The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1868-07-01
PROTEST AGAINST THE ADMISSION OF AR
KANSAS.

In addition to the forcible reasoning contained
in the Presidents veto message which will be
found on fourth page to-day, the admission of Ar
kansas into the Union has received fitting rebuke
at the hands of the Democratic members of the
lower House in Congress. This manly protest
against Radical legislation is signed by forty-fye
members and is as follows:
The recognized presence of three persons on the
| floor of this House from the State of Arkansas,
Gent here by military force, acting under brga-
der general of the army, but nevertheless claiming
to be members of this Congress, and to share with
u.s. the Representatives from free States, in the
imposition of taxes and customs and other laws
upon our people, makes it our imperative duty in
this the first case to demonstrate most solemnly,
and to protest as solemnly, against this perious
and destructive innovation upon the principles and
practices of our hitherto constitutional self-govern
ment. The so-called reconstruction acts which
created the military government In Arkansas, ana
| like governments in other Southern States, to
share with us in the legislative power of the
Northern and Western free people, we have every
reason to believe have been held TO be unconstiu-
tional by the Supreme Court of the United States,
the public declaration of which fact was avoided
only by the extraordinary and strange device Of
Congress in snatching jurisdiction from the court
in the McArdle case when such public decision
was about to be made. OF the three great branches
of the Government, it seems, then, that after the
Executive vetoed these acts as unconstitutional,
the judiciary adjudoated them to be so, while a
Congress-the creation of but twenty seven OF the
| thirty-seven States of the Union-overTide these
equal and coordinate branches OF that Govern
| ment, first, by voting down the vetoes; next. by
multiplying the judgment Of the court. In an era
Of profound pence, when not an armed man rises
aginst the Government from the Potomac to the
Rio Grande, there, in ten States, our American
historical way of creating the organic law has
been utterly subverted by the bayonet. Ever
since the Declaration of Independence, with scarce
ly IN exception, and even amid the battles of the
Revolution, conventions have been convoked
through and constitutions created by the electors
of the States, the only authorized repositories OF
the sovereign power of every State, without exte-
rior dctation, as under The existing Federal Con-
stitution, the hardest and harshest test-oath re-
quired from l76to the peace OF l7S3 was an abura-
tion oath of allegiance TO George the Third; while
some of the now so-caled bayonet-made consttu-
tions fromthe South propose absurd and cruel
tesis-absurd, MS in Arkansas where is interviewer
in the organic law mere party test between the
Radical reconstructionists and the Democratic
Conservatives euch as would exclude from voting,
! if living there the thousands and tens of thou
sands of Democrats in the free States, (aricle
eight. section y or cruel, as in Alabama, where
swear his own race and color, and perjure himself
by swearing, in defiance Of. the law OF God, that
the negro is his equal and forever to be his eqnul
at the bullot box. in the jury be1, with the CAR
touch box in the school. in the college, in house
and home and by the freside in short, in every
way, every where.-(A Art. I, sec. T.. Now, in these
and the other Southern States, in the midst OF war,
President Lincoln. in his proclamation, Decen'ben
8. 1868, offered amnesty and pardon TO rebels then
in arms if they would lay down their arms and
take m oath Of fidelity while now, not Union
man in Arkansas or Alabama can VOTE unless, iii
the first place. he swears allegiance to the majesty
of this Congress, and, in the next, swcars of his
Americansm and Africanizes himself. Hitherto
constitutions with US have been the onigrowih Of
popular life, springing from the e1noerance oi our
enterprise and energy in the settlement of The for
ests or praircs of country; but here before US
now VIC have nine constitutions, with one if not
three, more yet 10 come from Texas, which have
all been imposed upon the people by FIVE military
satraps or penlarchs, in q manner never before
| known under our law, but borrowed, at best, from
! ;mperia Roman colonization, or from the worst
prcccdcnts of the French Revolution France is
then recorded to have had five constitutions in
three years, so frequently made and go frequently
changed that .hcy were ironically casscd by TIE
French people with the periodical literature OF The
day Louisiana, a colony OF that France has had
four constitutions in four years and constitution
there has now become periodical literature. ms in
the ngonies and throcs of the great Revoluticn.-
Laws, mere statute laws, which can never be
created by constitutions, are appended, more or
less 10 al these constitutions; and these bayone
created. one branch governments, with no Execu
tive. no Senate, no liuuse of Representatives no
judiciary, have ordained irrepcmlabe, irreversibe
laws in The very organism of the State, such rs
cannot Thus be created by the Executive, the Sen
a.e and the House of Representatives of legiti-
mate governments when acting IN unison and all
combined All this has been done without regard
10 preceding constitutions prcccdents. or 10 the
common law of the S a'e.. or The law of nations.
The military, which. under Legitimate institutions,
can only be used in times OF peace 10 conserve or
preserve the State. have been used to destroy
States. The General Of the army, who represents
The sword, md only the sword. Of the Republic,
has been exalted by nets OF Congress above The
constitutional Commander in Chief The army and
navy. in order to execute those military DEGREES,
and as The surcr way to root out every vesige of
constitutional law OF liberty. The same General
| of the army, in order TO proong and perpeuate
this military domination, North and West, as well
ny South, has been selected in party convention al
Chicago TO head the electoral vote for the Presi-
dency in ten of our States, which are MS much un-
der his feet ns Turkey is under the Sultan. Po-
land under the Gear Of Russia. But, as if only
10 add insul, the injury Of this military outrage
upon the popular government in these ten States.
either by nci of Congress, or by these Congress
soldier made State constitutions, at least 25U,O00
whites have been disfranchised, while 75n 0u6
groes, inexperienced in oil law making and more
ignorant than our children, have been enfranchised
in their stead, and have thus been created absolute
| masters and sovereigns over the whole white pop
ulation of the South
Because of all this and in opposition to all this,
we, Representatives Of the people from the free
States, in behalf of our constituents and Of thou
sands of others who would be here represented if
the popular power without could now constitu-
tionally act here within, earnestly and solemnly
protest against this violence upon cur Constitution
and upon our people, and do hereby counsel and
advise all friends of popular goveroment 10 submit
to this force and fraud only until Mt the ballot box