The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1871-05-05
THE GREAT DEMOCRATIC Diff.
GUILTY.

The great difficulty wtlch races inc
democracy of the hatioh is mat OF o.
harmonizing the Northern and bdutn.'
ern wings of the party on the four.
tecnth nnd fifteenth amendments.
Leading Southern democratic jour-
nails keep up the cry that upon these
issues their Northern brethren must
face the music. The Mobile Register,
for example, says that while the thir-
teenth. amendment (Which abolished
and prohibited slavery) is all right,
tho reconstruction amendments
the fourteenth, declaring all persons
born or naturalized in the United
States, citizens thereof, and entitled
to equal civil rights, and repudiating
the rebel war debt, and declaring
sacred the Union war debt, ard the
fifteenth amendment, establishing ne
gro suffrage stand upon anolhet
footing. The Southern democracy do
not and will not recognize them; but
what do the Southern democracy de-
mand? Nothing more," says our
Mobile Democratic contemporary,
than the national democracy has al
ready conceded in. the New York
Convention Of 1868, when. in its plat
form, it.declared these reconstruction
measures unconstitutional, revolu-
tionary, null and void" This ia all
but this they do and will demand.
Here, then, is the great democratic
difficulty; and fiom General Grants
course on the Ku Klux question it is
evident that he intends 10 force the
fight upon these two amendments, so
obnoxious to the democracy Of the
South and never recognized by the
Democracy of the North. A late in
tcrview says that Mr.. Stevens, OF
Georgia, Vice President Of the $50,
called Confederate States," pronounc-
ed the fifteenth amendments "gross
usurpations Of power, passed by force
and fraud" But q Northern demo-
cratic organ, the New York World,
proposes a democratic compromise
upon this difficulty, viz:-That the
Democracy Of the nation consent to
the recognition Of these amendments
until we have q judgment upon, them
from the Supreme Court. We can un-
derstahd how they can be there up:
set when the opportunity offers by
the simple PROCESS OF reconstructing
the Court itself. How is this?
In the constitution the methods of
adopting amendments thereto are laid
down but the method Of tho procla-
nation of the ratification is left to
Congress. So by the laws Of 1918 on
the subject the Secretary Of State is
empowered to make the proclamation
and under this law the thirteenth,
fourteenth and fifteenth amendments
have been declared ratified and valid
to all intents ary purposes" as parts
of the constitution. This thing is
fixed by tho voucher of the Sccrcta::
ry of State; and to the Supreme
Court, as to the rest of US, it is the
"supreme law of the land" Like the
recognition Of a State, these amend
ments are beyond the reach OF the
|Supreme Court. If the question of
the creation Of the new State OF
West Virginia had bcen within the
Jurisdiction Of the Court it is moral
| y certain tb~tt the processes by which
that. Slotc- was created would
have teen declared irregular and void
tut Chief j ustice Taney had declared
in the Rhode Island Dorr case the
authority Of Congress in the matter
complete ard conclusive. Equally SO
lis the voucher of the Secretary OF
State, wkoss intelligence aud good
faith are not questioned touching the
ratification Of constitutional amend
ment. 1t can, after his proclamation,
be upset only by another amendment,
adopted in regular way.
Tho Supreme Court dodge, then
proposed as a compromise to the
Southern democracy, will not do
The Northern democracy must per-
suade their Southern brethren to &C.
ouiesce in the amendments in ques'
ton, or 20 over to them in the rcpn'
diation ofsajd amendments, or prepare
for sectional split upon them 1t il
clean that General Grant intends to
force the fight upon this subject. ltis
equally clear that if the Southern
democracy will only consent to fixed
facts he may be fan ked in 1872; but
will those leading Southern fire-eatcrs
consout That is the question, and