Bloomsburg democrat. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1867-1869, 1868-09-16
pr OOMSpTJRG PA WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER Is, 1868.


except as IN emanation Of the war power.
The war ended in April 1865, and yet this in
strumentalty of Radical government Is now
spending our money at the rate Of millions
a year. When the Bureau measure was first
considered, Mr.. Wilson of Massachusetts
proposed as an amendment to the bill Great
ing it that it should continue a year or two
after peace. A debate took place and it
was then insisted by me that the Bureau
could not exist beyond the war upon any
prctence even of power. The Senate re-
iected the amendment. At a subsequent
session the bill was PASSED in a form which
authorized the continuance Of the Bureau
for wear from the close Of the war. The
war closed in April 1865, but the duration of
the Bureau was extended by subsequent le-
gisation, and here we are in the year 1868,
more than three years after peace came, and
that interesting institution is yet in exist
cnce and in full action.
THE RECONSTRUCTION LAWS.
Now, take the Reconstruction laws as they
are callcd-the act Of March 2, 1867, Of
March % and of July - OF that year, and
of March IL, 1868. What are those laws ?
They provide in the first place that in the
States of the South there shall be military
government, pure and simple. Five major
generals were placed in command in ten
States and those States were divided into
military districts. They had conferred on
them the power to administer civil and
criminal Justice at their pleasure throughout
those States without limitation except that
they could not take life without the consent
of the President of the United States, and
it required two struggles in Congress to get
that cxccption-it only came at the end OF
prolonged debate at night session. The
whole population of those Statos were, about
two years after peace had been secured,
placed under the command Of major gener-
ais who had power to try by military conf
missions or courts martial anybody for any
thing, to sentence at their pleasure, and to
execute those sentences with the single eX-
ception have mentioned
What next? Provision was made that
the people in those States might possibly
have civil governments with full powers at
some time. So it was enacted that the
generals should appoint men to register the
voters, and appoint time for holding
elections when men should be chosen to
State Conventions to form Constitutions
which were to be submitted to a popular
vote that all the officers Of election should
be appointed by them, and after Constitu-
tions were adopted they were to transmit
them to Congress. In voting to select
members of State Conventions and i'll vot-
ing upon the adoption Of State Constitu-
tons, all the adult male negroes were to be
permitted to vote, not one of whom had
ever been allowed to vote by any Constitu-
ton before. BY act of Congress it was pro-
vided that they might all vote at these two
elections. Where did Congress get the
power to do that? Who made the Consti-
tuition of Pennsylvania In l77G, during
the Revolution, u Convention chosen by the
people of Pennsylvania met which was pre-
sided over by Benjamin Franklin and made
Constitution tor our State. Again, in
1890, a Convention freely chosen by the
people formed a constitution and after they
formed it announced it by proclamation in
the streets of Philadelphia. That constitu-
tion is in force yet and we are living under
it. In 1888 Il convention met that proposed
certain amendments to it which being sub
mitted to the people and accepted by them
became part Of the constitution of the
State. Since that time, on several occasions,
the Legislature at two successive sessions
agreeing upon some foim of amendment to
the constitution, it has been submitted to
the people of the State and voted upon by
them. And so it has been everywhere in
this country. If there isa principle certain
and established in America, and certain and
established as republican principle in the
organization Of free government. It's, that
the people who are to be bound by a con.
stitution and they only, can make it. Of
course, we all know that it belongs to the
very horn-book of political science.
Who made the constitutions in the South
under this scheme Of reconstruction? Sub.
stantially, they were made by Congress, and
in that Congress not one representative I'm
either Senate or House) from any one Of
those States. So that, in the first place,
they were not made by the people who were
to be bound by them and in the next place
| they were made by representative bodies In
which the people to be bound by them had
no representation whatever That is Radi
cal reconstruction in this Uulon in 1867 and
1868! Well, we should think that rather
stern practice to be appliedin Pennsylvania
Perhaps we should do something more thar
yrumble if it were attempted here. But the
location of such an act by Congress does moi
change its character. 1t is just as wrong
for Congress to pass outside Of its just au
thority and make Il constitution in one State
of the Union as in another; Congress cal
make one nowhere. Now observe, they pro
vided that the whole mass OF adult negro
men should vote in choosing delegates tc
conventions and should vote on the question
of adopting the constitutions made by sucl
conventions, and the whole proceeding wa:
to be superintended and to great extent
controlled by major-generals of the army o.
the United States. If there is anything o
necessity to be inserted in constitution
when made, it is the rule of suffrage. Iha
is at the foundation of everything in making
free political institutions. Who shall vot'
is the first and important thing to be deter
mined and regulated. The political com
munity determines that for itself; and iron
time to time that rule of suffrage. may, b'
changed by the people, as has been done Otter
in our State and in other States.
But there was something further in thi
legislation. Not only did it provide that th'
negroes should be permitted to vote at thos'
two elections connected with organization
but it was further provided that the constl
tutions to be formed should confer such rlgh
of suffrage upon them ; or, what amounted
to the same thing, it was provided that If
constitution contained such a provision, /
would be accepted, or deemed acceptable b.
I.Concress and the State adopting 1t be re