article by appropriate legisla-
ton"
There stands that bright token of
liberty, the glory of this generation,
and the pride Of the Republican par
ty who made it part of the organic
law. AS time shall roll into the dis
tant ages of the future, an American
citizen will point to il with the same
pride that an Englishman now does
to the Great Charter which the bar
ons wrung from King John at Runny-
mede.
By its adoption slavery was legal
ly as fully wiped out, eradicated, and
destroyed as if it had never existed
as blight upon our institutions /
have said such was it's legal effect,
but the trainers of the constitutional
amendment we'll knew that slavery
was so interviewer with the laws and
customs of the States in which it had
exis ted that the mere declaration that
it should no longer exist, although a
constitutional declaration, would not
of itself give to those heretofore en-
slaved the just and fair protection
which its letter and spirit affirmed =
They knew that the several States, in
which it had existed, could not be re-
lied upon to secure the reasonable
and Just incidents of freedom. Hence
the second section gave Congress
the power to enforce this" amend
ment, according to its intent and spir-
it, "by appropriate legislation"
Here then is new constitutional
power with Congress has acquired
since the rebellion, and which we are
now called upon to exercise.
| submit now, that what might be
adjudged republican form of gov
ernment under one constitution might
under another be far from it. In 9th
er words, in constituting our Constitu-
tion, regard must be had to the char
acter and spirit of the whole instru-
ment. Nor should the exRositor be
confined to an examination of the in
strument itself alone, but he must
look beyond it. He must consider the
genius, ruling ideas, progress, and
existing sentiments of the great mas
scs of the people governed by it. The
Constitution is not to receive that
Technical construction or interpreta-
tation which learned lawyer gives
to a statute or to a common law in
strument but it is to receive such
fair, just, and natural Interpretation
as will carry out the great principles
of the Government, and secure and
protect the rights of the masses for
whose benefit it was made.
The constitution of the United
States is the peoples fund amental
law. In. the suppression of the rebel
lion in the abolition of slavery and
in the recent elections, they have Civ
en- it form and construction, which not
only legislators, but Presidents and
judges will do we'll to notice and to
heed.
AS long as our national Constitu-
tion recognized slavery, Congress
could with no justice or sound logic
affirm that any State government was
not republican in foru." because it
denied to large class, which it held
in bondage, political rights. Now the
case stands upon different founda-
ton. By the Constitution all men
are made free. By the provisions of
the civil rights bill all persons born
within the jurisdiction of the United
States, or duly naturalized, are made
citizens. Hence the form of any State
government must now be viewed and
must now be tested, by the whole of
our national Constitution and the re-
cognized rights under it. So viewed,
and so tested, no State government
can, in my Judgment, be truly recog
nized as republican in form, which
permanently DISTINGUISHES, by reason
of a race or color, either majority
or large proportion of it's adult male
citizens who have been guilty of no
crime. Conceded that the right of
suffrage is neither a natural nor civil
right, yet it is so necessary to pro-
tect and secure citizen in the enjoy
ment of his civil rights, that in gov.
ernment like ours, based upon the
will of the people,it is difficult to sep
arate it from civil right.
The constitutional amendments
passed by Congress at its last session
are so just in their requirements, 50
mild in their provisions, that no per-
son ought to object to their adoption
by reason Of their imposing too Sc
we're terms upon those lately in rebel
ion. With some reason loyal men
may complain, that they do not go
far enough, that they do not adequate
ly punish rebels, nor sufficiently pro-
tect the rights of all loyal men of the
South yet mild and just as they are,
their provisions and requirements are
spurned by those people lately in re-
bellion. The masses of the loyal
North last autumn declared, that moth
ing short of the recognition of the
principles therein contained would
bring peace and security to the ma
fIpn Wa liarnuorJ Ihot