Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1871-03-10

that the quorum consists of majority OF
the remaining members, and In this way
varies from day TO day, as vacancies occur
by death or resignation, or are filed by
election or appointment
This question was raised In Congress
after the resignation of the senators and
representatives from the Southern States,
at the beginning of the rebellion, and was
decided in accordance with common sense
and the necessity of preserving the gov
ernment.
The resolution ratifying the Fifteenth
Amendment, in the Indiana Legislature,
received fifty-six votes in the House, and
twenty-eight in the Senate, the same
being a clear majority OF all the members
authorized by law TO be elected by either
house.
SO much of the joint resolution am con-
sidering as purports to rescind the act of
the Legislature of Indiana ratifying the
Fifteenth Amendment is a harmless null
lity, and need not be noticed but for the
spirit by which 1t is animated. The better
opinion is that after the Legislature of
State has ratified an amendment to the
Constitution of the United States, even
before IL has been ratified by enough other
States to secure its adoption, the act can
not be recinded on the ground that the
power of Legislature, as conferred by the
Constitution of the United States, having
been once exercised on the particular
amendment, has been exhausted. But that
the Legislature can rescind its act of rati-
fication after the amendment has been rati-
fed by three.fourths of all the States and
proclaimed according to law, was never
asserted before, except by those who main
tanned the right of secession.
South Carolina held, in 1860, that she
off hpr Ol ina-
tions and secede from the Union by simply
repeating the ordinance by which she rat
flied the Constitution in 1888; and such
seems to have been the opinion of those
who voted for this joint resolution.
Stripped of all pretenses and beclouding
"whereases," it asserts the naked and
abhorrent doctrine of the right of seces-
sion.
1t is important that the country should
understand the issue rendered by the
Democratic party: that it proposes to &C.
cept nothing that has been done in the
way of reconstruction that it repudiates
all the terms and guarantees required of
the rebel States as the condition of their
restoration. Not only has it declared,
| through its conventions, State and National,
that the reconstruction acts of 1857 were
unconstitutional and void, but it now as
serts that the Fourteenth and Fifteenth
Amendments are nultities, and will be by
them disregarded when they come into
power.
Men of all parties, who seek repose and
the final settlement of the great questions
growing out of the rebellion, are notified
that the programme of the Democratic
party is revolution and retrogression.
The notification of the Fifteenth Amend
ment means the robbery from the colored
people of their right to vote. The nulli
fication of the Fourteenth Amendment
means the reduction of the colored people
of the Southern States to the condition of
slaves to the law; it means to leave the
door open to the assumption of the rebel
debt, paying the rebels for their slaves aid
for the repudiation of the national debt
All these things are provided against in
that amendment, and there can be no
other reason for its notification. Why
should any one desire to set it aside unless
it be to accomplish the things which it
forbids?
In stating the positson of the Demo-
cratic party, rely upon the expression of
opinion in the Indiana resolutions, and
upon the vote of the Democratic members
in the other end of this Capitol, at the last
session, against a resolution declaring the
validity of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth
amendments. On the 18th of July, 1870,
the other house, by vote of 13S yeas to
32 nays, every Democratic member pres
ent voting nay, adopted the following res
olution, offered by Mr.. Ferriss, of New
York:
Resoired That the Fourteenth and Fifteenth
Articles of Amendment to the Constitution OF the
United States, having been duly ratified by the
Legislatures OF three-fourhs of the several States
valid TO all intents and purposes as part of the
Constitution of the United States, and, as such
aud Nka
| Congress, the Judiciary, the several States and
Territories, and all citizens Of the United States,
rely upon these further reasons:
That the adoption of the amendments
was strongly opposed by the Democratic
party in Congress and out of it; that the
; Democratic party everywhere denied the
, power of Congress to require the late rebe
States to raify the amendments as a condi
, ton to their restoration; that no Demo
/ cratic Convention, Legislature, or leading
/ statesman, SO far as know, has accepted
or admitted the validity of the amendment
f And may refer to the additional facts tina
the State of Kentucky to-day nulli6es al
f important provision of the Fourteenth
} Amendment, and also of the Civil Rightl
Bill" by refusing to colored people tn,
; right to testify in her courts in any case
civil or criminal, to which white persoI
/ is a party. A white man may enter
colored congregation and shoot the minis
, ter in the pulpit, and if there are no whit
5 witness he can not be prosecuted. NJ
. wonder that the press is teeming will
crimes committed upon the colored peopl
E of that State.
t And the Supreme Court of California, il
t a recent decision, refusing to the Chimes
: the right TO testify in cases to which whit
persons are parties, while not directl,
] 10 " If n ntl
e Amendment, asserts the existence of Stat
, rights which would subvert it utterly
: And the Governor of that State, in mes
: sage TO the Legislature, declared that tn
Fifteenth Amendment was not within tn
|, scope of the power of amendment con
:. tanned in the Constitution of the Unite,
9 States
, Mr.. Casserly-Will the Senator ALLOW
me-
4 Mr.. Morton-I shall be through in
4 moment, and then l will answer any ques
+ tions.
r Mr.. Casserly-I rise merely to correc
t tion as question OF fact.
Q Mr.. Morton-Very well.
: Mr.. Casserly-The Senator from indians
r probably is not aware that that message o
the Governor of California was delivered
q while the ratification of the amendmen
J. was still pending.
e Mr. Morton-I am aware that that mes
a sage was on sending the amendment int
4 the Legislature but that Message denied tn
). power of Congress to propose an amend
f ment of that kind, and denied the posi-
: bility of its becoming part of the Consti
1 tuition Of the United States, though rattle,
!. by ever so many States.
q And the Legislature of Oregon, at 1t
!. late session, formally declared the sam
o amendment to be a nullity, and not bind
i ting upon the people of that State.
3 The issue thus presented is of the gray
f est possible character, and involves tn
f peace and perhaps the very existence @
o the Union. Amendments so vital to tn
8 safety of the nation, and to the liberty an
4 happiness of nearly five millions of pee
e pie, adopted under circumstances s
a solemnIand so strange in the worlds his
e tory, cannot be nullified but by struggl
4 | which will shake our poyernment to II