The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1868-02-13
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Our systen efGovernment-W What 10 Its
No. 3.
[Coacluded.
Their manifest violation of the Consti-
tuition the Radicals have endeavored to
shelter, first under one, then another
provision, without success, and having
ransacked the entire Instrument they
rest at last on this: "The United States
shall guarantee to every State in the
Union, q republican form of Govern
ment, apd shall protect each of tn EN-
against invasion; and on application of
the Legislature or the Executive (where
the Legislature cannot be cOnvened)
against domestic violence"
Now can any one doubt, but that the
makers had in view the thirteen then
eriSting States with those of similar
structure that should be admitted after
wards, and that such State governments
were considered by them as being repub-
lican in form, that slavery existed in all
but one at the time, and the right of
suffrage existing in all was far more
restricted than in any of the late insur-
rectionary States at the commencement
of the war. The makers then not only
meagt TO enjoin on the United States gor-
erRment, to guarantee to each of the
then existing States and to all of SINH
lar character admitted afterward, but
expressly declared what was necessary
to constitute q republican form Of gorern-
ment as they understood 1t. Beside, it is
States eristing and in the Union, that this
clause contemplates, shall be guaran-
teed Republican forms of government
and be protected against invasion, and
on application as before stated, against
domestic violence. What invasion Of
any of the ten States has been attempt
ed since the war to warrant the Govern
ment's intsrference' What Legisla-
ture or Executive where that could
not be convened, has applied
to the Government for protection
against domestic violence. How is it
possible, then, that this clause can have
any application, if their theory is cor
rect that the States have ceased to eX.
istH The Constitution does not author.
ize, nor ask, the United States to erect
OF set up State Governments in order to
guarantee them sfterward. And if the
States exist, as they no doubt do, where
is the invasion to justify or precedent
application required to authorize inter
ference to protect against domestic VI
olenceS The cladse affords no warrant
or shield for their measures in any view
of the case, but leaves exposed all their
destructive abnormities and even
where case does exist, it is the United
States which consists of three "cO-ordi
maze" departments, all of equal dignity,
that is to SO guarantee and protect.
What new infatus Of the "higher law"
has so expanded Congress that it alb
sorbs, in this case, the other two depart
ments The whole affair strikiDgly
illustrates the general truth, that one
departure from the right track in gov
ernment, as in individuals, necessitates
many, if persisted in. Speedy retracing
or inevitable ruin is the only alterna-
tive in any case.
Hence we have before US the spectacle
of q great party, highly vitalized by its
late signal victory in war, plunglng
headlOng to the destruction of itself, and
the very Government it had formerly
done SO much to protect. Its great
men, like Ex-Governor Morton for in-
stance who exemplifed in his recent
speech in Congress, how small and pitt
able a strong man makes himself ap'
pear, when he undertakes to war against
truth, conscience and his oUn recOrd-he
who is claimed to be their Webster III
Constitutional law, assumes for his pre-
misses and foundation of his argument,
declaration which he says, President
johnson made in his proclamation of
Nav, 1865, that the late insurrcctiona-
ry States were without civil govern
ment"-meaning of course that there
were no suitable officers to operate
them, and these had to be furnished in
some way in order TO restore these
States to their former harmonious rela-
tions with the nation. Having thus
perverted Mr.. Johnson's statement and
meaning, to State annihilation, he set
to work to reconstruct them in order to
give Congress States to guarantee re-
publican forms of Government TO.
His clear seeing mind ad-
monished him to assume as his premises
State annihilation, and not to under
take to establish it by argument. 1t
takes the old and stereOtyped doctors
of the "higher law" to establish that
by argument. FOols rush in where
their Webster" dare not tread. There
are many others liz the same predica.
meut with the Ex-Governor. And all
this, it seems to me, is attributed to the
great mis-step Congress made when 1t
undertook year ago to pass and carry
out these Reconstruction measures
when it would have been competent it
seems to me, for that body to have in
angurared such amendments to the Ma
tional Constitution as the occasion re-
quired, and have sought their ratitica-
tion through conventions, which the
Constitution expressly authorizes, con-
vencd in each State, and in the con-
struction and organization OF which,
Congress must necessarily have plenary
power, instead Of making the miserable
botch they have in adopting the Lsgis-
lature mode of ratification, over which
Legislatures they eau have no conStitu-
tional control.
Now l can account for this strange
and unnatural course of conduct only
in this way: We all know there were
two extreme parties of forty years
standing that got up the recent war
the authors of the Higher Law" doc-
trine on one side and the firs-eaters OF
the South on the other. Slavery was
the subject of contention up to the time
of the war, and each party placed it
above the Constitution in dignity and
importance, which rs far back as | can
remember the doctors of the Higher
Law" denounced IS Compact with
He'll and League with the Devil" and
in this faith kept pushing until they
had placed on the Statue Books Of fif.
teen States notification in the guise of
personal Liberty Laws" wanting the
covert act" only, which their fiery op-
ponents were indiscreet enough to COM
nit, to have reversed their present con-
dition. These doctors are peculiarly
constituted. They possess every kind