The Fairfield herald. [volume] (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1849-1876, 1868-07-08
Protest of the Democratic Members
against the Admissi)n Of the Arkansas

1 aSdluSI IHo AululSSl )l OI Gne ARKANSAS
Representatives,
| The following is tie protest which
/ Mr. Brooks offered in the House agains
the admission Of tho Representatives o
the State Of Arkansas
The recognized presence OF three per,
sons on the floor Of this House from tho
State Of Arkansas, sent here by military
force, acting under a Brgadicr. General
Of tho army, but nevertheless claiming
to be members Of this Corgscss, and ,o
share with us, the Representatives lroul
the free States, III the imposition of tax
cs and customs and other laws upon our
people, makes it our imperative duty, in
this The lirst case, to demonstrate most
solcmnly and to protest as socmnly
against this pcrlous and destructive in.
novation upon the principles and pract-
ces Of our hitherto constitutional self
government. The so-calleJ rcconstruc.
ton acts, which created the military
government in Arkansas, and like gov
ernments in other Southern States, to
share with us in the legislative power
Of the Northern and w cstcrn free pco-
pie, we haye every reason to believe
have been held unconstitutional by the
Supreme Court Of the United States,
the public declaration Of which fact was
avoided only by tho extraordinary and
strange device of this Congress in
snatching jurisdiction from the court in
the McArdle case when such public
Il - l..
Of tho three great branches OF the
government, it seems, then, that after
the Executive vetoed these acts as un.
constitutional, the judiciary aljuoicatcd
them to be so, willie a Congress the
creation Of but twenty seven O. the
thirty -icvon States Of the Union, over
rides the equal and coordinate branches
of that Government, first by voting
down the vc,oes, next by nulifying The
Judgment Of the Court In an era OF
profound peace, when not an armed
man rises against the Government from
the Potomac to the Rio Grandc 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 Indcpcn-
dence-wth scarcely an exception.
and even amid the battles Of the Revo-
luton, Conventions have been ccnvok.
cd inrnnHh nnl Comet; Out; ons rrnn ed
by, the electors Of the States, tho only
authorized repositories Of the sovereign
power Of every State without exterior
dlclalion, as under the existing Federal
Constitution. The hardest and harsh
est test oath required from l77G to the
peace Of 1888 was an, abjuration oath
Of allegiance TO George tie Third. while
some of the so.calel bavonct.mado
Constitutions from the South pro-
pose absurd and cruel tcsts--absurd,
as in Arkansas, where is interviewer in
the organic law mere party test be-
tween the Radical Reconstructionists
and The Democratic Conservative, such
as would exclude from voting, if living
there, the thousands and tens Of thou.
sands and hundreds OF thousands of De-
mocrats IN the free States, (art. s, sec.
4, or cruel, as in Alabama, where no
white mau can vote who will not for..
ever forswcar his own race and color,
and perure himself by swearing, in
defiance ofthc law Of God, that tho ne.
gro i, his equal, and forever to be his
equal at tho ballot,box, in the jury.box,
with the cartouch-box. in the school, in
the college, in house and home, and by
the freside-in short, in every way,
everywhere (art. z, SEC. l4.) Now,
in these and the other Southern States,
in the midst Of war, President Lincoln,
in his proclamation Of December Sth,
1868, offered pardon and amnesty to
rebels then in arms, if they would lay
down their arms and take an oath of
fidelity, whilo now not Union man in
Arkansas or Alabama can vote unless
in the first place he swcars allegiance to
the majesty OF this Congress, and, IN the
next, swears off his Amerlcanism and
Africanizes himself.
Hitherto Constitutions with us have
been the outgrowlh Of popular life,
springing from the exuberance ofour en-.
tcrprise and energy in the settlement Of
the forests or prairies of our country,
but here before us now are nine Consti-
tutions, with one, ifnot three, more to
come from Texas, which have all been
imposed upon The people by five militia
ry satraps or pentarchs in a manner
never before known under our law, but
borrowed at best from imperial Roman
civilization, or from the worst prece-
dents Of the French revolution. France
is then recorded to have had five Consti.
tutIons in three years; so frequently
made and 80 frequently changed that
they were ironically classed by the
French people with the periodical htcra.
turo Of the day. Louisiana, colony Of
that France, has had four Constitutions
in four years, and Constitution thero
has nov. become periodical literature, as
in France in the agoncs and throes OF
the great revolution. Laws, where stat
ute laws, which can never be created
by Constitutions, are appended, more or
less, TO all these Constitutions and these
bayonets created one-branch Govern.