The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1871-09-14
Southern Dethoctats Repudiating A. Fl. Ste.
phenss

The Richmond Dispatch, one of the ablest
Democratic Journals in the South, is disgusted
at the indiscretion of Davis, Stephens, Toombs
and others of its party friends. The Dispatch
says.
Hon. A. H. Stephens keeps up his war upon
the "new departtife:" He has no idea of sur:
rendering. What good purpose he hopes to ac-:
complish we cannot say. The only effect of
his arguments will be to produce disafection in
the ranks of the Democratic party; for it IS as
certalh DIS atty ftiture event can be that the
Democratic National Convention will next
year adopt platform in which one of the
The new Amendments are part and parcel of
the Federal Constitution. We cannot imagine
single good reason why anybody should object
to such a course. Mr.. Stephens declares that
he does not thitik that amendments ratified by
fraud and force are valid, and that in this opin;
ion he expects the Supreme Court of the United
States to agree with him whenever the question:
of the validity of the new Amendments shall
be passed upon by that tribunal. Conceding
that the Amendments are invalid, and that the
Supreme Court will ultimately decide that they
are so, We cannot yet see in the admission any
reason why re may not acknowledge that at
present the Amendments are to all intents and
purposes valid; for inasmuch as both the Ex-
ecutive and the Legislative departments of the
Government have in the most solemn form, dc!
clated that these Amendments were constitu.
tionally ratified and made part of the organic
law of the country, it certainly cannot be
wrong for the people generally to own the fact.
And is it not fact? Have not Congress and
the President solemnly declared, according to
the forms required by law, that the Thirteenth,
Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments have
been constitutionally ratified? Are they Lot,
then, at present as truly parts of the Constitu=
tion as any other article in it, and this not.
withstanding that they may have been ratified
at the point of the bayonet? They are; and
if Mr.. Stephens could demonstrate, as plainly
as he could the simplest mathematical proposi-
ton, that these Amendments have never been
ratified in the manner and form demanded by
the Constitution, they would still remain parts
of that instrument, which all the Executive
officers of the Government would be bound to
respect as stch until the proper judicial trlbu:;
malls should have overruled in constitutional
and lawful manner, the decision of the Execu-
tive and the Legislative departments Of the
Government. If Mr.. Stephens himself were
Federal Executive officer he would be COM
PEELED as such to treat the act to enforce the
Fourteenth Amendment as a constitutional law.
The "new Departure" thet, as we have often
said, is simply an acknowledgment of the exis-
tence of facts which cannot be ignored by
sensible men.
The Supreme Court will hardly get its law
from Democratic National Convention. Ii
its opinions or decisions could be Influenced by
party platform; they would be worthless at
best, and would certainly be upon the side Of
the other two branches of the Government. II
they cannot be so influenced, and if the fact IS
that the Amendments are for the present at
least parts Of the Constitution, where is the
harm in saying so? We fear that we will have
to write down Mr. Stephens as an imptsctiest
ble He is playing into the hands OF the He,
Davis have always hitherto managed to- say or
do something just in the nick of time and of
the right sort to blight all the prospects of the
Democratic party for success.