New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1868-03-01

ity-has the power conferred on the
government by the constitution in
the matter referred to, and this seems, in
our judgment, to be SO plain as 10 be con
elusive on the subject. There ought to
have been no dispute between the Presi.
dent and Congress as to their respective
powers and duties with this decision of the
Supreme Court before them. There would
have been comparatively but little trouble
In organizing these states had the President
acted on this view of the respective
powers Of the several branches of the gov
eminent. The Southern people would not
have been deceived with hopes of returning
to the halls OF Congress without conditions.
They would have acted most likely
throughout as they seemed willing to act
at the termination of the war, quietly to
have conformed to the authority of the
government to have gone forward and
organized their States without the bitter
| opposition that now charaeterizes their con-
duct. They would not SO soon have for
gotten that they were men who by the
rebellion had forfeited all their political
rights. They never would have undertaken
| the impractioable thing of seeking to get
their leaders back to Congress without con.
ditions. They would most likely have
claimed the present reconstruction laws of
Congress, had they been passed in such an
event, as mild treatment, as they are in fact,
aud that their leaders ought to have been.
as they are by these laws, DISTINGUISHED
from voting, and no one hold an office who
had been engaged in the rebellion.
But under the Presidents determination
to be not simply President and commander
in-chief of the army and navy, but to exer-
else, as in this case, at least,the law-making
power, also under his efforts to subvert the
authority vested ain Congress by the con
stitution OF the United States in the matter
of guaranteeing republican forms of gov
eminent to states, under the spirit he has
shown OF making treason respectable in
stead of odious," and the rebellion but
four years of amusement, instead of ter
ribly destructive civil war. BY all these,
be has encouraged opposition to the con-
gTessional plan of reconstruction, and has
fostered spirit of bitterness and hate in
the North against congress and the great
Republican party that seems almost ready
to break out in an open rebellion. ALI this
opposition, all this bitterness and hate the
Republican party of the country must meet
and put down by an overwhelming vote
a vote so large that it cannot but convince
the Democratic party of the North and the
South, too, that the people are not only in
earnest, but that they are determined that
the men who undertook to destroy the
government by the rebellion shall not be
returned to power; that the rebel debt shall
not be paid; that no remuneration for slaves
emancipated, or for damages done to rebel
| property by the march of armies shall
ever be made by the government, nor
shall the widows and orphans of
| haI 10 ho ,,lp
with the widows and orphans of Union
soldiers as pensioners Of the government ;
but, on the other hand, the debt of the
United States incurred in putting down the
rebellion shall be held inviolate.
But let us proceed with our hasty review
of the past: AS we have already said, the
president undertook to organize govern
ments in the rebel states. In his procla-
nation of the goth of May, 1865, he pro-
vides who shall be qualified as an eleetor,
or as u member of the convention.
And he adds "And is voter qualified as
prescribed by the constitution and laws of
the state of North Carolina, in force imme-
diately before the twentieth day of May,
A. D.. 1872 He followed this form for
the other states. Then follows a descrip-
ton OF the fourteen excepted classes,
which IN the whole South DISTINGUISHED
from voting for conventions some two humid
red and fifty to three hundred thousand
men, but left the others free to held Office.
The cOlered race had no part in the Presi-
dents plan of reconstruction a small ma
| iority of the white race voted The pro-
Visional governors called the conventions !;
they held the elections, counted the votes,
and after the constitutions were formed the
President accepted them, without submit
ting them to the people Of the state for ap-
prevail, and without consulting Congress.
He authorized the voters under these con-
situations to proceed to elect legislature,
State officers, and members of Congress, and
the legislature to elect senators to take
seats in the Senate Of the United States.
Now, can it be claimed that these State
governments thus organized without the
authority Of Congress, where the authority
to organize exclusively belongs, as shown
by the plain reading of the constitution and
by the decision of the Supreme Court, are
legal in any proper sense? Yet every
rebel in the land is clamorous in his
demand for the recognition of these illegally
organized governments, and every Demo-
erat from Maine to Oregon are secoRding
the demand. and why? Because it would
restore the Democratic party to power in
1
the halls of congress without taking the
| test oath. Il is a singular FACT Connected
with the history Of political parties in this
country that it was the Democratic party
in the South that carried the Southern
people into rebellion against their govern
ment. 1t is the Democratic party now that
makes war upon the Congressional plan OF
reconstruction. Whatever a man in the
South may have been before the war.
| whether Wing or Democrat, if he became a
rebel he is afDemecrat to-day, for all rebels
seem to be Democrats now; all secessi0nists
Nare Democrats; all State sovereignty men
are Democrats. The Democratic party in
the North during the war were in sympathy
in large numbers with the rebellion. They
| declared in their National Convention, in
1864, that the war was failure, and this,
/ too, only a few months before the rebel
armies were crushed out by the Union sol
diers. They organized secret societies
/ for resisting the draft and for diseour-
aging recruiting Of the Union army. Some
| OF their men were convicted of having q
plan on foot for seizing by force the gov
ernments of Ohio and Indiana, and of using
| these governments in the interests of the
rebellion. The government of the rebel
states, organized by the Presidents authori-
| ty, fell into the hands Of dislOyal men; who
had been rebels. There was no prOtectionfOr
the lives or property Of Union men, either
white or black The property of Northern
Union men was allowed to be preyed upon
by thieves without redress from the courts
Il q 4 ~,