Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-01-22
lnRrV.


On the evening of the, sth of January, at
the Democratic Festival in honor of that
glorious day, Hon. HENRY STANBERY, the
Attorney General of the United States, and
one of the ablest lawyers in the country,
and gentleman, too, who never before
acted with the Democratic party, made a
most powerful speech. Speaking as a
lawyer who had practiced at the bar for
nearly halt a century, and who for that =
time had been constant student alike of
the common law and of our own Constitu-
tional law, he declared that "the whole, of
the Reconstruction acts of Congress, from
beginning to end, first, second and third in
the series, are unconstitutional and uoid," and
that 1.-THE time has come when we (Demo- e
Gratis, Conservatives and Republicaus1
must strike hands, and shoulder to shoul-
der, face the common enemy (the Radicals)
together aud unite,o the battle will be lost.n-
We subjoin his speech and ask for it dis
passionate perusal:
'The Constitution: A compact of per-
petual union. When disturbed it needs no
reconstruction, but only the removal of an
obstruction. =. -....., :. - - : j,
Attorney-General Stanbery said:g s. - Z.
| L
Tonight something of the novelty and ex-
citement OF a new situation. For the irst
| time in my life, / find myself at Demo-
cratic celebration. find myself here, not
merely as one of the convives, but selected
by the committee to respond to one Of the
regular toasts. am reminded of the old
adage, that politics, like poverty, some-
times brings us acquainted with strange
/ bed-fellows. j trust, Mr.. Chairman, may
escape the charge of egOtism if I take
| few minutas to explain how it happened
that l have never been at Democratic
meeting In times past and how it happens
| that am here Tonight. l feel that do
not speak for myself. but for thousands of
i others whose past and present political as
sociations have been and are the same as
Imine. For more than thirty years be-
longed to the Wing party and fought in its
its " old guards.' was with it in its sue
jcesses, which were few, and still constant
with it in its reverseS, which were many.
1 never deserted it while its organization
4 existed, and only ceased TO be rWhig
when the party itself ceased to exist.
b My last vote was given to that party in
the Presidential contest of 1856. Then
came the rebellion, and with it new is
sue which overshadowed all former party
d issues. lost sight at once of all former
political associations, and joined thatg
Union party which saved the republic. When
that great fact was accomplished, when the
! work of the soldier was done, and the work
of the statesman was to be resumed, a new
question arose only less In magnitude to
| that of the preservation of the nation, and
that was in what spirit and according to
| what policy the victorious North should
! deal with those Southern States and that
/ Southern; people who had been engaged in
insurrectiOn. They gave up the contest
and all the issues of the contest. They re-
pealed their ordinances of secession,
! they abolished the institution of
i slavery, they repudiated the debt which
! they incurred in waging war, and again
asked to come under the protection of the
| old flag, to be restored once more to the
rights and privileges of American citizens.
1t did seem at first that the policy of for
1 giveneSs and restoration would prevail. 1t
was inaugurated under the leadership of
Mr.. Lincoln, and be proposed in good faith
to carry out the pledges and hopes
theld out to the South during the struggle,
that the object of the war was not
to destroy but to preserve; that the South
Tern States had never lost their places in the
Union, but were only temporarily out of
their proper relations, and that as soon as
i the war was over these constitutional re-
| lations should be resumed. But, even be-
fore the death of Mr.. Lincoln there was de-
lveloped in the Republican party a formida-.
Ible opposition to that policy. and a new
party was soon formed, which held that we
Ehad waged war for conquest and not for
! restoration; that we had not merely put
down an Instruction, but that we had
conquered provinces, not States, and a for
j eign people, not Ameaican citizens; that
these States, instead OF being restored,
were to be reconstructed; that as a conquer
ed territory, Congress was to legislate in
| all their domestic concerns, and if ever
they were again to become States of the
i Union, they were to come in by a new title,
! nrp " os in mt n ~ xx,pN
choose to make State of the newly ac-
4 quired territory of Alaska. Gentlemen,
4 the Constitution is the text of the senti-
ment to which have been called upon to
respond. Let us stop one moment to look
!, into that sacred Instrument in order to
solve The question arising here. The
case which has occurred Is not, in the lam
i guage of a lawyer, a cdstis onsissus;; the
4 Constitution is not silent. 1t has antici-
pated what has happened. 1t provides
for insurrection, whether small or great,
whether of part of State, or of an en-
tire State, whether in one State, or in many.
1 1t provides tor insurrection against the laws
OF State, and for insurrectiOn against the
laws of the United States. tgives power in
| both cases; the power in one case to put
down insurrection against the State by en-
| forcing obedience to the laws of the State
and the power in the other case to put
down insurrection against the laws of the
limited States by enforcing obedience to
| those laws. So, too, that Constitution gives
the power of protection against foreign
enemies and the power to declare war, and
as incidental to that, the power to make
conquests. Where, in this instrument, pro-
viding for the very case of Instruction,
for the very remedy to be applied, where
lido you find that power to put down insur-
rectiOn in State and then to destroy that
State and hold it and its people as con-
quered and subjugated? And yet, gentle-
men, this is precisely what has been done,
not by change of our Federal Constitu-
ton, but by Congress who must find tor
every act a warrant and authority in the
tprOvisions of that Constitution. r5f
II The reconstruction acts passed by Con-
gress have converted ten of those States
into lower condition than that of mere
territories; have destroyed every vestige of
i State government, and have stripped mil
:. lions OF their people of every characteristic
THAT belongs to an American citizen. Under
this extraordinary legislation, the vast ter
ritory covered by these ten States, and the
Z millions of unhappy people who reside
, there, have no more protection under our
Z Federal Constitution than if they occupied
so much territory in the interior of Africa.
Their State constitutions, made by these
/ people under the auspices of President Lin
s coin and President johnson, are declared
to be illegal, are in effect abolished, and in
, place of them Congress has provided mil
itary sdesp0tism.s Certainly if no valid
State law protected these people, there was
at least federal law which ought to have
protected them; for over every foot of that
4 territory, and over every individual that
inhabits it, the great fundamental law of
, the Constitution of the United States pre-
walls in all its vigor, and gives to every one
OF them every privilege and every immu-
nifty which it extends to the Amer
lean citizen anywhere and every
3 where With this Constitution. then
f fully in force over all that territory and