Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-09-02

lIcanlsm winch tramples, upon every fun
damental principle of free government
Ito secure political power which casts
1.-THE. Constitution behind it when it is an
Z obstacle in its way; which sdispenses
with the civil authorities in peaceful
States and governs with the bayonet;
(which takes. suffrage from, intelligence
and vests it inignorance; which imposes
constitutions on unwilling communities.
under threats of military coercion, and
calls them free States; which would i'm
peach an honest President for attempt
| ing tobprotect and defend q violated
Constitution. and deprives ano upright
Judiciary Of it, legitimate Jurisdiction
Hest it should commit the same, aoffense;
which Furnishes crimes cancelled by the
q lpardoning power, and compels citizens,
BY test Oaths, to testify 9against them
Selves; and which rarrogates touitself
over ten States, Notwithstanding, ,nthe
constitutional Limitation of its authority,
alfthe powers claimed and exercised BY
the veriest despot on earth ysWa @ tr5'I asEsf 4
i But there seems to he pause in the
mad career of the, .usurpers. Z Recon
struction,, lately urged on with railroad
Ispeed, seems to be. suddenly suspended.
What 7isqthe sinatter2- Do the tools so
eagerly grasped by the usurpers begin to
fcut their own fingers? Do the, negroes
begin to rebel against their new masters
Is it certain that their new fledgedp voters
in the South will not vote against the
radicals in the approaching Presidential
election Behold their sexpedients to
avoid such calamity The first is to
take from the people in the reconstructed
States the right to vote for electors.
The second is to deny to the unrecon-
structed States, the right to choose, cleo
tors in any mode. By these two expe,
dients 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 lat
ter class of States are Virginia, Missis-
sippi and Texas. Is Virginia, in the
Union, Or out? She went to war to get
out and was forced to stayin. IF she is
not in now who has put her out What
but Congress And has Congress pow
er to put States out of the Union2 They
have practically usurped that power and
have passed an act prohibiting that and
the other unreconstructed States. from
taking part in the approaching Presiden-
tial 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. -. sr H., -s-.--.. ~
The members of Congress cannot es-
cape their responsibility to the people
and their allegiance to the constitution
by any such subterfuge. The people
will ask, them why they denied all rep
resentation to the Southern people in
Congress, when, in their unquestioned
privilege to judge of the qualifications
of their own members, they had the pow
er to exclude all members elect who had
! taken part in the rebellion or were dis.
loyal to the government. They will ask
why they suspended the writ of habeas
corpus in ten peaceful States, subiecting
the people thereof to military despot-
ism when the constitution expressly for
bids the suspension of thatwr except
Gin cases of rebellion or INVASION" and
then only when ,"athe public safety may
require it." They will ask Why when
there was no resistance to the civil
courts, the citizens of ten States have
been subjected to, military tribunals in
visitation of positive law and the most
sacred principles Of free government !?
They will ask why so many little States
have been carved -out-of the Western
wilderness; why the President has
been impeached and the Supreme
court threatened and paralyzed !; why
Congress has usurped the power to'reg-
ulate suffrage in the States; why, in the
exercise of this usurped power, every
male negro in the South gtwenty-one
years of age has been made avoter and
multitudes of white men disfranchised;
why, by ezpostfacto laws, they imposed
new disabilities upon men who'll had been
pardoned by the President; why they
have removed them from many of the
most notorious rebels and enforced them
upon the less guilty; and, finally why
they now propose to deprive even the
negroes as, well as the whites IN the
South of their right to vote for 5Presi-
dental electors? To all these questions
and many more, the Radical leaders can
in truth give but one answer, and that
is: "We intend tokeep possession of the
Government. We feared the people of
the Southern States would vote against
us if they were suffered to remain in the
! Union,l and for that reason alone We
practically thrust them out. We knew
they would stillvote against MS if allow:
ed to come in on the basis of the Con-
fstitution, and for that reason we had, to
ilegislate toutside Of the Constitution
assume the power to regulate' suffrage,
enfranchise the negroes, disfranchise
the whites and impose upon them Con-
stitutions virtually of our own making.
Fearing there might be some resistance to
our plan for securing to our party the
votes of the South by disfranchising the
whites and subjecting them to the gov
ernment of their late slaves, we thought
it necessary to suspend the writ of ha-
beas corpus and put them all under mar
tial law. The President was in our
way, and we stripped him of his legiti-
mate powers as far as we could by leg
islation, and not satisfied with that, we
would have removed him from office, but
for treason in our own ranks. 1t was ru-
mored that the Supreme Court would set
aside all our legislation 'outside of the
Constitution and to prevent that we
restricted its jurisdiction and denounced
its members. Sad to relate, our new
hedged voters of the South most un-
gratefully showed signs unmistakable of
| a disposition to &C overto the enemy; so,
to make sure of the votes of the recon-
structed States for our candidates next
fall we have advised our Legislatures,
composed chiefly of our minions, to take
the appointment of electors into their