The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1868-10-29
General Blair Explains His Former Letter
Rec0nsfruckioD

General Blair Explains His Former Lette,
ON DEMONSTRATION.
The following letter from General f
P. Blair. to a citizen of Lafayette, we
find in the lafayette Qnd.) Courier,
.'FT. SANDERS, WYOMING TERRIroRY,1
August q, 1868.
''TooJAMEs HewE, Ese., Lafayette Ena.
''DEAR SIR: have received your
letter in which you ask nae if 1 would
endeayor to have the constitutionality
of the reconstruction acts tested by
the Supreme Court before proceeding
to treat them as null and void. In
answer, I say that the vital principle
of the reconrtruction 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 colpus. n.r
"In that case it was decided in the
= d =
plain language of the Constitution
that the Government could not estab-
lish martial law in time of peace, or
try citizen by military commission,
or court martial. The reconstruction
acts, so-called, stand on martial law,
and nothing else. 1t 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, to
which, I have referred, and they, and
all that has been, done under them,
are null and void. ,rs----
IL" /" A case was made under these acts {;
the case of ,McArdle, of Mississippi,
and brought before the Supreme
Court and it is well known that the
Court was ready to declare these acts
unconstitutional, when Congress
passed another act to deprive the Su-
preme Court of its jurisdiction, and
openly attempted to intimidate the
Judges by threats of remodeling the.
Court 1T. .,.,,-. -. 49,.
oT9 The Supreme Court in another
6 ccalse-thateof 81 Cummings, of Missouri;
decided that the disfranchisement of
the white people of the Southern
States by an act of Congress, was a.
bill of; attainder and er post. ffacto law,
both of which were forbidden in ex-
press terms blythe Constitution. Even
the Radicals admit in their Chicago
platform, that the States alone have
right to decide who shall be entitled
to suffrage within the States ; and yet
Congress has. assumed to take the
right from the white people and give
it to the negroes within the Southern
States.
+" The Reconstruction acts violate the
Constitution in all these particulars.
and it has been already so decided by
The Supreme Court. The Constitu-
hon says the military shall always be
subordinate to the civil authority, but
shese acts have superseded all civil
and erected military gov
'rnments at the South. DO You want
decision, of the Supreme Court to
'how that tits unconstitutional Are
hose WHO say that the military is SUBJ
'rrdinate to the civil authority revo-
utionists? Are those who, demand |
he restoration of the trial by jury, |
which has been suppressed in the |
south by the reconstruction acts, rev.
Are those who claim the |
'eneft of the great writ of right, the
abeas corpus, which is denied to
100000 of our people by the infa-
nous reconstruction acts, to be brand
d as revolutionists. tssf ~.
? Shall we be called revolutionists
ecause we proclaim, in the very Ian
uage of the Constitution, that Con
ress shall pass no bill lof attainder or
< post faeto law 2 or shall we be thus
randed for claiming what the Con
1tution It1 ion comedies to express words,
nat the States shall regulate suffrage
orl themselves 2 Do we want more
ecisions of the. Supreme Court on
iese points The truth is that the
ad1icals are the real reyolutionists.
nd have subVerted the fundamental
of our Government, and
inverted it into a mean and malig-
ant ant iieligarehy, sure to lapse into a
ilitary despotism. .f5szai IDS stf u
"To restore the Government and |
Ie great guarantee Of freedom, con- l
ined in the Constitution and inheri- '
dfrem our ancestors, is 'reYolution.'
o execute the will of the people, 9
hom' the fragmentary Rump Con- +
ess has put at defiance, is revolu- q
IN. I, To carry out the. decisions of s
e Supreme Court is revolution '
lis revolution is at hand. The peo- I
e's win, the judgement of the court Il
the highest Jurisdiction, will be en- U
reed against usurping Rump Con- o
ess. 9i,s 1ast1as ~ sa-.fai 40 .l..ad L
g am, most respectfully, your obe- h
mt servant, FRANK P. BLAIR. N
,------ - .fi'si. Z n
Il. 5,grf..s Contrast. III NJ
Kentucky, like Tennessee, was, dur D,
and at the close of the war. filed W