The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1871-03-02


resolutions of Congress and when it at
tenpts powers not delegated toit,its edicts
ought to be void and of no more effect
than the resolutions of mass meeting
held in the streets of city.
What were the punishments which Con-
gress in the reconstruction acts sought to
Inhict upon the people of the South? In
stead Of proceeding to punish those who
had been IN rebellion according to law, by
trial, and convection, they de-
clared by act of Congress that certain
classes had been guilty of treason, and
condemned the community en- naGSSe, for
feitlng their rights as citizens, depriving
them of the rights of suffrage, and declar-
ing them ineligible to office The persons
upon whom the punishments were infict-
ed were citizens of the States recently in
rebellion. The fact that they were States
in the Union cannot be denied, because all
of them had voted to ratify the thirteenth
amendment TO the Constitution, emancipa-
ting the slaves, and their votes upon this
amendment had already been counted and
accepted by Congress. They were thus
recognized as States, capable of performing
the highest functions of the States, capa-
ble of acting upon amendments to the Or
ganic law of the Repubh proposed by Con-
gress to the States not proposed by Ter
ntories or conquered provinces, but pro-
posed by the States in the Union.
And unless they had thus been recog-
nized and regarded as States in the Union
they csuld not have voted for the ratifca-
ton of that amendment, fixing the organic
law of the Republic, not alone for them
selves, but all the other States This is a
higher function, more important Office
than that ofpartieipating by their repre-
sentatives in the legislation of Congress.
Without the votes of these States the
thirteenth amendment was not adopted
and is not part of the Constitution If
1t is valid, and no one denies its validity,
then they were States at that time, and
Congress could not expel them or recon
struet them. 1t was after this recognition
that Congress proceeded to displace their
constituted authorities, place them under
martial law, disfranchise their citizens, and
disqualify them from the exercise of all
civil rights, transferring the political pow
er to the hands of ignorant and vicious
part of the population, who had hitherto
been slaves, thus in1icting punishment
without judicial trial This brings me to
the point put so strongly to the Senate
the other day by the Senator from Wis
consin (Mr. Carpenter), that no man can
be punished by an act of Congress or by
the act of any legislative body that such
an act is bill of attainder, and is denoun-
ced and prohibited by the Constitution,
and especially as against whole commu-
nifty, confounding the innocent with the
guilty if guilt could be attached to any
Individual under such circumstances.
Again this Acknowledgement was the op-
erative part of the machinery of these re-
construction acts. Withoutlt they would
have had no effect In the South. The ef-
fectiVe machinery was the deprivation OF
classes of citizens of their right of suffrage
and conferring thatsame right upon others
who had never been entitled to il, in yio-
lation to another plain provision OF the
Constitution, which reserves to the States
themselves the right to regulate their own
suffrage; the reconstruction acts 60 still
further, giving to the military authorities
the power to enforce their provisions by
arrest, by imprisonment, by punishment Of
any person resisting them. thus depriying
those charged with the commission o.
crime of the right of trial by jury and 9th
er safeguards which the Constitution has
thrown over all the citizens of the country
its humblest and highest, its best and
worst. believe there Is scarcely sin.
gle article or paragraph of the Constitu-
ton which was not violated by the recon.
struction acts. The command oithe troops
who were to put the acts into execution
was taken away from the constitutional
commander -in-chief of the army and navy
of the United States and conferred on an
other individual. You can hardly put
your hand on single sentence Of these
denominations, called the reconstruction
acts, without encountering some violation
of the Constitution, in its letter or princi.
pie, ofthe United States; and the Difficult.
ty is to find any one ofits articles which
they do not violate. These gentlemen
themselves knew these acts to be in viola.
ton of the Constitution.
Mr.. Blair then referred to the decision
of the Supreme Court in the case Milligar
and others IN Indiana, wherein it was
held that the right Of trial by Jury Is pre-.
served to every one accused of crime whC
is not attached to the army or navy, ol
militia In actual service also, to the de-
cision in the case of Cummings vs.. the
State of Missouri, wherein the attempt tC
disqualify certain persons from practlcins
professions, and from the right of suffrage
was pronounced unconstitutional. He salC
that Congress betrayed their own guilty
knowledge that they were violating the
constitution, when they passed bill tax
ing away the right of appeal when they
found that the Supreme Cpurt was abou
| to take jurisdiction of the McCardle case
Mr.. Blair continued.
Now, if the crime committed by tn,
Southern men in going into the rebellion
| deserved punishment, they should havI
been punished according to the Constitu
tion That was the only way in which
we could punish their crime without com
/ mitting on our part as great
crime, the crime of destroying our owl
| Government and overthrowing our owl
Constitution. Sir, IN oyerthrowing ou
Constitution, in violating its sacred guar
antees, we committed the same Grim
with which we had charged the rebels c
the South, and of which they undoubted
ly had been guilty.
| That was my view Of the case, and be
lieving that these acts of Congress wer
unconstitutional, mil, and void, be
lieve that the president Of the Unite
States, who was sworn to maintain tn
Constitution, ought not allow it to b
trampled under foot; that your censcienc
sir, and the conscience Of the majority j
these two Houses, should not dictate t
the President what he should do in cas-
of this kind. He had his own conscienc
to keep clear and spotless, he had swor
an oath himself, and remember righ
well that it was not the Democratic Cor
vention which sat in New York tw
years ago that first gave utterance
this doctrine, that the President of th
United States was bound by his oath
maintain the Constitution, and not allo'
it to be violated in any way or by any
body, neither by Congress nor BY his ow
act nor by the act of any one else.
Mr. Jefferson, who founded the Demo
cratic party, held and declared this doc
trine not only as matter of theory, bU
he acted upea it on q memorable occs
sion when President of the United State
Iprefer to quote his own language. In
letter to Mr.. Adams, dated llth of SeI
tember, 1904, he says:
you seem to think it devolved on Il
Judges to decide on the validity of Il
sedition law. But nothing in the Const
tuition has given them anght to ieciC
for the Executive, more than to the Exr
cutive to decide for them. Both magi
tracies are equally Independent in tt
| 4 II - - ! I