The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1868-02-06

status and condition of those States
ana that the President has no mower tC
proclaim peace or to declare the politi
cal condition OF those States until he
snail hrst have been thereunto authori
POWER OF CONGRESS IN EXECUTING THE
GUARANTEE,
l, therefore, Mr.. President. take tbe
proposition as conclusively establish.
} ed, both by reason and authoritv tho,
lhls clause of the Constitution can he
executed only by Congress; and takino
that as established, now proceed n
consider what are the powers of Con-.
gfess IN the execution of the guarantees
now 1t shall! be executed, and what
@ means III may pc employed for that pur.
pose. The Constitution does not define
the means. 1t does not saw how the
guarantee shall be executed. All Thai
IS left to the determination of fCon1reSe
AS 10 the particular character Of the
means that must be employed. that.
take II, will depend upon the peculiar
a,CUHlstances to,', ~. stances OF each case and the ex-
tent OF power will depend upon the
other question as to what NAV be re-.
CURED Tor the purpose of maintaining
or guaranteeing a loyal republican,
ior OF government in each STATE. I use
the word loyal" although it is not
used in the Constitution, because lovaI-
~ IS an lnherlng qualification, not only
In regard to persons who are to fiji
pubic offices, but in regard to State
governments. and we have no right to
recognizea State government that is
not loyal to the Government of the
United States. Now, sir, as to the use
OF means that are not prescribed in the
constitution, call the attention of the
Senate to the eighteenth clause of sec-
t1on eight OF the first article of the Con
stltutlon of the United States. which
declares that
The Congress shall have power to make
all laws which shall be necessary and proper
| powers and all other powers vested bv thiS
| constitution In the Government or the
United nniLed States or any department or officer
! Here is declaration of what would
otherwise be general principle anV
how, that Congress shall have the DOW
er to pass all laws necessary to carry
into execution all powers that are vest
ed In the Government under the Con-
stitution. AS Congress has the power
to guarantee or maintain q loYal re-
publican government in each State, it
has the right to use whatever means
may be necessary for that purpose. As
before remarked, the character of the
means will depend upon the character
of the case. In one case it NAV be the
r.
haps lit may be. simply presenting a
question to the courts, and having it
tested in that way; in another case it
may gOto the very foundation of the
Government itself. And 1 now pro-
pound this propositions: Thatif Con-
gTess, after deliberation, after long and
Dloody experience, shall come to the
conclusion that loyal republican State
| governments cannot be erected and
maintained in the rebel States upon the
basis OF the white population, it has a
right to raise up and make voters of a
class of men who had no right to vote
| under the State laws. This is simply
the use of the necessary means to the ex-
ecutfon of the guarantee. If we
have found after repeated trials that
loyal republican State governments,
governments that shall answer the pur-
pose that such governments are intend
ed to answer, cannot be successfully
| founded upon the basis of the white
population, because the great majority
of that population are disloyal, then
Congress has right to raise up new
voting population for the purpose of
establishing these goYernments In the
execution OF the guarantee. think,
sir, this proposition is so clear that it
is not necessary to elaborate it, We
are not required to find in the Consti-
tuition particular grant of power for
this purpose; but we find general
BAdhb pO"eEI anu we ma also an
other grant OF power authorizing us to
use whatever means may b9 necessary
| to execute the first; and we lind that
| the Supreme Cnurt of the United States
has said that the judgment of Congress
upon this question shall be conclusive
that 1t can not be reviewed by the
courts, that it is a purely political mat
ter; and, theI efore, the determination
of Congress-, that raising up colored
| men to the right of suffrage is means
| necessary to the execution of that pow
er, is determination which can not be
reviewed by the courts, and is conclu-
| sive upon the people of this country.
MR.. JoHNsoE's ASSUMPTION OF EXTRA
ORDINARY POWERS.
The President of the United States.
| assuming that he had the power to ex-
| ecute this guarantee, and basing his
proclamation upon it, went forward in
| the work of reconstruction. Itwas un-
derstood at that time-it was so an
nounced, il not by himself, at least for
mally by the Secretary of State, Mr..
Seward-Lhat the governments which
he would erect during the vacation of
Congress were to be erected as provis-
ional only, that his plan OF reconstruc-
| ton and the work that was to be done
under 1t would be submitted to Con-
gress for its approval or disapproval at
the next session. If the President had
| adhered to that determination believe
that all would have been we'll,
and that the present state of
things would not exist. But, sir,
the Executive undertook finally to
execute the guarantee himself without
the cooperation of Congress-, He ap-
pointed Provisional Governors, giving
| to them unlimited power until such
time as the new State governments
should be erected. he prescribed, in
his proclamation, who should exercise
the right of suffrage in the election of
delegates. And allow me for one mo-
ment to refer to that. He says in his
proclamation:
mo person shall be qualified as an elector,
| or shall be eligible as a member of such con-
Ventlon, unless he shall have previously
set forth in the Presidents Proclamation of
May q, a. ID. 1865
Which was issued on the same day and
was part of the same transaction
| "And Is q voter qualified as prescribed by tho
| Constitution and laws OF the state OF North
Carolina in force Immediately before the 20th
| day of May, A. d. 1851"
The persons having the right to vote
must have the right to vote by the laws
of the State, and must, in addition to
that, have taken the oath of amnesty.
The President disfranchised In voting
for delegates to the convention from
two hundred and fifty thousand to
three hundred thousand men. His dis
| franchisement WAS far greater than that
which has been done by Congress. In
| the Proclamation of Amnesty he says !:
"The following classes of persons are ex-
cepted from the benefits of this prOclama-
tom
He then announced fourteen classes of