The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1868-06-22
What Can we no WIN ruum.

The encouragement that the Southern
Rebels get from Northern Copperheads is
not thrown away. The Memphis Avalanche
says that Gov. Humphreys of Mississippi re-
fuses to obey the order of Gen. Mcdowell re-
moving him from Office. The loyal conven-
tion now in session in Texas has memorial
lied Congress to allow Union men to organ
ize military force to protect them from the
Rebel ruffians who are daily numbering some
of their number. The South Carolina Dem
ocrats held one convention in which they
concluded that it would be good policy to de-
clare in favor of universal suffrage, but the
spirit of their Northern allies was so very
different that they promptly called another
and recanted. The murder of Ashburn in
Georgia has been followed by the murder Of
Dill in South Carolina, and last and worst,
of Lawrence in Kentucky. An investigation
of the Lawrence case shows that it was as de-
liberate an assassination as ever dsgraced
the annals of any country. The Kuklux
Klan made it the last of a series of five ex-
ploits of the kind all committed within few
weeks. 1t was part of plan to compel
every Union man to leave that part OF the
country. The evidence is overwhelming that
so tar as they dare to act the Rebels in many
parts of the South are as arrogant and as
dangerous as they ever were. The Richmond
New Nation says that if the military forces OF
the United States were withdrawn, it would
be impossible to continue the publication of
that paper. The editor of Republican pa
per in South Western Tel nessee writes to us
that he and all others engaged in a similar
work carry their lives in their hands. We
might 60 on accumulating evidence of this
kind ad intinitum.
Has not Congress made a mistake then in
admitting eight States, including Tennessee,
to the Union? What safeguard is there that
when there is no longer any power vested in
the general government to interpose between
the loyal men and their foes, the Rebels
will not oust the recently established govern
ments, disfraDchise the negroes and restore
the old regime in the modified form in which
it exists in Maryland?
The manner in which republican institu-
tions may still be upheld, notwithstanding the
loss of direct coercive power by Congress and
the President, may be gathered from the
fourth section of the fourth article of the
constitution and from the history of Ten
nessee during the two years of the continu-
ance of its free State government. The arti-
| Gle referred to is as follows:
The United States shall guarantee to every
| State in this Union Republican form of gov
ernment, and shall protect each of them
against invasion and on application of the legis-
| tdtuTe or the executive (when the legislature
cannot be convened against domestic uiolence
Now the repeal of the military government
acts, which expire by their own limitation
upon the admission of the Rebel States to
the Union, does not necessitate the Withdraw.
al of troops. They may still be stationed in
those parts of the country where there il
| greatest danger of an outbreak. Under these
circumstances the possession of the govern
ment by loyal men is more than nine points
of the law, Tor i'll case Of violence too great
to be suppressed by the local authorities the
intervention of the military power of the
United States may be lawfully invoked
Again and again have the disfranchising Reb
els of Tennessee taken bold steps toward the
overthrow of Brownlow, but they have slunl
back in terror of the army under Thomas
which has ever been ready to assist the Stat'
government upon the requisition of the leg
islature or the executive. In this way peac
has been preserved. 1t is still a government
of the sword and We can hardly hope TO
| better things until the Northern Copperbead:
who are responsible for this suppressed hos
tlity as they were for fagrant war, stop stim
ulating the malcontents to resistance to Law
and defilng the moral atmosphere with thei
half deyilish and half idiotic asseveration
about white mans government.
"A young lady farmer in the fruit region {
Southern Illinois got 20 per cent. more for he
strawberries than others because she gave be
l~.xI. IL ..