The Placer herald. [volume] (Auburn, Placer County, Calif.) 1855-1991, 1868-09-26

"p'oH SooSteSs mas admitted INTO tne u ulon
without the population of a second rate city
each having as many Senator'S as old State,
with their swarming millions. Is it Repub
ican that twenty thousand voters in The
Western plains and mountains should have
the same representation in the Senate ano
the same vote for President, in case of at
election by the House of Representatives, a.
a million u. voters in New York, Penusylva
MIA, Oh,,y, and the other great States {! Yes
it is moiiern Republicanism it is that Re
publicanism which tramples upon every fun
damental principle Of free government to Sc
cure political power; which casts the Const
tuition behind it when it is an obstacle IN Ils
way which dispenses with the civil authorl
ties in peaceful States, and governs with the
bayonet which takes suffrage from lntell-
gence and vests it in ignorance; which i'm
poses constitutions on unwilling communities,
under threats of military coercion, and calls
them free States which would impeach an
honest President for attempting to protect
and defend violated Constitution, and de-
rrives an upright judiciary of its legitimate
Jurisdiction lest it should commit the same
ofi'ense; which Furnishes crimes cancelled by
the pardoning power. and compeIs citizens
hv test oaths to testify against themselves ;
and which arrogates to itself, over ten States,
notwithstanding the constitutional limitation
of its authority, all the powers claimed and
exercised by the veriest despot on eaith
But there seems TO be a pause in the mad
career of the usurpers' Reconstruction, lately
urged on with railroad speed, seems to sud-
denly suspend. What is the matter DO
the tools so eagerly grasped by the usurpers
begin to cut their own fingers? do the ne
groes begin to rebel against their new mas
ters Is it certain that their new LEGGED
voters in the South will not vote against the
Radicals in the approaching Presidential cleo
ton Behold their expedents to avo'd such
calamity ! The first is, to take iron the
reconstructed States the right to choose elec
tors in any mode. BY these two eXpedlents
they expect to secure the electoral votes OF
the one class of States, and avoid the danger
of having the votes of the other cast against
them. Of the latter class OF States are VIZ
gina Mississippi and Texas, Is Virginia In
the Union or out? She went to get out, and
was forced to stay in. II she is not IN
now, who has put her out? And has Con-
gress power to put States out OF the Union
They have practically usurped that power,
and have passed an act prohibiting that and
the other unrec onstructed States from taking
part in the approaching Presidential election.
If Congress can at will put States ont OF the
Union and can establish military empire
outside of the Union, woe be to the cause of
liberty within the Union
The members of Congress cannot escape
their responsibility to the people, and their
allegiance to the Constitution by any such
subterfuge. The people will ask them why
they denied all representation to the South
ern people in Congress, when, in their un-
questioned privilege to judge of the qualif
cations of their own members, they bad the
power to exclude all members elect who had
taken part in the rebellion or were disloyal
to the Government. They will ask why
they suspended the writ of habeas corpus in
ten peaceful States subjecting the people
thereof to military despotism, when the
suspension of that writ, except sin cases of
rebellion or INVASION" and then only when
"the public safety may require u" They
will ask why, when there was no resistance
to the civil Courts, the citizens of ten States
have been subjected to military tribunals in
princi piles of free government? They will
ask why so many little States have been
carved out of the Western wilderness; why
the President has been impeached, and the
Supreme Court threatened and paralyzed
why Congress has usurped the power to reg
ulate suffrage in the States; why in the ex
ercise OF this usurped power, every male ne
gro in the South, twenty'one years of age,
has been made voter, and muIttudes Of
white men dsfranchised why, by ex post
facto laws they imposed new disabilities up
on men who have been pardoned by the
President; why they have removed them
from many of the most notorious rebels, and
enforced them upon the less guilty !; and ii
nalIy, why they now propose to deprive even
the negroes AS we'll as the whites in the
South Of the right to vote for Presidential
electors? To all these questions, and many
more, the Radical leaders can in truth give
but one answer, and that is 1--WE INTEND TO
KEEP POSSESSION OF THE GOVERNMENT. We
feared the people of the Southern States
would vote against us if they were suffered
10 Ieiho'" ~ tue OuIOu, anu Io' tndl 'o"Sou
alone we practically thrust them out We
knew they would still vote against us if al
lowed to come in on the basis of the Con
and for that reason we had to leg
islate outside of the Constitutlon,' assume
the power to regulate suffrage, enfranchise
the negroes, disfranchse the whites and inn
pose upon them Constitutions virtually of
our own making. Fearing there might be
some resistance to our plan for securing to
our party the votes OF the South by dsfran-
chising the whites, and subjecting them to
the government Of their late slaves, we
thought it necessary to suspend the writ of
habeas corpus, and put them all under mar
ta law. The President was in our way,
and we stripped him Of bis Legitimate pow
ers as far as we could by legislation; and not
satisfied with that, we would have removed
him from Office, but for treason in our own
ranks. 1t was rumored that the Supreme