The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1868-09-10
From the Cincinnati Commercial.
AN ADDRESS
BY THE
HON. THOMAS EWING,
TO THE
Unpledged Voters Of the United States.
[CORcluded.l |

4 lmpdEJlal JUSTICE, lS Ouo VI tuo icSi0i'
mate consequences of the new code ol
morals which Senator Morton boasts Of
having been taught by the war; it de.
velopes itself in other instances most
worthy of note in logic as well as NOR.
ais. He says in his speech of January
4, 1863, that President Johnson's procla.
nation, under which the seeded States
were reorganized, was more Radical
than that prepared by Mr.. Lincoln;
more, indeed, than the project of Winter
Davis; and if it had been submitted to
Congress before it was carried into ef-
feet, all would have been well. But the
Constitution requires that the United
States shall guarantee to each State a
republican form of Government; and
Mr.. Morton says sit was not until a
year and half after the passage of the
constitutional amendment through the
House, that Congress came to the con-
clusion that we could execute the guar
antee without raising up new class of
loyal voters in the States" Now,
wherein did the new constitutions OF
these ten States-reorganized upon a
model more intensely Republican or
Radical than President Lincoln's or
even Winter Davis project-wherein
did they depart from republican fOrmf
That which the Constitution authorizes
and enjoins us to guarantee is the form.
1t gives no authority to touch the in
ternal administration ofthe government
of any of the States; on the contrary it
reserves that power to the several States.
This pIetense of right to interfere with
the local governments of the States is a
miserable sophism, resting on false as
sumption. 1t is not true, as is assumed,
that any one of these States, when in
terfered with by Congress, had not a
republican form of government, or that
any enc of them attempted to adopt any
other form. The forms were various,
but all republican, like the constitutions
of the original States at the time they
adopted this guarantee; and Congress,
when they interfered, under pretence of
executing this guarantee, destroyed the
actual republican form, and imposed on
the States, in its stead, a military despot-
| ism. 1t were idle te assert the contrary;
the events are recent; they occurred in
the presence of us all, and stand for the
information of present and future ages,
recorded in our annals. 1t is strange to
hear it pretended by intelligent men in
the presence of thinking, reasoning
public, that the placing of ten States
under absolute military rule is legiti.
mate carrying ont of the constitutional
provision, which requires the United
States to guarantee to each State re-
publican form of government. The ap-
peal to the guarantee was simply n
false pretence; the object unmistakably
was not to secure to those States Repub-
lican forms of government, but gov
ernment in form and fact which would
secure their seventy votes to continue
the Republican party i'll power. 10 ex-
cuse the arbitrary measures taken to ef-
feet this object, facts are perverted, Ian
guagc wrested from its true meaning,
and the rights which the Constitution
was framed to secure are secuted and
deSpised.
Mr.. Merton admits that the Crittenden
resolutions amounted to pledge, that,
having put down the rebellion, We
would not disturb the domestic instltu-
tions of the States, but restore them to
their constitutional rights In the Union;
but he says, in discussing Mr.. Lincoln's
emancipation proclamation, that If we
stood by the pledge we could not re.
store the Union; "we must either stand
by the Union and let the pledge go, or
stand by the pledge and let the Union
CO."
Admit this to be true; though then
Thought, and still think it mistake,
and that as war measure 1t did not
strengthen, but weakened us. 1t divid-
ed the North-united the South, and
alienated hundreds of thousands in the
border States. Yet it was no breach OF
faith-it was resorted to as war meas
ure Rdgrante bello, and no more breach
of the pledge made in the Crittenden
resolutions than any other act of hostil-
| ty. That pledge related to the use
which we would make of victory, hay-
| ing achieved it-nOt the means we
| would adopt to achieve it. Mr.. Lincoln,
therefore, did not violate the pledge,
but it was violated when, after the reb-
ell armies surrendered, or were disband-
ed: when all the rebel governments
were dissolved; when, having restored
their republican State constitutions, as
members of the Union, they claimed to
accept the duties and enjoy the rights
of States; then when Congress refused
to receive them as States, but treated
them as conquered territories, subjected
to military government, prescribed
nearly all the intelligent men OF the
States by a sweeping bill Of attainder,
and "raised up" in the language of SEN
ator Morton, a new set of loyal voters
plantation slaves who could not tell
their names, or read their tickets, but
could vote each Republican ticket
when given them-when Congress did
these things, they violated that solemn
pledge which brought at least halt
million Union volunteers into the field.
1t was a deliberate breach of faith,
prompted by interest, not by necessity.
| do not think the party protited Oy III;
men-that is untaught men-love faith
and detest falsehoOd. Beside this, it
has involved the party in complications
from which they never can be extrica,
ted until they are mercifully relieved
from the cares of government. For my:
self. | confess to a lack of progress;
stand as one of Senator Morton's mile
posts on deserted road, having learned
by the war no moral code releasing men,
asi1dividualso or legislative bodies, from
the obligations of constitution, or law
or personal truth and honor.
Mr.. Morton shows very clearly that
the guarantee of republican forms o.
government to these ten States was al
a pretense. You will remember that
President Johnson, at the close of the
war, issued a proclamation dictatini
provisions to be adopted in the consti
tutious of the ten States which would
adapt them to the changed condition o
things, and that they modified theil
constitution according to the terms Of
the proclamation. Mr.. Morton in speak
ing of the proclamation, and it was the
: same substa ltially as if he had beer
speaking of each OF the several consti
tutions, says:
81 did show that the policy of tina
proclamation vas even more Radica
, than that of Mr.. Lincoln. / did show
, that it was more Radical even than th'
! Winter Davis bill of the summer of 1864
But, sir, it was all upon the distinct un