The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1868-07-11

the heaviest taxation, TO meet the liabilities con-
tracted by the war. \ free people prove themselves
willing To pay tire most onerous and, by many con-
sidered ill-advised, of taxes. Notwithstanding the
efforts of some, the nation viii fulfill the whole OF its
legal cOntracts-wil pay the interest of its bond in
Oid-and will give the nations another proof that a
people politically intelligent, are also politically hon.
est Once more are we taught that the people should
hold the national purse, and thst no government,
seeking the interests of all, need fear TO trust the
people with the controlling voice in leyying taxes.
The descendants and heirs az law Of those who re-
sisted the paltry tea-;sx in Boston harbor, have
abundantly shown that it was not taxation their
fathers resisted, in heroic violence, but arbitrary
taxation-taxation without; sufficient representation.
More emphatically than ever before have the
American people shown their intense loyalty to self
imposed constitutions-those instruments which pro-
;ect the rights Of minorities, while curbing the i'm
petuosity of triumphant majorities. How easy, after
the close Of the war, but for this conserving senti-
ment, to have swept away all the barriers of the past;
how easy, while there were none, or but few to OPP
pose, to have cut adrift from all constitutional re-
straint, and have launched away for some bright
Utopia That which might, under other circum-
stances, have been so easy, was in reality, however,
just the most improbable, and the most impossible,
of all courses for an intelligent, self-governing people.
Only one change has been made in the Organic Law
of the Landau amendment so Necessary and so glo-
rious as to be worth more than all the treasures and
the blood of four terrible years, for by it the air of
America has become q too pure for a slave, and
every man is free who breathes it"
SO strong has been the allegiance TO the Constitu-
tion in America, that the only available cry for those
intent ON subyerting law aud order, was 10 raise the
accusation Of violating the Constitution. The con-
stitutional thief cries stop thief as his only cover
under which to perpetrate high misdemeaEOrs and
crimes.
A Constitution in the hands of an intelligent many
is far less easily tempered with than when in the
hands of a few. Once more in the experience of his
tory Is II seen To be much safer to trust the many
than the few with this oundation-element of all
true political liberty. Our confidence in all popular
forms Of government steadily increases with every
fair experiment, and most especially by this grandest
Of experiment., by which, in the words of the original
instrument itself, "We, The people of The United
Stotes, do ordGin and establish thus Constitution"
While we rejoice in the conservatism OF our coun-
trymen, we also glory in that Radicalism which, in
the face of every difficulty, apparent and real, has
gone steadily on in the laborious and thankless task
of demonstrating the politically and socially de-
noralized States of the so-called Southern Confed-
eracy.
The carcass of rebellion, instead of being buried
from sight, after receiving its death blows from the
cohorts of freemen, was retained above ground to be-
come still more offensive to the nostrils of all true
patriots and was even galvanized into hideous
temporary life by some, voluntarily pledged to brand
rebellion and treason as the most criminal of all
crimes. The process of publication has thus been
rnpeded, but only TO its own more thorough compile
ton. Time has been given for digging the trench of
ignominy all the deeper for rebellion and all its mis-
cradle progeny ; and they will at last be buried so
far beyond all reach, that the arch-fend himselfc can
never summon them to life.
BY the help of these vexatious and outrageous OPP
positions the process of Reconstruction is being so
completely accomplished that the Southern States are
hardly able to recognize themselves.
These foolish sisters, of pre-rebellion days, pale,
haggard, and nigh unto death, are being miracu-
lously restored to life, and transmorphosed by the
infusion of glorious thoughts and hopes from the
warm currents of Columbia's own heart ; and soon
there will be no loveier members of the Sisterhood
than these recent erring Southern States.
Tennessee, from her mountain Businesses, led the
van of reconstructed States, as was her right fol-
Lowell, strange To say. so far as formal Congressional
act is concerned, by river-encircled Arkansas. The
latest kilograms report n bill to provide for the inau-
guration of State officers in Arkansas, North Caro-
lima, Georgia, Alabama and louisiana, and for the
meeting OF their Legislatures The attempt &c retain
the recently slave population in virtual slavery has
failed-as the rebellion failed. The principles of
universal suffrage have been established in ,ighi, and
are TO be established in all the Southern Constitu-
tons, says Chief Justice Chase, one of the proposed
candidates of the Democratic party for the Presi-
dency of America South Carolina, in notification
of its own former self, now recognizes the recent slave
as a man, and bids for his vote. Two colored men
have been elected TO the Senate of Georgia and twelve
to its House OF Representatives. Systems of common
schools are being developed throughout the South
that will in time render impossible the old misunder-
standings of ignorance and prejudice Heroic men
and women are engaging with apostolic zeal in this
most Christian and patriotic of efforts. The black
man is himself struggling nobly to take his place as
n free man in America. 1t is indeed, as ever, i'm
possible To change the Ethiopian's skin, but his more
important political, intellectual and moral conditions
are rapidly changing under the magic wand of Lib,
erty. As n matter of necessity the color, black, will
first be washed from the statutes of the CUT States,
but it cannot long be retained in any of the Consti-
tutions or laws of the Union, though still for n time
sustained by the votes of emigrants from other lands,
too easily admitted TO American polls. The discus
sion Of the Black will ere long be passed in American
law and politics. 1t will soon be impossible to tell
the color Of n mans skin before you see him-his
political status will give no indication on n matter so
superficial. Vast changes, il is true, remain to he
effected, but prejudice against race is fast giving
mas n harn Hlfannfn Of IL n"l 90 ra1,ut.n
America is becoming n land where a man may belong
to what race he pleases ; and where whether with
skin white, black. unprecedented. or intermediate,
whether with hair straight, crisped, black or red, it
shall be declared
"A mans n man for n that"
Laborers for moral and political Reconstruction in
every land Gods sun ELIMINATES, labor ON And
when your hearts faint, but turn your eyes on the
reconstructed Stltes of North America-that restored
constellation of glory in the empyrean of human
hopes
Again, during the time under review, especially
during the last year, has come the grave struggle rs
to the relative powers of the three branches OF the
Government-the so-called coordination of the Leg
islative, Executive and Judicial Departments. For u
time it was fearel that the Supreme Court would re-
vive the heresy Of the days of treason, that its decis-
ions could block the wheels of Notwithstanding
itself, not only judicially but politically, supreme.
That danger was, however, passed with comparative
ease. The Courts own sagacity, together with a
prompt Act of Congress, requiring a two-thirds vote
OF m COurt uselI, y le repeutiou VI TN uSSraCe
of n Court, set for the conservatism Of Liberty. inter-
preting the Constitution against itself, and attempt
ing to checkmate a self-governing people. We are
once more taught that Legislative powers are safest
in the hands Of the people themselves. Even Su-
preme Courts are frail reeds, unless under the eye
and sustained by the Intelligence of a people jealous
of their rights. A failure in such jealousy has al
lowed the Courts of other lands to play INTO the
hands of those who have reversed the course of pro-
gress and ignored the patriotic labors of years.
But the most serious conflict has been with the
Executive Power-Ihe President. The impeachment
and trial of President johnson, which has filled the
worlds eye, Whatever our party politics, must be
pronounced one OF the grandest spectacles of history.
Without violating or straining q line of the solemn
compact of federation, the Supreme Executive Of one
of the most powerful Governments Of the earth is
TO the Bar Of the Nation to answer to
charges of political misdemeanor and crime. What
ever constitutional questions may have been raised,