Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-07-01
BAYONET REPRESENTATIVES,.
Solemn Protest of the Demo.
cratic Members.

In the House of Representatives on
Wednesday last, after the admission OF
the so-caled Representatives from Ar
kansas, the following protest was pre-
sented and ordered to be printed In the
Globe. M
The recognized presence of three per-
sons on the floor of this House from the
State of Arkansas, sent here by military
force, acting under Brigadier General
of the army, but nevertheless claiming to
be members of this Congress, and to
share with us, the Representatives from
free States, in the imposition OF taxes
and customs and other laws upon our
people, makes it our imperative duty In
this, the first case, to demonstrate most
solemnly, and to protest as solemnly,
against this perilous and destructive In
novation upon the principles and prac-
tices of our hitherto constitutional self
government. The so-called reconstruc'
ton acts which created the military
government in Arkansas, and like gov.
ernments in other Southern States, to
share with us in the legislative power OF
the Northern and Western free people,
we have every reason to believe, have
been held to be unconstitutional by the
Supreme Court of the United States, the
public declaration of which fact was
avoided only by the extraordinary and
strange device of this Congress in snatch
ing jurisdiction from the court IN the
McCardle case when such public decl-
sion was about to be made. OF the three
great branches of the Government, it
seems, then, that after the Executive
vetoed these acts as unconstitutional,
the judiciary adjudicated them to be so,
while a Congress--the creation OF but
twenty-seven of the thirty seven States
of the Union-override these eqnal and
coordinate branches of that Govern
ment first, by voting down the votes;
next, by nullifying the Judgment OF the
court. In an era of profound peace,
when not an armed man rises against
the Government from the Potomac TO the
Rio Grande, there in ten States our Amer
lean historical way Of creating the organic
law has been utterly subverted by the
bayonet. Ever since the Declaration OF
independence, with scarcely an excep-
ton, and even amid the battles OF the
revolution, conventions have been con-
voked through and constitutions created
by the electors of the States, the only
authorized repositories ofthe sovereign
power Of every State, without exterior
dictation, as under the existing Federal
Constitution. The hardest and harshest
test oath required from l776 to the peace
of 1888 was an abjuration oath of alle-
glance to George III, while some OF the
now so-called bayonet made constitu.
tions from the South propose absurd and
cruel tests; absurd, as in Arkansas,
where is interviewer in the organic law
mere party test between the Radical re-
constructionists and the Democratic con-
seryatives, such as would exclude from
voting, if living there, the thousands and
tens of thousands and hundreds of thou
sands of Democrats in the free States
(artiele 8, section A. or cruel, as 10 Al
ALBANIA. where no white man can vote
who will not forever foreswear his own
race and color, and perjure himself by
swearing, in defiance of the law OF God,
that the negro is his equal, aud forever
to be his equal, at the ballot box, IN the
| jury box, with the cartouch box, 10 the
school, 10 the college, in house and
home, and by the freside-in short, in
every way, everywhere. Art. Z, sec.
Now in these and the other Southern
States, in the midst Of war, President
Lincoln, in his proclamation, December
3. 1868, offered amnesty and pardon to
rebels then in arms, il they would lay
down their arms and take an oath OF hdel-
ity; while now not Union man in AR.
kansas or Alabama can vote, unless IN
the frat place be swears allegiance 20 the
majesty Of this Congress, and in the next
he seears of his Americanism and Atri-
canizes himself Hitherto constitutions
with us have been the outgrowth OF pop
ular life. springing from the exuberance
Of our enterprise and energy in the set
Element of the forests or prairies OF our
country; but here before us now We have
nine constitutions, with one, If not three,
more vet TO come from Texas, which
have ali been imposed upon the people
by Eve military satraps, OF reuiarchs'
in a manner never before known nnder
our Law. bat borrowed, at best from
imperial Roman colonization, or from the
worst presidents Of the French kevoiu-
ton. France isthen recorded 10 have had
Eve constitutions in three years, 50 IRE
quently made and 20 frequently changed
that they we're ironically classed BY ths
French people With the periodical hier'
atnre Of the day. Louisiana, . colony
Of that France, has had four constitu'
tons 10 four years. and . constitution
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