Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1868-10-21
BLAIR ON RECONSTRUO.
TTON. a1 ri'I
His Former letter Explained and
ElalanenlasI. IL -

His Former Letter Explained ans
Elaborated.
The lafayette (Indiana) Courier of Sat
nrday last publishes the following lelte
from Gen. Frank P. Blair to a citizen o
Lafayette:
| Fort SANDERS, WYOMING TERR1roRY
August "a, 1868.-To JAMES HowEs, ESQ
LAFAYETTE, INDIANA-DEAR SIR: Ihave
received your letter, in which you ask me
IL would endeavor to have the constitu-
lonality Of the reconstruction acts tested
BY theSupreme Court before proceeding to
treat them as null and void. In answer,
say that the vital principle Of the recon-
struction acts has already been decided ID
pc unconstitutional, null and void, by the
supreme Court, the whole bench concur
ring in the case of Milligan and Bowies,
which went up from the State of Indiana
on writ OF hdbeGs corpus. u.
In that case it was decided, in the plain
language of the Constitution, that the gov
eminent could not establish martial law in
time OF peace, or try citizen BY military
commission or court.martial. The recon-
struetion acts, so-called, stand on martial
Law, and nothing elsa II il the essence of
these acts. They were prepared and put In
execution in time of profound peace, ia de-
nance OF the unanimous decision Of thu
Supreme Court, to which have referred. !
and they, and all that has been done under
them, are null and void,
A case was made under these acts-the
case Of McCardle, OF Mississippi-and
brought before the Supreme Court :; and it
ID well known that the court was ready TO
declare these acts unconstitutional, when
Congress passed another act to deprive the
Supreme Court of its jurisdiction, and
openly attempted to intimidate the Judges
by threats of remodeling the court.
The Supreme Court, in another case
that of Cummings, of Missouri-decided
that the disfranchisement of the white
people of the Southern States BY an acf of
Congress- was a bill Of attainder and an en-
post factO law, both of which were forbidden
in express terms by the Constitution.
Even the Radicals admit, in their Chicago |
platform, that the States alone have the |
right to decide who shall be entitled 10 |
suffrage within the Ststes and yet Con. |
gress has assumed TO take the right from |
the white people and give it to the negroes
within the Southern States.
The reconstruction acts violate the Con- |
stitution 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 |
a decision of the Supreme Court to show
that this is unconstitutional Are those
who say that the military is subordinate to |
the civil authority reVolulionists Are
those who demand the restoration of the /
trial by jury, which has been suppressed
in the South by the reconstruction acts,
reVolutionists? Are those who claim the /
benefit of the great writ of right, the
hdbeas corpus which is denied to 100000 |
OF our people by the infamous reconstruc-
ton acts, to be branded as reyolutionists?
Shall we be called reyolutiOnists because
We proclaim, in the very language of the
Constitution, that Congress shall pass no
bill OF attainder or er post tdetO law? or
shall we be thus branded for claiming what
the Constitution comedies in express words,
that the States shall regulate suffrage for
Do we want more decisions
Ofthe Supreme Court on these points? The
truth is that the Radicals are the real reyO-
and have subyerted the fuuda-
mental principles of our government, and
it into q mean and malignant
sure TO lapse into military des-
potism.
To restore the government and the great
guarantees OF freedom, contained in the
Constitution, and inherited from our an
cestOrs, is revolution" To execute the
will of the people, whom the fragmentary
RumP Congress has put at defiance, is
revolution" 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 high
est Jurisdiction, will be enforced against a
lsurping Rump Congress.
am, most respectfully, your obedient
Ieryant, .. FRANK p. BLAIR.