Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-01-10
RADICAL COPPERHEADIsm

1 oabAO<A1 SOA I'm n EN- hbAShs
The Chicago Tribune progresse
rapidly. In fact il would not be
Chicago institution did it not do so
Once placed upon an activity, tn,
representative Chicagoan stands no
still, but unappalled by the steepnesi
of the ascent and the labor Will
which he has gained the summit, HI
hastens rapidly to the bottom. Sc
the Tribune. 1t has labored man
fully to elevate itself TO the summit
OF its party. 1t has shrieked free
dol, denounced Copperheadism
prayed for peace, and through its
cries, its curses and its suppliea
tons, with toll of mind and misery
of soul, has raised itself to the level
summit of party triumph, beyond
which, says the st. Louis Repu6li-
ttcan, it looked to see the glorious
answer to its prayer prOphesied no
less than promised in the mystic
phrase, "Let us have peace" The
summit reached, the Tribune finds
but narrow ledge, beyond which
lies the declivity of congressional
turpitude, down which it races with
accelerated velocity, touching upon
one rock of party faith only to
bound against greater, lying yet
further on. Monday we clipped
from its columns para
graph, in relation to the
public debt-the first rock
it had impinged upon with force
enough to shatter: and Wednes-
day, behold we find it i'm
paled full upon the "Reconstruc
ton" crag, which it denounces in
language that four months since
would, in its own estimation, have
fitted the utterer for place in the
then existing Fort Lafayette. Its
theme is the proposed exclusion of
Georgia from the family Of States,
and it matters little that behind that
crag it sees only that State and its
Senator, or that its fury is fired by
a Periclesian Grafton in which Hen
ry Ward Davis sung the praises of
Joshua Hill. Its attack is upon Con;
gress and its conclusions form much
less than an argument in support of
Radical reconstruction. 1t says:
Congress reassembles to day, and
one of the first things to be cOnsid-
cred will be the Georgia question.
If Congress can play at battledore
and shuttlecOck with eleven States,
receiving them into the Union to-
day and eXpelling them tomorrow,
it may play the same game with thir-
ty-seven States; and the Union will
be at the mercy and caprice of an
accidental majority in Congress at
any time. We have never heard of
a more dangerous political project,
or one embodying less wisdom.
"There are no better legal or con-
stitutiOnal grounds for expelling
Georgia from the Union than there
will be for expelling Massachusetts,,
if she rejects from her own Legisla-
ture the Boston youth (said to be lets
than twenty one years of age) who
has received a certificate of election
to the general court: or if she gives
him his seat when she ought to re
ject him.
I'VE say legal and constitutional
grounds We condemn as severely
as anybody can the action of the
Georgia Legislature in expelling the
cOlored members. We believe that
it was not warranted by the consti-
tuition of the State Yet we remem-
Der that the act was consummated by
the votes of persons calling them
selves Republicans, and that they
pretend to Justify themselves by say
ing that while Congress prescribed
sundry fundamental conditions to
the admission of Georgia, the right
of negroes to hold office was not
one of them. The point we make
is this, that Congress has no power
to expel State from the Union.
| If a State secedas from the Union,
or attempts to do so, the Govern
ment may bring her back by force of
arms and prescribe the conditions
on which she shall hereafter enjoy
any political rights whatsoever. Hay
ing done this, the government can
not turn round and kick her out
again, and prescribe new terms to
supplement a real or supposed de
ficiency in the first conditions. Such
a project is simply monstrous. 1t
will not be sanctioned by the people.
No political party can make itself
responsible for such an act and live.
1t is not q measure conceived in the
interest of peace, but in favor of
renewed strife, discOrd and conten-
ton.
This is fully as much as the
Chicago Tribune in its present state
could be expected to say against the
reconstruction policy. 1t is the
commencement of its argument,
which it may conclude when it over
looks its files and treasures itself,
from its own utterances, that the
eleven States, having no right to
secede, were never out of the Union
To day it denounces only the shuttle
cock play of receiving States into
the Union i'm 1868, and kicking
them out in 1869. To morrow
with that added measure Of Wis
dom another run msy bring, ant
the refreshed remembrance of i
nights placid slumber it may de
} monstratc that if eleven States may
he received into the Union in ont
, decade, or in one generation even
and expelled in the net decade O.
generation it may ultimately pla!