The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1868-10-08

. regard for republican government b
the scheme lately eoncocted at Wasl
tington and sent out to be executed
their tools in the South, for takin
even from these new fedged votel
the right to vote for Presidential ele'
tors-a right long exercised by til
people of every State in the Unio
except South Carolina, the most aril
tocratic in the Confederacy. And>thi
plan has been actually adopted i
Florida, and so far defeated in Alabs
ma by the veto of a Southern Dor
Governor, who strangely imagine
that modern republicanism mean
something more than a design to II
tain control of the government eve
at the expense of every truly repub
can principle and institution. LooE
at the rest of the new States Whicl
Congress has admitted into the Uniol
without the population of a second
rate city, each having as many Sena
tors as old States with their swarmin,
millions. Is it Republican that TWEEN
ty thousand voters in the Western
plains and mountains should have tn
same representation in the Senate anC
the same vote for President, in case O
an election by the House of Represen
tatives, as a million of voters in New
York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Other
great States? Yes, it is modern, re.
publicanism which tramples upon ey-
cry fundamental principle of free gov
ernment to secure political power
which casts the Constitution behind
it when it is an obstacle in it's way
which dispenses with the civil author
ties in peaceful States and governs
with the bayonet which imposes con-
stitutions on unwilling communities,
under threats of military coercion,
and calls them free States; which
would impeaah an honest President
for. attempting to protect and defend
a violated Constitution, and deprives
an upright judiciary of its legitimate
jurisdiction lest it should commit the
same offences; which Furnishes crimes
cancelled by the pardoning power, and
compells citizens, by test oaths, to tes-
tifyi against themselves; and which
arrogates to. itself, over ten States,
notwithstanding the constitutional linn
itation of its authority, all the powers
claimed and exercised by the veriest
despots on earth. sg a5a. a I'd.
But there seems to be pause in the
mad career of the usurpers. Recon
struction, lately urged ON with rail-
road speed, seems to be suddenly sus-
pended. What is the matter? Do
the tools SO eagerly grasped by the
usurpers begin to cut their own fing-
ers? Do the negroes begin to rebel
against their new masters Is it GER
tain that their new fedged voters in
The South will not vote against the
radicals in the approaching Presiden-
tial election? Behold their expedi-
ents to avoid such calamity! The
first is to take from the people in the
States the right to vote
or electors. The second is to deny |
he unreconstructed States the right to
choose electors in any mode. By these
3wo expedients they expect to secure
he electoral votes of the one class of
States and avoid the danger of having
he votes of the other cast against
hem. OF the latter class of States are
Virginia, Mississippi and Texas. Is
Virginia in the Union or out? She
vent to war to get out and was forced
o stay in. If she is not in now who
las put her out Z? What but Congress
And has Congress power to put States
'ut of the Union? They have partial
y usurped that power and have passed
n act prohibiting that and the other
States from taking
art in the approaching Presidential
lection. If Congress can at will put
states out of the Union and can estab-
ish military empire outside of the
Union, woe be to the cause of liberty
within the Union. s..-......... a..
The members of Congress cannot
scape their responsibility to the peo-
lie and their allegiance to the consti-
ution by any such subterfuge. The
'eople will ask them why they denied
II representation to the Southern peo-
lie in Congress, when, in their un-
uestioned privilege to judge of the
qualifications of their own members,
hey had the power to exclude all
1embers elect who had taken part in
he rebellion OF were disloyal to the
overnment. They will ask why they !
the writ of ha6eas corpus
n ten States, subjecting the people
hereof to military despotism when !
ne constitution expressly forbids the |
of that writ, except "in (
ases of rebellion or INVASION" and
len only when "the public safety re- |
uire it, They will ask why, when
lerei was no resistance to the civil ]
ourts, the citizens of ten States have [
cen subjected to military tribunals '
l violation of position law and the II
lost sacred principles of free govern i
lent? They will ask why so many
tile States have been carved out of s
le Western wilderness; why the i
resident has been impeached and the 1
preme Court threatened and para I,
vzed way Congress has usurped the q
over to regulate suffrage in. the S
tates; why, in the exercise of this i
surped power, every male negro in S
ne South twenty-one years of age has q
cen made a voter and multitudes of /
-hite men disfranchised; why, by er I
ost tacto laws, they imposed new dis
Dilities upon men who had been par ]
oned by the President; why they c