New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1868-01-24

motions always cpange CONSTITUTIONS, anu
there is not an instance in the history OF
the civilized world where q civil war OF
four years desolated the territory of a ma
tion and impoverished the people without
at the same time changing the structure Of
the government But in defiance of all
the teachings of history, the defeated party
in the late war now insist upon the same
Interpretation of the constitution that
resulted in armed collision and the over
throw of slavery. And judges, if they
are wise and sagacious, always recognize
this principle of growth in written as we'll
as unwritten constitutions, and in their
decisions are careful to keep abreast with
the people and the sentiment and civilization
of the times. Whenever they have chung
too tenaciously to old interpretations and
old precedents a return to state of civil
war has been the result, and blood has
flowed in streams that might have been
stayed by recognizing principle which, as
If by the momentum of fate, will force
itself into acceptance, through peace or
through war.
If the Southern people or the Democratic
party at the North think the nation will be
satisfied with any decision of the supreme
court that ignores the late war and what it
conquered, they will learn as they did in
1860 that the North can conquer another
peace if she has toado it through fifty Shi-
loahs and fifty Gettysburgs. And in
the event of another war enc
million of free colered men will
have to be taken into the account,
rising up in all parts of the South,
with the desperation of men who, having
tasted freedom, love it, aud will die to
maintain it for all time to come. The
World, and, we regret to say, the Times
and the Evening Posi-, the first in the spirit
Of genuine copperheadism, the latter in the
spirit of Republican conservatism, say it is
incontestable that great body Of the South
ern whites and large proportion of the
Northern people believe the reconstruction
acts to be unconstitutional. From the
World we could expect no other opinion,
but to be wounded in the house of our
friends is bitter indeed. What right have
Southern whites TO plead the constitution
Nine-tenths of them were rebels who fought
four years to destroy the country, and are,
as then, rebels in heart to-day. Are they
people qualified to give correct opinions of
constitutional law? With all their strength
the Southern whites tried to overthrow the
constitution, and when they were defeated
surrendered, as General Longstreet tersely
stated, to the constitution of the United
States according to the Republican party.
The army of the United States, and the ad-
ministration Of Abraham Lincoln lifted the
constitution up into higher regions of in
depreciation, and brought to bear upon il
higher principles Of justice and Of law
than it lived in under the reign Of James
Buchanan. The Repuh party would
still keep it in that high and pure atmos-
phere, but the Democratic party, standing
on its dismantled fortresses, its ruined
towers. Us graves Of millions of duped |
Southern whites, throws up its graphing
irons, and with the might Of despair tries
to drag it down again to the perdition Of
its own natural existence.
Let the decision of the supreme court
come, and let it come quickly. We rev
erence the voice of the people, and not
the voice of courts. Five old men
upon the verge Of the grave, whose
brains are diseased, whose limbs are
palsled, whose notions of law are
as antiquated as the wormeaten
in The pyramids, whose
whole moral nature is ia the grip Of pro
slavery ethics, are daily looked to by rebels
70 pronounce decision that will result in
the acquittal Of Jefferson Davis the moment
be Is brought to trial, his restoration to the
senate Of the United States from Mississippi.
and the complete success of the rebel
party At the polls next November.
Those old men saw not the horrors
Of war, and know not what ii coss to carry
the stars and stripes to the Gull Of Mexico.
They saw daring all that awful fight. and
see now only the decisions Of 4 few old
men like themselves, and can not Be-
brought to read the constitutional law car.
ried ct the point Of the bayonet into every
battle from Bull Run 70 Five Forks.
We reverence The decisions Of de 81
preme court. but we reverence more tie
decisions Of the soldiers Of the. Grand Army
written ia DE ars and blood Of 80 hundred
battles Or he law pages Of a great nations
heart.
We work and atrasgie wiihia the constr
sulion, and Whiie re work and struggle
Re constitution 81 tie nation, ike lie Cor
stlsutenof our physical boeies, grows VITA
adganelng time and develops all she
Ssrenglh necessary t. preserve is own *.
lstense until rs line to die ana disappear
has come.
~, 5oHnaoA AID QUESTIONS Of VERAo.
IfT