Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1868-10-27


HIS FORMER LETTER EXPLAINED AND ELAB-
oRATED.-The Lafayette (Indiana) Courier, of
Saturday last, publishes the following letter
from General Frank P. Blair to citizen of La
fayette;
FORT SANDERS, WYOMING TERRITORY,
August 81, 1868.
40 James HoUes, Esq, Lafayette, Indiana ::
DEAR SIR: have received your letter in
which you ask me if would endeavor to have
the constitutionalty of the reconstruction acts
tested by the Supreme Court before proceed
ing to treat them as null and void. In answer,
[ have to say that the vital principle Of the re-
construction acts has already been decided to
be unconstitutional. null and void, by the Su-
preme Court, the whole bench concurring in
the case Of Migan and Bowels, which went
up from the State of Indiana on writ of ha-
beas corpus.
I'm that case it was decided, in the plain
language of the Constitution, that the Govern
ment could not establish martial law in time of
peace, or try, citizenlby military commission or
court-martial. The reconstruction acts, so call
ed, stand on martial law, and nothing else. 1t
is the essence of these acts They were pre-
pared and put in execution in time of profound
peace, in defiance of the unanimous decision OF
the Supreme Court, to which l have referred,
and they, and all that has been done under
them, are null and void
IA case was made under these acts-the
case of McCardle of Mississippi-and brought
before the Supreme Court; and 1T is we'll known
| that the Court was ready to declare these acts
unconstitutional, when Congress passed anoth-
| er act to deprive the Supreme Court Of its jul
| risdiction, and openly ATTEMPTED to lntlmldate
| the Judges by threats of remodelling the Court.
1.-The Supreme Court, in another case-that
| of Cummings, of Missouri-decided that the
| acknowledgements of the white people of the
Southern States by an act of Congress was a
| bill of attainder and an ex post Jacto law, both
of which were forbidden In express terms by
the Constitution Even the Radicals admit in
their Chicago platform that the States alone
have the right to decide who shall be entitled
to suffrage within the States and yet Congress
has assumed to take the right from the white
| people, and give 1T to the negroes within the
Southern States. a.
| 1.-THE reconstruction acts violate the Constr
! tuition in all these particulars, and it has been
already so decided by the Supreme Court
| The Constitution says the military shall always
be subordinate to the civil authority, but these
acts have superseded all civil authority, and
| erected military governments at the South
| Do YOU want decision of the Supreme Court
to show that this is unconstitutional? Are those
who say that the military is subordinate to the
civil authority revolutionists? Are those who
| demand the restoration of the trial by jury
which has been suppressed in the South by the
reconstruction aets, revolutioDists? Are those
who claiul the benefit Of the great writ Of right
the habeas corpus, which is denied to 5000
600 of our people by the infamous reconstruc
ton acts, to be branded as revolutionists?
s'Shall we be calld revolutionists because W.
proclaim in the very language Of the Constr
tuition, that Congress shall pass no bill OF at
tainder or &c post tdcto law? Or shall we bt
thus branded for claiming what tho Constitu
ton comedies in express words, that the States
shall regulate suffrage for themselves? DO We
want more decisions of the Supreme Court OF
these points? The truth is, that the Radicals
are the real revolutonists, and have subvertet
the fundamental principles of our Government
and converted it into mean and mallgnan
oHgarchy sure to lapse into military despot
ism.
ITO restore the Government and the grea
guarantees of freedom contained in the Constl
tuition, and inherited from our ancestors, i
revolution. To execute the will of the people
whom the fragmentary Rump Congress ha
put at defiance, is revolution. To carry on
| the decisions of the Supreme Court is 'revolu
ton This revolution is at hand The people
will, the judgement of the court OF the hlghes
jurisdiction, will be enforced against usur
ping Rump Congress,
II am, most respectfully,
your obedient servant,
FRANK P. BLAZE" y