The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1868-06-30

able, itrsversible laws in the very or
ganism Of the State, such as cannot
thus be created by the Executive, the
Senate, and the House Of -Represen-
tatiyes Of legitimate Governments,
when acting in unison, and all CON-
bined All this has been done with
out regard 70 preceding Constitu-
tlons or procedents, or the common
law OF the States, or the Inv of na-
tions. The military, which under
legitimate institutions can. only be
used in times of peace to conserve or
preserve the State, have here been
used to destroy States. The general
Of the army. who represents the
sword, and only the sword, of the
Republic, has been exalted by acts Of
Congress above the constitutional
Commander-in-Chief of the .rmy
and navy, in order to execute those
military DEGREES, and as the surer
way to root out every vestige of con-
stitutional law or liberty. The same
General of the army, in order to pro-
long and perpetuate this military
domination North and West, as we'll
as South, has been selected in party
convention at Chicago to head the
electoral vote for the Presidency in
ten of our States, which ere rs much
under his feet as Turkey is under the
Sultan. or Poland under the Gear of
Russia. But, as if only to add in
suit to the injury of this military out
rage upon the popular government in
these ten States, either by Act of
Congress or by these Congress
soldier-made State Constitutions, at
least 25O,O00 whites have been dis
franchised, while 100000 negroes,
inexperienced in all law making, and
more Ignorant than our children,
have been enfranchised in their
stead, and have thus been created ab-
solute masters and sovereigns over
the whole white population of the
South.
Because of all this, and in opposi-
ton to all this, we, representative of
the people from the free States, in
behalf of our constituents and of
thousands and tens of thousands of
others, who would be represented if
the popular power without could
now constitutionally net here within,
earnestly and solemnly protest
against this violence upon our Con-
stltution and upon our people, and
do hereby counsel and advise all
friends of popular government to
submit to this force only until at the
ballot-box, operating through the
elections, this great wrong can be
put right. There is no law in the
land over the constitutional law.
There Is no government but constitu-
tlonal government; and hence all
bayonet-made, all Congress-imposed
Constitutions are of no weight, au-
thority, or sanction, save that en-
forced by arms-an element of power
unknown to Americans in peace, and
never required but as it acts in and
under the supreme civil law, the
Constitution, and the statutes enact
ed In pursuance thereof. We pro-
test, then, in behalf of the free peo-
pie of the North and the West,
against the right of this military
oligarchy, established in Arkansas or
elsewhere in the now re-enslayed
States of the South, to impose upon
US, through Congress, taxes or Gus
toms, or other laws to maintain this
oligarchy, or its Freedmen's Bureau.
We protest against going into the
now proposed copartnership of mill
tary dictators and negroes in the ad-
mlnistration of this Government.
We demand, in the name of the
fathers of the Constitution, and for
the sake of posterity, not its recon-
struction, but the restoration of that
sacred instrument which has been to
us pillar of fire from 1887, on to its
present overthrow; and in all solem-
nifty, before God and man, under a
full sense of the responsibility of all
we utter, we do hereby affix our
names to this protest against the ad-
mission of these three persons, claim
ing to be members of Congress from
Arkansas.
THE TEST OATH OF LEGISLATORS
DISPENSED WITH.-General Canby