Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1868-01-24
Reconstruction Outside OF the COnstitu-
tiOn-ROmanizing the Nation,

I
iOn-ROmanizing the Nation.
Reconstruction moves onward unswerv-
ingly in its revolutionary career The
House of Representatives will have before
it to-day, from its Reconstruction Com
mittee, the bill to establish an impeyia1na
within the limits of the United States. It
seems that the system of five military dis
trlcts is not, in its operation, sufficiently
destructive to suit the radical purpose. It
does not stamp out the States. It does not
crush beyond all semblance of recognition
the old social and political form with which
we were familiar in the ten Southern com
munities. The system does not satisfacto-
rily put the white mans head under the
niggers heel. State lines are left-State
courts, State governors and State spirit
If the law presses too hard-if the radical
will is too despotically PIT in force by some
tyrant schOOled in the small dominion of
his regiment-there is remedy for the
people the national Executive reduces the
suddenly exalted captain general to his lit
tie level, and puts in his place some man
less ready to pander to the mad extrava-
gance OF political passion. And this, in the
radical view, is all wrong. Radicalism holds
that it Numbered when it recognized the
States even as geographical quantities
and defined its districts by State lines.-
1t argues that it has no power unless it has
all power; admits that its purpose is so lit
tie cOnsOnant with our national spirit that
it cannot be executed SO long as there is
authority left anywhere to dispute it.
Hence 1t now proposes to merge its five
military districts into. one grander district
exactly analogous to the Roman IHaDeriat3,1,
Under the Roman Republic all the greater
dependenciea-as Gaul, Spain, Germany,
Syria, Greece and Africa-were held by
absolute military power, subject only to q
commander and the Senate. No courts
existed save by the will of the commander.
There were no local governments except on
sut1erenco and as managed by his crea-
lures to plumber the country more COM
pIetely. And this is q model of the form of
government that the Congress of the United
States now proposes to set up in ter
rltOEy comprising ten States of this Union
ten States of q nation whose primary pc
lltlcal principle is the sovereignty of the
people. In setting up this inaDeriuna with
IN our borders Congress abofishes the
States IN all their political and legal forms,
sweeps away the governmental system and
the courts, all the machinery that gives STA
blllty to order and security to property,
and puts In the place OF everything one
military Ommander-General Grant. It
declares Inc constitution OF the United
States null and void by saying that in ten
States of the Union the President no Ion
ger has executive authority, and that he
will be guilty of misdemeanor if he ex-
ercises in those States the duties the Con-
stitution imposes upon him. And in all
this there is no principle-no great point
OF national safety to secure-nothing what
ever but the niger and party result. In
view OF order and law and an old estab-
llshed system the niger cannot rise. But
return to chaos, throw down all the pre-
sent relations OF things, reduce society to
the primitive barbarous level, SO that the
niger and the white man may start even,