The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1868-10-10

View of Its Illegally.
The federal constitution, under the latest
official proclamations of the Secretary of State,
embraces two amendments incorporated since
the war-artcle thirteen, abolishing slavery,
| and article fourteen, proclaiming equal civil
| rights to citizens of all races and colors and
that all persons born or naturalized in the
United States are citizens; ordaining that suf-
frage and representation, as each State for
itself may elect, universal or restricted, shall
| 60 together; that certain parties engaged in
| rebellion shall be held DISTINGUISHED and dis
| qualified for office, federal and State, subject
| to absolution by a two-thirds vote of the two
houses Of Congress; that the national debt
shall not be questioned; that all rebel debts
| and claims for emancipated slaves shall be
held null and void, and that Congress shall
have power, by appropriate legislation, to en-
force the provisions of this article.
! This, ''the constitution as it is" is the great
| stumbling block to our State rights constitu-
tional sticklers, North and South. In fact,
they repudiate this amendment and we dare
say that the views held by the rank
| and file of the democratic party in
both sections are the views on the
subject which we publish from the Hon. Ben
Hill, of Georgia, to-day, elsewhere in these
columns. Mr.. Hill contends that this amend
ment fourteen has not been legally ratified,
and is, therefore, null and void. He says that
this amendment was submitted in 1866 to the
Southern State governments set up by Presi-
in and {ha,r
| rejected, and that this proceeding in
volved recognition of these State gov
ernments, by which Congress was bound.
This is a mistake. The amendment was
offered to the States concerned as embodying
the conditions upon which, If accepted, they
would be restored to Congress. Tennessee
accepted and was admitted; the others re-
jected the terms of the amendment and were
then reduced to the military State govern
ments and the white acknowledgements and
universal negro suffrage policy of the Congress
Of 1867. Now, harsh, unjust and revolu-
tionary as this policy may be declared, seven
Of the late rebel States have been reconstructed
and restored to Congress under its conditions.
1t has, moreover, been decreed by the Supreme
Court in the Rhode Island Dorr case that the
State government, recognized by Congress, is
the State, and that there is no appeal from
Congress on this matter to any other consti-
tuted tribunal. II may thus be contended
that, by whatever acts outside the constitution
and by whatever trickery in their manipulation
these States have been reconstructed the
recognition of them by Congress ends the argu-
ment and makes their ratifcations valid, there
being no appeal from the decision of Congress
in this matter.
We may notice, however, the distinction
made by Mr.. Hill between the Southern State
governments set up by President Johnson and
| those set up by Congress. He says that those
governments Johnson's) of se5 were framed
and assented TO by the existing legal qualified
| constituency OF the several States. How?
President Johnson adopted the theory that
with the collapse Of the rebellion the States
involved in it were left without any govern
ments at all, and that in the matter of
suffrage for reconstruction, subject to his
orders, the people Of each State concerned
were thrown back to their State laws in
force just before the act Of secession
| This Johnsonian policy, however, was sub
mitted to the people Of the Northern States in
1866, in opposition to the Congressional policy
of amendment fourteen, and the amendment
swept the country from Maine to California,
including Connecticut and New Jersey. The
Northern States unanimously demanded for the
rebel States something more than q restoration
| TO their status Of 1861. The Northern States
thus unanimously decreed that there was no
| such thing as an existing legal constituency
in the rebel States on the collapse Of the
rebellion. They had abandoned the consitu-
tion-they had fought through bloody and
| costly war to overthrow it-and had thus for
| feited all their pre-cxisting rights under the
constitution, and hence the success Of the four
teenth amendment.
We are told, however, that the Southern
people Chat is, the great body Of the whites now
joined to the Northern democracy never will
consent to this amcndment-that the creation
Of The Southern State governments Of 1868,
under the bayonet, was revolution, and that
their existence will be continued revolution.
This Is true nor have we any idea that those
governments based upon white disfranchse-
ments and universal negro suffrage can very
long exist; but IL is the province of wisdom to
consider the best remedy. General Blair has
unwlsely declared that If he we're President no
would assume the responsibility and order the
army to undo this Southern work Of Congress
sional usurpaton; but assuming that Genera.
Grant will be elected, and that he will have n
republican Congress at his back, where lies
the remedy for these Southern negro
and mosgrel State governmental General