The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1868-02-06


Now, sir, when it is claimed tha
these governments are legal, let it bC
remembered that they took their origir
under proceeding instituted by the
President of the United States in the
execution of this guarantee, when il
now stands confessed that he could mo-
execute the guarantee. But even if be
had the power, let it be further borne
IN mind that those constitutions were
formed by conventions that were elec
ed by less than one-third of the white
voters in the States at that time; that
the conventions were elected by q
small minority even ofthe white voters
and that those constitutions thus form.
ed by very small minority have nev
er been submitted to the people o.
| those States for ratification. They are
no more the constitutions of those States
to-day than the constitution formed by
the conventions now in session would
be If we were 10 proclaim them to be
the constitutions of those States with
out first having submitted them to the
people for ratification. How can it be
pretended for moment, even admit
ting that the President had the power
to start forward in the work of recon-
struction, that those State governments
are legal, formed by a small minority,
never ratified by the people, the people
never having had a Glance to vote for
them They stand as mere arbitrary
constitutions, established, not by the
people of the several States, but simply
by force of executive power.
CONSTITUENCIES OF THEIR RECOGNITION.
And, sir, if we Shall admit those
States to representation on this floor
and In the other House under those
| constitutions, when the thing shall
have got beyond our keeping and they
are fully restored to their political
rights, they will then rise up and de-
clare that those constitutions are not
binding upon them, that they never
made them; and they will throw them
of, and with them will go those pro-
visions which were Incorporated there
In, declaring that slavery should never
be restored and that their war debt was
repudiated. Those provisions were put
| into those constitutions, but they have
never been sanctioned by the people of
those States, and they will cast them
out as not being their act and deed as
soon as they shall have been restored
TO political power in this Government.
therefore, say that even il we con-
cede that the President had the power,
| which he had not, to start forward in
the execution of this guarantee, there
can still De no pretense that those gov
ernments are legal and authorized, and
that we are bound to recognize them.
HOW THEY WERE ORGANIZED.
The President of the United States.
In his proclamation, declared that those
governments were to be formed only
by the loyal people of those States:
and beg leave to call the attention of
the Senate to that clause in his procla-
nation of reconstruction. He says:
And with authority to exercise within the
and proper to enable such loyal people OF the
State OF North Carolina to restore said State
to Its constitutional relations with The Fed
eral Government"
Again, speaking of the army:
land they are enjoined to abstain from In
any way hindering, impeding or discour-
aging the loyal people from the organization
OF a state government as herein authorized" ;"
Now, sir, so far from those State gov
ernments having been organized by the
loyal people, they were organized by
the disloyal; every Office passed into
the hands of a rebel; the Union men
had no part or tin those governments.
and so far from answering the purpose
for which governments are intended,
they failed to extend protection to the
loyal men, either white or black. The
loyal men were murdered with impu-
nifty; and L will thank any Senator
upon this floor to point to single case
in any of the rebel States where q rebel
has been tried and brought to punish.
Inent by the civil authoriy for the muir
L
am told, scan be found. Those gov
ernments utterly failed in answering
the purpose of civil governments; and
not only that. but they returned the
colored people to a condition OF quasi
slavery; they made them the
slaves of society, instead OF being, as
they were before, the slaves of indfVid-
uals. Under various forms of vagrant
laws they deprived them of the rights of
freemen, and placed them under the
power and control OF their rebel mas
ters, who were filled with hatred and
revenge.
WHAT CONGRESS DID-THE PROPOSED
AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION,
But, Mr.. President, time passed on.
Congress assembled in Decemb Der, 1865.
For time it paused It did not at
once annul those governments. Ithes.
itated. AT last, in 1866, the constitu-
tional amendment, the fourteenth ar
ticle, was brought forward as a basis of
settlement and reconstruction; and
there was tacit understanding, though
it was not embraced in any law or res
olution, that if the Southern people
should ratify and agree to that amend
ment, then their State governments
would be accepted. But that amend
ment was rejected, contemptuously re-
jected. The Southern people, counseled
and inspired by the Democracy of the
North, rejected that amendment. They
were told that they were not bound to
submit to any conditions whatever;
that they had forfeited no rights by re-
bellion. Why, sir, what did we propose
by this amendment? By the first Sec
ti0n we declared that all men born up
on our soil we're citizens of the United
States-a thing that had long been re-
cogniZed by every department of this
Government, until the Dred Scott deci-
m n
ton provided that where a class or race
of men were excluded from the rights of
suffrage, they should not be counted in
the basis OF representation-ano obvious
Justice that no reasonable man for a
moment could deny; that if four mil
lion people down South were to have
no. suffrage, the men living in their
depriving them of all political rights,
should not have members, OF
| Congress on their account. 1 say the
justice of the second clause has never
been successfully impugned by any ar
gument, care not how ingenious it
may be-. What was the third clause ?
1t was that the leaders of the South,
those men who had once taken an off
cial oath to support the Constitution OF
the United States, and had afterwarl
committed perjury by going into the
rebellion. should be made ineligible to
any Office under the Government of the
United States or of u State. It was a
very small disfranchisement. It was
Intended to withhold power from those
leaders by whose instfumentality we
had lost nearly half a million lives and
untold treasure. The justice of that
disfranchisement could not be dis
proved. And what was the fourth
clause of the amendment? That this
Government should never assume and
L RI nf lob j.;