The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1868-10-31

c0ustfuct1oni Acts rest upon q fAlE8
basis; that they are unconstitutional;
that they are unnatural and unres-
sonable; that they are unwise, and
that they have within them the ele-.
ments of weakness, fSs;;i5afe and decay.
LAS to the grounds upon which
these Acts have been based, as 4
understand it, there are two: first,
the disloyalty of the Southern whites
rendering it unsafe to entrust them
with ther former power, and, second
II, the assumption that the participa-
tion of tho Southern people in their
opposition to the Government at
Washington brought about lapse of
their political rights and q sacrifice of
their heritage of liberty. Let us
consider these propositions in their
order. It is charged by the radical
party that the Southern whites were
and are disloyal. I deny the charge
When the war ended, the soldiers of
our armies were paroled, and they
have observed their paroles. Fur
ther, the South candidly accepted
the issues decided by the war and
honorably were ready to resume their
obedience to the Constitution and
laws of the Union. No disposition
was evincsd by the Southern people
to disregard in peace that power
which had overcome them in war.
If loyalty consists in adhesion TO the
creed and practices of radicalism,
then the Southern whites are and
have been disloyal. But if loyalty
consists, as we hold that it does, in q
stern fidelity to plighted faith, to
truth, to justice, to the Constitution
of the land and to the noblest sympa-
thies of our nature, then has the
South been loyal, then is the South
loyal, and no part of the country is
more loyal than she.
But it is contended that by engag-
ing in the so-called rebellion there
was effected lapse of the political
rights of the Southern people, and
that the reconstruction measures
stand justified upon this ground. In
answer to this proposition, L have to
say that it is clearly untenable, unless
it can be shown that, at the time of
the Act of rebellion" or secession,
there was in existence law provid-
ing for forfeiture of political rights
in contingency named. Now, no
such law existed, and even if such
law had been in force, no forfeiture
could be consummated until after the
party had been duly arrested, tried
and convicted. Hence, when the
South embarked in secession, there
was under the laws and Constitution
of the Union, which the Northern
Government held she had never left,
no lapse of the political rights of her
people. And thus we have shown
that the main grounds upon which
the reconstruction measures rest are
false.
2. These measures are clearly un-
constitutional.
On this point I need say but little,
for the proposition is almost self-evi-
dent To establish it I might simply
point to the admissions of the author
himself of the Reconstruction Acts,
Mr.. Stevens. 'It is we'll known" I"
said Mr.. S., "that we are acting out
side of the Constitution" But the
radical leaders, just as they had de-
parted from Mr.. Lincoln's mag
IouiulipJ, oO UAOy ICCC1Su 1IOun ILL.,
Stevens candor. They repudiated
this view of Mr.. Stevens, and sought
refuge in that article of the Federal
Constitution which authorizes Con-
gress to guarantee to every State a
"Republican form of government. "
Now I have in this address already
defined the elements that enter into a
proper conception of Republican
form of government. The conditions
were fulfilled in the Governments of
each of the seeding States. And if,
in the opinion of the radical leaders,
the institution of African slavery
made these Governments non-Repub-
lican, why, surely, they became Re-
publican just as soon as this institu-
tion was formally abandoned by the
action of the Legislatures of the
Southern States. The point of the
radical leaders is not we'll taken. In
exorable logic, the facts of the case,
the admission made by the Govern
ment at Washington, the acts done
by that Government show con-
clusively that the Southern States
were States before the war, States
during the war, and States after the
war; that Congress, under the laws
and Constitution of the land, had no