Middletown transcript., 1868-08-29

rlghts, they sought to deprive them of
their rlghtful powers by legislation, and
by threats of punishment by impeachment
Thus practically, has Congress subverted
the Constitution, and on this subject,
taken into their own hands all the powers
OF fGovernment-legislative, executive and
judicial. If their theory were true, in
stead of being false, as it is, where did
they get the power to legislate over the
seeding States-to treat them as outlaws,
and put them out of the pale of civilized
and republican institutions? Not, surely,
in the Constitution of the United States.
And If not there, what rightful power had
they, beyond that of any other body of
usurpers not bearing the title of mem
bers of Congress, to legislate over these
people at all ? The party which has pro-
duced all this wrong, usurpation, and OPP
preston calls itself RcpuJijcon. Before,
and during the war, its leaders maintained
that the Southern States had not republi-
can governments, because the negroes had
no right to vote. The same men have
joined in imposing governments upon
those states in which large numbers of
white men have no right to vote; aud yet
these governments are republican enough
for them. And these Republican leaders
have shown their regard for republican
government by the scheme lately cQncoc-
ted in Washington, and sent out to be
executed by their tools in the South, for
taking even from these new hedged voters
the right to vote for Presidential electors
Il ightlong exercised by the people of every
State in the Union except South Carolina,
the most aristocratic in the Confoderacy.
And this plan has been actually adopted
in Florida, and so far defeated in Alabama
by the veto of a Southern born Governor,
who strangely imagines that modern re-
publlcanism means something more than
design to retain control of the Govern
ment, even at the expense of every truly
republican principle and institution. Look
at the rest of the new States which Con-
gress has admitted into the Union, with
out the population of a second-rate city,
each having as many Senators as old
States with their sWarming millions. II
is republican that twenty thousand voters
in the Western plains and mountains
should have the same representation in the
Senate and the same vote for President,
in case of an election by the House of
representatives, as a million of voters in
New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and the
other great states? Yes, it is modern
rcpublicanism it is that rcpubicanism
which tramples upon every fundamental
principle of free government to secure po-
litical power; which casts the Constitution
behind it when it is an obstacle in its way
which dispenscs with the civil authorities
IN peaceful States, AMI governs with the
bayonet; which takes suffrage from intel
ligence, and vests it in ignorance; which
imposes constitutions on unwilling COM
munities, under threats of military coer-
sion, and calls them free States; which
would impeach an honest President for at
tempting to protect and defend violated
Constitution, and dcpriyes an upright ju-
dietary of its legitimate jurisdiction, lest
it should commitNhe same offence; which
Furnishes crimes cancelled by the par
doning power, and compels citizens, by
test oaths, to testify against themselves
and which arrogates to itself, over ten
States, Notwithstanding the constitutional
limitation of its authority, all the powers
claimed and exercised by the veriost des-
pot on earth,
But there seems to be pause in the
mad career of the usurpers Rcconstruc-
ton, lately urged on with railroad speed,
seems TO be suddenly suspended. What
is the matter? Do the tools so eagerly
grasped by the usurpors begin to cut their
own fingers? Do the negroes begin to re-
bel against their new masters Is it cer-
tain that their new fedged voters in the
South will not vote against the Radicals
in the approaching Presidential election ?
Behold their expedients to avoid such Il
calamity The first is, to take from the
people in the reconstructed States the right
to vote for electors. The second is, to de-
ny to the unreconstructed States the right
to choose electors in any mode. BY these
two eXpedients they expect to secure the
electoral votes Of the one class of States.
and avoid the danger of having the votes
of the other cast against them. OF the
latter class of States are Virginia, Missis-
sippi, and Texas. Is Virginia an the
Union, or out? She went to war to get
out and was forced to stay an. If she is
not in now aoho has put her oat2 Whit |
hut CoagreSS2 And has Congress power
to put States out of the Union? They
have practically usurped that power, and
have passed an act prohibiting that and
the other unrcconstructed States from ta-
king part in the approaching Presidential
election. If Congress can at will put
States out of the Union, and can establish
a military empire outside of the Union,
woe be to the cause of liberty within the
Union
The members of Congress cannot escape
their responsibility to the people, and their
allegiance to the Conatitution by any such
subterfuge. The people will ask them
why they denied all representation to the
Southern people in Congress, when, in
their unquestioned privilege to Judge of
the qualifications of their own members,
they had the power to exclude all men,
bors elect who had taken part in the rebel !