The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1869-08-27

the heart is to the life of the human body
On becoming member Of the Union, nc
State surrendered any fraction of thi.
right. 1t is not in the instrument of Union
the Constitution, and cannot, therefore, BE-
the subject of an amendment to the con
stitution. An amendment ofthe Constitu
ton, by which three .fourths of the States
should annihilate all the vested rights OF
the people of the other fourth without
their consent, would not be greater alb
surdity than this proposition to strip the
States OF the right of'controlling their own
franchise, under the title of an amendment
to the Constitution. 1t is simply to over
throw the organic being of the States, and
to invest the federal government with I'M
perial powers. If is competent for any
number of the States to wipe themselves
out In this way, no one, surely, will contend
that they have the right thus to annihilate
other States against their own sovereign
WILL The Constitutions of most of the
Northern States have provisions in rela-
ton to negroes, which this so.called
amendment would neutrality-suspicious.
which are older than the Federal Consti-
tuition, embracing matter that the States
reserved to themselves when they formed
the Constitution, and which never can be
lawfully exercised by any other power ex-
cept by their own free consent. 1t is not
competent for three fourths of the States
tn t!ke 1t away from any State not con.
sentlng. Such change would not be au
0n'enled Constitution, but it would be a
new Constitution, and would be binding
upon no State which refused to adopt it.
The power to control the franchise of a
State can no more be taken from it by an
amendment to the Federal Constitution,
than the power Of State over its own
paupers can thus be taken away. And
here is point which will open wide the
door for the South to compel its negroes to
labor, as any State now may its white pau
pers.
The supreme Court of the State of Con-
necticut has recently rendered a decision
which may yet have, in the way of pre-
cedent, an important bearing on the labor
question of the South 1t related to the
powers OF the Selectmen of the towns in
cases where parents neglect or refuse to
provide for the support of their minor
children; and, in the particular case refer
red to, 1t seems that man of some wealth
had been divorced from his wife Ito whom
the custody of the minor children was given
by order of the Court and he thereafter
ward refused to make any provision either
for her support or that of her children.
The divorced wife was accordingly obliged
to apply to the Seectmen of the town for
aid This was rendered, and the divorced
husband was called upon to foot the bill
Upon his refusal to do so, he was arrested
by order of the Selectmen, taken to the
Almshouse and set to work, under the
pauper act ofthe State. A writ of haJeas
corpus was sued out before the Supreme
Court, the case heard and decision given
in favor of the right exercised by the Sc
lectmen. Upon review of the case before
the Supreme Court, the decision below
was affirmed. This settled the law for
Connecticut so that man who neglects or
refuses to provide for his own children can
be forced to work under the compulsory
rules of the Almshouse, and the fruits of
ofhis labor be applied towards their sup
port. This is the law for white men in
one, if not all, of the New England States.
But whaj howl of denunciation would
this same New England send up, is SIM
liar law was to be enforced against black
men in Virginia; if the lazy, idle, vagrant
freedmen" of the old Dominion were thus
set to work under the compulsory rules of
the New England Almshouse to support
themselves and their vagrant offspring
But no matter for this bowling, so long as
the right remains with the State to com
pei its idle and pauper class to labor for
the support of themselves and children.
in this way eight-tenths of the negroes of
the South might be forced to work even
now, under such laws and regulations as
the State pleases to make. No amendment
to the Federal Constitution can ever divest
the State of this right, so long as it refuses
its assent to the change.
We are not yet of the opinion that three
fourths of the States will ratify this 50
called amendment to give negroes the
right of universal voting. But if they
should, the rights of the dissenting States
in the premises are not legally impaired.
They still will'have the right even to put
to death every Federal emissary who
should come into the State for the purpose
of overthrowing its Constitution and sub
verting its government, through the agen-
cy OF voting negroes. 1t is not too soon
now for the white people of all the States
to begin to organize for the purpose of re-
sisting this abomination of negro voting.
We know that in some Of the Northern
States the true white men are firmly organ
izing in this direction. Let the move
ment be put through in every State.