Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-07-01
NATIONAL BANK.

mere statute laws, which can never be
created by constitutions, are appended,
more or less, to all these constitutions;
and these bayonet-created, one branch
governments, with no Executive, no
Senate, no House of Representatives, no
Judiciary, have ordained irrepealable
laws in the very organism of the State,
such as cannot thus be created by the
Executive, the Senate, and the House OF
Represent atives of legitimate govern
ments, when acting in unison and all
combined. All this has been done with
out regard to preceding constitutions or
precedents, or to the common law OF the
States, or the law of nations. The mill
tary, which, under legitimate institutions,
can only be used in times of peace to
conserve or preserve the State, have here
been used to destroy States. The Gen.
eral of the army, who represents the
sword, and only the sword, of the Re
public, has been exalted by acts OF Con.
eress above the Commander-in- Chief OF
the army and navy, in order to execute
those military DEGREES, aud as the surer
way to root out every vestige Of consti'
tutional law or liberty The same Gem
eral of the army, in order to prolong and
perpetuaie this military domination
North and West. as we'll as South. has
been selected in party convention at
Chicago to head the electoral vote for,
the Presidency in ten Of our States,
which are as much under his feet as
Turkey is under the Sultan, or Poland
under the Czar of Russia. But, as II
only to add insult to the injury OF this
military outrage Upon the popular gov
ernments in these ten States, either by
act of Congress or by these Congress
made State constitutions, q. least 250, Oo0
whites have been disfranchised, while
$50. 600 negroes, inexperienced in all law
making, and more ignorant than our
children, have been enfranchised in their
stead, and have thus been created abso-
lutte masters and sovereigns over the
whole white population of the South.
Because of all this, and in opposition
to all this, we, Representatives OF the
people from the free States, in behalf OF
our constituents and of thousands and
tens of thousands of others who would
be here represented if the popular power
without could now constitutionally act
here within, earnestly and solemnly pro-
test against this violence upon our Con-
stitution and upon our people, and do
hereby counsel and advise all friends OF
popular government to submit to this
force and fraud only until at the ballot
box, operating through the elections, this
great wrong can be put right. There is
no law in the land over the constitutional
law. There is no government but con-
stitutional government; and hence all
bayonet- all Congress-imposed
constitutions are of no weight, authority,
or sanction, save that enforced by arms
AN element Of power unknown to
Americans in peace, and never required
but as it acts in and under the supreme
civil law, the Constitution, and the
statutes enacted in pursuance thereof
We protest, then, in behalf OF the tree
people Of the North and the West,
against the right OF this military oil
garchy, established in Arkansas or else.
where in the now re-enslaved States OF
the South, to impose upon us, through
Congress, taxes or customs, or other
laws to maintain this oligarchy, or its
Freeemsn's Bnreau.
We protest against going into the now
proposed copartnership of military die
tators and negroes in the administration
of this Government We demand, in the
name of the fathers of the Constitution,
and for the sake Of posterity, not its re-
construction, but the restoration OF that
sacred instrument which has been to us
a pillar Of fire, from 1887 on to its pres
ent overthrow; and in all solemnity, be-
fore God and man, under full sense OF
the responsibility Of all we utter, we do
hereby sffix our names to this protest
against the admission Of these three per-
sons, claiming to be members Of Con-
gress from Arkansas.
James Brooks, Stephen Taber'
l. ID nj "a u Grnrnr