The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-10-24
Blair on RECOMMENDATION.

The Lafayette Indiana Courier, Of the 18th,
publishes the following letter from General
Frank P. Blair to a citizen of Lafayette:
FoRr SANDERS, WYoMING TERR1roRY,
August "a, 1868.
johannes Howes, ESQ, Lafayette Indiana:
Dear Sri have received your letter, in which
you ask me If ] would endeavor to have the con.
additionally Of the reconstruction acts tested by
the Supreme Court before proceeding to treat
them as null and void. In answer / say that the
vital principle of the reconstruction acts has
already been decided TO be unconstitutional, null
and void, by the Supreme Court the whole bench
concurring in the case of Milligan and Bowles
which went up from the State of Indiana on a
writ of habeas corpus.
In that case IL was decided, in the plain anguass
OF the Constitution, that the government could
not establish martial law IN time Of peace or try
citizen by military commission, or court martial.
The reconstruction sets, so-called stand on
martial law, and nothing else. Ii is the essence
OF these acts They were prepared and put in
execution IN time OF profound peace, in defiance
of the unanimous decision of the Supreme Court.
10 which have referred, and they, aud all that
has been done under them, are null and void.
case was made under these acts-the case of
McCarde, OF Mississippi-and brought before the
Supreme Court and 1t is well known that the
court was ready to declare these acts unconstitu.
tioDal when Congress passed another act to de.
prive the Supreme Court of its Jurisdiction, and
openly attempted to intmidate the judges by
threats of remodeling the court.
The Supreme Court. in another case-that of
Cummings of Missouri-decided that the disfran-
chisement OF the white people of the Southern
States by an act of Congress, a bill of attain.
der and an ex post fssto law, both of which
were forbidden in express terms by the Con-
stituton. Even the Radicals admit. in their Chi.
cago platform, that the States alone have the
right to decide who shall be entitled TO suff age
within the States and yet Congress has assumed
TO take the right from the white people aud give
IL to the negroes within the Southern States.
The reconstruction acts violate the Constitution
IN ell these particulars, and ii has been already so
decided by the supreme Court. The Consultation
says the military shall always be subordinate to
the civil authority, but these acts have superseded
all civil authority, and erected military govern
ments at the South. Do you want a decision of
the Supreme Court to show that this is unconst
tutional! Are those who say that the military is
subordinate TO the civil authority revolutionists
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 habeas corpus, which is denied to g..
Oo0,OOO OF our people by the Infamous reconstruc-
ton acts, to be branded as reyOlutionists?
Shall we be called revoutonists because we
proclaim, in the very language of the Constitu.
ton. that Congress shall pass no bill of attander
or eI post tGcto law or shall we be thus branded
for claiming what the Constitution comedies in ex-
press words, that the States shall regulate suf.
frage for themselves. Do we want more decisions
OF the Supreme Court on these points? The truth
rs that the Radicals are the real revolutionists
and have subverted the fundamental principles
OF our government, and converted it into mean
and malignant oligarchy. sure to lapse into mill.
tary despotism.
To restore the government and the great guar
antees OF freedom, contained 10 the Constitution,
and inherited from our ancestors, is reyolution.n
To execute the will of the people, WHOM the frag
mentaiy 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 people's will the indignant of
the court Of the highest jurisdiction will be en-
forced against usurping rump Congress.
l am, most respectfully. your obedient serv.
ant, FRANK P. BLAIR.