Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1869-01-21
Sd. Of;electors, defined b. a known
and fixed elective Franchise.

or the organic law, irropealable and un-
changeable, except by the conventional
power, and supreme in the State.
9TH. The secondary elements are munic-
ipal, represented by the three departments.
executive, legislative and judicial, embra-
cling all officers and agents for the enact
nent, the execution and construction Of
statute laws. .,i3
These elements are necessary to the be-
ing and action of State but the primary
elements alone are essential to its being
however the officers and agents the mu-
nicipal departments may be essential to its
action. There may be no government, no
members of the Legislature, no judges on
the bench-they may be all destroyed by
act of God, by pestilence or by war, or
they, the mere municipal officers, may all
leave the places of the offices of the State,
but the State in all its elements and parts
may, and Virginia did and does continue
to exist The mere municipal depart.
ments may have lost all their officers. and
may be wanting in all their ftlnctionaries.
but the body polite exists unless Destroy
ed by foreign war, or by successful and
consummate revolution.
The late war between the Southern con-
federacy of States and the Federal Union
ofStates was not a foreign war. inter gentes,
but it was a civil war an unsuccessful rev
oution of States, the failure of which ex-
posed neither States nor persons to the JUS
Belli absolute un der the laws ct natlons,
but exposed persons only to the penalties
for rebellion and treason ander tie consti-
ton of the United States. ,-- ........
In stating these propositions, ! am rely
ing on no obnoxious, and now PROSTATE
principles OF State rights, such as those of
'9S and '99. They are hushed and made
silent by the resuisof the war But am
speaking the plain doctrines of the consti.
tuition, Of public law and of the Federal
Judges and the Federal American publl-
cists. | speak by the constitution and by
authority of Wheaton's elements of inter-
national law, when | say the government
of the United States is "Compositive
Government" It's sovereignty is divided
into external" and internal " Its EEK
ternal" sovereignty is merged in the fed
eral body polite of the United States of
America. Its ''internal,' sovereignty is
originally vested in its component parts,
Its external sovereignty is governed BY the
international law, with its absolute 'Jus
beHi:' and It's internal sovereignty is gov
erned, not by the international law, but
by the supreme law of internal sovereign
ty. the constitution of the United States,
which gives it no power to make war at all
upon its own members, the States OF tine
Union. 1t is solecism to say that any
sovereignty can make war upon Its own
citizens, subjects or people.
It follows, therefore, that the power
given to Congress to declare war, is a
power to declare war against foreign ma
lions, and its supreme law is the interna-
tional law. The jus belli of that power
is absolute-it may do all that "wsr" can
do; it may seize, capture. kill. blockade,
besiegeland devastate; it may destroy, an
initiate state by taking its territory,
.->~l-:-e oartiun lis nennln anal ohlitarate
its sovereignty and very body polite, but
one thing as an exception proves the rule
of its absoluteness-It can't hang its zen
emies" for treason. Major Andre in the
revolution could be executed as a "spy,"
but he could not be as "Taitor. y
Great Britain might have annihilated the
the independence and sovereignty OF the
United States, in the war Of 1912, but
she could not have executed Andrew Jack
son for treason on land, or Isaa5 Hull for
piracy on the high seas. But. IN civil
var, internal and domestic, where revolt
ton and rebellion are endeavoring to over
throw established government. and are
resisting by force their own rightful SOW.
ereignty, the rule is exactly reversed-the
rebels are traitors not enemies, and may
be executed as such, because they are trail
tors and not enemies but the government
and states, bodies polite and sovereign
ties, which they rebel against, don't fall,
are not destroyed by the rebellion or revo-
luton, unless the latter are successful
Civil war itself don't let in the absolutism
of the rule of the international law; but
the Ian image of the United States court is.
rtbe constitution preserves all its vitality"
as the supreme law over the Federal gov
ernmcnt and the States and lncc..ir cltiIens
and subjects, (sec opinions Of oni'eea
States courts for the eastern district of
Missouri and the southern district OF Hi
nois, &c. opinion of Hon. Ssm'l Treat P
.. 36. 37.)-One of the ablest opinions
upon the war, its nature and effects, says:
IF the traitor must be treated only as
an enemy not governed by the municipal
but by the international code, he could be
held only as prisoner of war, but not as
traitor, nor could be be punished for his
treason. * X X And, On the other hand, if
every war recognized by the constitution,
instantly, and of its force, clothes any one
or more departments of the government
with absolute power or powers unknown
to the constitution or prohibited by 1t
then the other strange anomoiy must ex :
list, viz : the instant overthrow Of the con-
stitution as an organic and supreme law
by an act of treason. however Insignificant
in proportion, which chance to be COM
mitted in any part of the country by any
number of citizens, however inconsldera-
BILE. In other words, the resistance to be
overcome leaves no constitutional power
to be exercised against it; for. if the con
stitution ceases to be obligatory because it
is assailed, then it expires whenever it is
assailed, aud no one has any con stitution-
al authority to defend the annihilated
source OF. authority.
During the rebellion it was the policy
of the Confederacy to be recognized as a
belligcrent under the laws Of nations, to be
to be treated as enemies and not as hostes.
This was one step to independence and
recognition. and this protected captives