Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-02-10

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sive of the rights and liberties of States
and persons.
'sTAe crowning infamy of the usurpers
is to be found in the fifteenth amend
ment, (so-called,) which proposes to de-
priye the several States of their vital
power, by assuming to the United States
the power to describe the qualifications of
voters, and regulate the exercise of the
right of suffrage, in the States.
'sThese, three amendments, as they
are termed, were ratified by many Legs
latures under the pressure of Federal
bayonets, without which they would never
have been ratified at all. Being de.
clared ratified, they change the structure
and character of the government. The
trainers of the Constitution, in 1857, as
well as the most of those who ratified it
in 1888, were participants in the War for
independence, and, until success made
them Pairio,s, they were Rebels and
Traitors, and subject, if captured, to
the pains and penalties of the high crime
of treason as prescribed by British
law. Knowing, as they did, that there is
no moral crime in what is called treason
enacted by those who are honestly con
tending for their rights, and that no
odium attaches to those, even,
who have been, upon fair
trial, convicted of treason, except
in the country and government against
which the treason is alleged TO have been
committed, in framing the Constitution,
they were very particular and exact in
defining in what treason against the
United States shall consist, and how it
shall be established. 1t is believed to be
the only crime that has been defined by
any American Constitution. In the Con-
stitutionrit is declared: Treason against
the United States shall consist only in
leVying war against them, or in adhering
to their enemies, giving them aid and
comfort. No person shall be convicted
of treason unless on the testimony of two
witnesses to the same overt act, or on
confession in open Court. Under this
provision of the Constitution, it was the
duty of Congress to prescribe the penalty
of treason. And it is the duty
of the Courts to Try, upon indict-
ment, those charged with that
crime, and if proven guilty in manner
and form as required in the Constitution,
to pronounce the sentence of the law as
prescribed at the time the offence was
committed. Was this done9 Not at all.
Not a single person engaged in the civil
war, or, rebellion, if you please, has ever
been arrsigned and tried upon the charge
of treason. But, the dominant party in
Congress by and through iron-clad test
oaths, and Constitutional amendments,
uniting by usurpation the powers of the
Executive and Judiciary to their char
acter of legislators, prescribed penalties
new and unheard of, convict without evil
dence, sentence in the absence of the party
charged, and execute the sentence. Such "a
course is without precedent even in the
most absolute mOnarChies, And the Con
gress having the power 10 do all this, has
the power now given to themselves to
amend the Constitution in one particular
by a twO-thirds vote of each House
the third section of the fourteenth amend
ment. The sO-called thirteenth, four
feenth and fifteenth amendments, in our
opinion, were adopted without authority,
for the simple reason that they are not
amendments Of the Constitution, do not
improve but change It's character snd
make it infinitely worse"