The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1868-10-22
-, gIafr on Reconstrucsfosa----
eenerS ormer letter Explained and
Elaborated.

=, g,afr on reconsideration
GenerS or,uer settcr Explained and
Elaborated.
t Ths Lafayette (Iudianal Courier Of satur-
=. last I1 1ss the following letter from
c %,Dsral Frank P. Blair to citizen of La
hyette u,,., rnn,,monr
f'" August "a, 1868.
-, 1o,nes Roooes, ESQ.,, Lafayette, Ind.
aro.r Sir,-I have received your letter,
-s;rh YOU ask me if | would fendeayor
IN VIZ, the constitutionality Of the recon-
70 ns ',;nn acts tested by the Supreme Court
s.tars proceeding to treat them as null and
F s:j In answer, | have to say that the
'o vow, ,r;nciple Of the reconstruction acts
WA ..,1sody been decided to be unconstitu-
h's "I null, and void, by the Supreme
s"" tho whole bench concurring in the
Vy"' II Milligan and Bowles, which went
'Nt tw,r, the State Of Indiana on ii writ of
Ia5sas corpus.
" an that case it was decided, in the plain
,.,r,are of the Constitution, that the Co
eminent could not establish martial Law
n time Of peace, or try citizen by mill
.s-y commission or court-martial. The re-
",ns.ruc,ion acts, go called, stand ON mar
.;aI law. and nothing else. 1t is the essence
# these acts. They were prepared and
mt in execution in time Of profound peace,
n defiance of the unanimous decision Of the
Snnreme Court, 10 which hare referred,
and they, and all that has been done under
them, are null and void.
"A case WAS made under these acts (the
ease lot McCardle, Of Mississippi) and
hrough before the Supreme Court and it
is we'll known that the court was ready to
declare these acts unconstitutional, when
Congress passed another act to deprive the
Supreme Court of it's jurisdiction, and
openly attempted to intimidate the judges
by threats Of remodelling the court.
1.-THE Supreme Court in another case
that Of Cummings, of Missouri decided
that the disfranchisement Of the white peo-
ple of the southern States by an act of Con-
f1cto law, both Of which were forbidden in
express terms by the Constitution. Even
the Radicals admit in their Chicago plat
form that the States alone have the right to
,scile who shall be entitled to suffrage
xjtbin the States; and yet Congress has
assumed to take the right from the white
reople and give it TO the negroes within the
southern States. ~.
1.-THE reconstruction acts violate the Con-
.t;tution in all these particulars, and it has
been already so decided by the Supreme
Court. The Constitution says the military
shall always be subordinate to the civil
authority but these acts have superseded
all civil authority, and erected military
governments at the South. Do you want
decision of the Supreme Court to show that
This is unconstitutional Are those who
say that the military is subordinate to the
civil authority reyolutionists Are those
who demand the restoration of the trial by
Jury, which has been suppressed in the
South by the reconstruction acts, revolu-
,onists? Are those who claim the benefit
of the great writ of right, the habeaS corpus,
which is denied to 5000, 600 of our people
ty the Infamous reconstruction acts, to be
branded as revolutionists ?
"Shall we be called revolutionists be-
cause we proclaim in the very language of
the Constitution that Congress- s,o Ji3 e. aspra
bin of attainder or &c GIss pS q.
shall VIC be thus brarrNyu r5resa.ssDK ANAN
the Constitution comedies In express words,
that the States shall regulate suffrage for
themselves? Do We want more decisions OF
the Supreme Court on these points? The
truth is, that the Radicals are the real
reyolutionists, and have subverted the fun
dqmental principles of our Government
And converted it into mean and malignant
ogarchy, sure to lapse into a military
despotsm.
"To restore the Government and the
great guarantees Of freedom contained in
the Constitution, and inherited from our
ancestors, is revolution To execute the
will of the people, whom the fragmentary
Rump Congress has put at defiance, is re
yoluton.' To carry out the decisions Of
The supreme Court is revolution This
revolution is at hand. The peoples will,
the Judgment of the court of the highest
jurisdiction, will be enforced against q
usurping Rump Congress.
a am, most respectfully, your obedient
servant, FRANK ?. BLAIR"