The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1868-01-13
Reconstruction Outside tho Constellation
ROmanizing the Nation.


in its revolutionary career. The House of
Representatives will have before i! to-day, from
it's Reconstruction Committee" the bill to
establish an imperilsm. within the limits Of the
United States. 1t seems that tie system OF
five military districts Is not, in IFS operation,
sufficiently destructive to suit the radical pur-
pose. II does not stamp out the States. II
does not crush beyond all semblance of recog-
milton the old social and political forms with
which we were familiar in the ten Southern
communities. That system does not satistac-
torily put the white mans head under the
nigger's heel. State lines are left-State
courts, State governors and State spirit. II
the law presses too hard - if the rad cal will is
too despotically put in force by some tyrans
scho0led in the small dominion OF his regi-
ment-there is remedy for the people; the
national Executive reduces the suddenly ex-
allied captain general to his little level, and
puts in his place some man loss ready to
pander to the mad extravagance Of political
passion. And this, in the radical view, is all
wrong. Radicalism holds that it blundered
when it recognized the States even rs geo.
graphical quantities and defined it's districts by
State lines. 1t argues that it has no power
unless it has all power; admits that its pur-
pose is SO little consonant with our national
spirit that 1t cannot be executed so long as
there Is authority left anywhere to dispute H.
Hence it now proposes to merge its five military
districts into one grander district exactly analo-
gous to the Roman Emporium. Under the Roman
republic all the great dependencies-a Gaul,
Spain, Germany, Syria, Greece and Africa
were held by absolute military power, subject
only to commander and the Senate. No courts
existed save by the will of the commander.
There were no local governments except on
sufference and as managed by his creatures to
plumber the country more completely. And
this is a model Of the form of government that
the Congress of the United States now pro-
poses to set up in territory comprising ten
States of this Unon-ten States of nation
whose primary political principle is the sovcr-
eighty Of the people. In setting up this i'm
perium within our borders Congress abolishes
the States in all their political and legal forms,
sweeps away the governmental system and
the courts, all the machinery that gives stabil-
ity to order and security to property, and puts
in the place Of everything one military COM
mander-General Grant. It declares the con-
stitution of the United States null and void by
saying that in ten States Of the Union the
President no longer has executive authority,
and that he will be guilty Of misd emeanor if
he exercises in those Suites the duties thu con-
stitution imposes upon him. And in all this
there is no prlnciple-no great point OF ma
tional safety to secure-nothing whatever but
the niger and party result. In view of
order and law and an old established system
the niggor cannot rise. But return to chaos,
throw down all the present relations Of things,
reduce society to the primitive barbarous level,
50 that the niger and tho white man may start
even, then give the niger an army for his
ally and perhaps he may come out ahead.
This is tho idea that underlies the new bill.
But what else is Congress doing in order to
do this? We may regard this Congressional
action in two main points as to the
power and as to the propriety-considerin
whether that body has the authority to make
such sweeping changes, and whether the harm
and danger the changes involve do not inf
nitely overbalance any other possible result.
Constitutions are made for one solo purpo Sc
that of limiting tho action Of L,g slatures. In
nominally IF States, ostensibly without
written constitutions, the lwmlkiny power is
supreme. Hence the declaration OF Hallam =
"The absoluts power of the Legislature in
sLrctness is 10 arbitrary id England as in
Persia" This is felt to be tn, case in Eng
land, though there is there conssi ntional
limit Of usage, and though certain points are
fixed by such instruments as the Magma Chlrta,
the Bill of Rights, the Act OF Settlement and
the several Reform bills. Bus these, though
essentially constitutional limits, are not 50 FIR
above ordinary law in their ulchangeablo
character that they cln be rel Ell upon as secu-
rites against legislative violence. And tnis
was also tho case III Rome. A the political
establishments that grew up in the constitution
of Sorvius Tullus and the Inv, Of the Twelve
Tables were subject to legis alive abrogation.
II was apparent to the ioun iers Of our govern
ment that the first great soarce OF danger to
free States WAS party fury making itself fel.
through legislative major!ties, aud that unless
they could establish some fixed pom. for So
ciety beyond that danger they would labor in
vain. They saw that unless they could lint
the power of the lawmaking body oar
government would be no more sable than had
been the countless ones Of which history pre-
serves the record. Hence they Lid down tie
charter OF popular rights to control, not the
TYRANNY of An unscripnlous king hut ths
tyranny Of the majority. For this sole purpos
did the people Of the United S.a.cs make
written conltiution to draw tho lines within
which the liwmakng power might act; to de-
fine the poin beyond which should no. go;
TO guard WITH . sanction higher than TIA! of
ordinary law the rights OF q minority that
might At any time but for this protection be