Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-01-27

nearly one hundred thousand votes, and
all the officers of the State who are now
prosecuted and prosecuted were elected.
by the free suffrages of the people and
in the mode prescribed by the laws of
the State. Yet the Radical party, which
established military despotism in all the
| Southern States, has become 80 intoxi-
Gated with power and 80 enamored with re-
construction that it is resolved 10 defeat
the popular will of the freemen of Gre
constructed Tennessee, not by fair
vote in fair election, but by prosecutions
under the forms of law, and the grossest
and most tyrannical perversioH of the ju>
dicial tribunals.
We have already extended this article
to greater length than we had intended,
but we hope our readers will bear with us
while we briefly state some of the reasons
why it is the duty of every good
citizen of the State to resist these
prosecutions, and why the people of the
| North should, at once, demand the re-
peal of the odious act which the myr-
mid ms of power are using every effort
to enforce. Briefly as we shall state
our propositions, we hope they will fur
| nish the material for serious reflection,
| not only to our readers at home, but to
our friends and to all well tempered men
in the Northern States. These PROPOSE
lions involve some of the most momen-
tous questions that ever were submitted
for the consideration of the American
people. We have not time or space to
discuss them now, but the day is not far
| distant when they will be discussed
| throughout the wide North, and when
those who have been concerned in the
| enactment of laws for the sole purpose
of harrassing and annoying a PROSTATE
people, will be called upon by their con-
stituents to yield their places to men of
larger minds and hearts, and when those
who are now abusing public confidence
shall be swept away by the rising and IT.
resistible power of the true Democracy
of the nation.
These positions may be succincily stated
as follows: r-
l. The fourteenth amendment is not
part of the Constitution of the United
States. The States of Ohio and New
Jersey, which were counted in the two
thirds vote required to ratify it, withdrew
their assent before it was promulgated by
Congress, and it was not ratified by the
requisite number of States.
2. The fourteenth amendment is no
part of the Constitution, because it was
forced upon the Southern States by the
imperious dictation of Congress, and was
not freely and voluntarily ratified by those
Southern States that are claimed TO have
voted for it. They were held to be in
such condition that they were not enti-
tied to send members TO Congress: and
yet, for the purpose of party, they were
considered capable of voting upon the
gravest question that can ever be submit
ted to free people-the question of a
constitutional amendment.
3. The people have no power so to
amend the Constitution as to make it
operate as an erpOst ,ft1ctO Law. Such
an amendment is contrary to the spirit
and genius of our free institutions, and is
in violation of the Great Charter enacted
in England five hundred years ago, and
which our ancestors brought with them
as part of the common law, and part of
our common heritage of freedom.
4. The States have never surrendered
all their political tights to the General
Government, and Congress had no consti-
tutiOnal power TO pass alaw TO inquire into
or regulate the manner in which the
States shall elect their officers. Such a
law destroys every vestige of State scv-
ereignty, and consolidates in the General
Government all the reserved powers
which are necessary for the preservation
of public liberty.
: 8. The fourteenth amendment and the law
enacted to enforce it, should be construed
in harmony with the other provisions of
the Constitution, and should, upon any fair
rule OF legal Interpretation, be held as op-
Grating not upon offences committed dur
ing the war, but upon offences occurring
after the adoption of the amendment.
6. President johnson granted amnesty
and pardon to all persons who were, in
any way, connected with the rebellion, ="
and the validity of this pardon cannot be
impaired, either by an amendment of the
constitution or by an act of Congress.
7. 1t may be fairly questioned whether
| any constitutional amendment could be
proposed by a Congress in which the
States were not fully represented within
the meaning of the constitution prescrib-
ing the manner in which amendments are
10 be made.
These questions may not be considered
with favor by the National judicial tribu-
nails which have shown, already, too
much subserviency in obeying the behests
of Congressional dictation but the day
is coming, and is not far distant, when
the mighty Democracy of the Nation
will be heard and felt on the subject, and
when, if the men now in office are too
feeble TO enforce the majesty of the con-
stltution, the means will be devised of
filing their places with more able aud in
dependent expOunders of the law.
During the entire history of Tennessee,
and down to the commencement of the
late civil war, if any one of the hundreds
of prosecutions which have been COM
menced to defeat the will of the people.
had been originated upon any law similar
in principle to the detest4ble statute we
have considered, mighty Outcry would
have been heard from one end of the