New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-09-26
The Amen dnents.
How they might be SuliIHed by a Demo
cratic Congress withont their Repeal.

Monday, Hon. William Whiting showed how
the recent constitutional amendments might
be nullifed by Congress controlled by the
Greeleyites, even without their repeal. He
said:
"The most striking contrast between the
opposing parties appears in their declarations
in relation to State rights. Both express q
strict and sacred regard TO the just limita-
tons Of state and National powers but the
Democrats say, that local self-goyernment,
with impartial suffrage. will guard the rights
of all citizens more securely than centralized
power whereupon they demand what they
call State self-gOvernment. This raises the
question whether that liberty and equality
in civil, political, and public rights now guar
anteed by the Constitution shall be protected
and secured by the powers of the National
Government, or shall they be left To the ten
der mercy of the States. The Republicans
RELY upon tho Union to protect lis citizens in
every part of the country, where state gov
emnlents cannot or will not afford protection.
! The Democrats, while con- eding the right
to liberty, equality, and civil and political
privileges, but intending TO take them from
the colOred race in the slave States by re-
pealing the laws Of Congress which now sus-
tain them, have, throughout their resolutions,
preserved Omnous silence on this subject,
1t is true that they say they will maintain
the Union, emancipation. and enfranchise-
ment. They mean the Union as it was
BY emancipation they mean the legal con-
dition of slavery; this, with all its burdens
upon the master, they do not desire. But
there Is a system of enforced service which
is not slavery, but is infinitely worse. They
may maintain emancipation and enfranchise-
ment in the legal and technical sense OF
these words; and yet, by local laws, they
may reduce the loyal negroes TO Il condition
little differing from slavery in fact. If they
do not intend to put down the negro, why do
theynot say so? Ii they mean to secure and
protect his rights, why did they not avow
their intentions? On the contrary, they an
nounce to all, that it is better 10 leave these
rights to the care Of the States rathar than
to that of the Union. They go still further,
and regarding all laws thus passed for the
protection OF civil rights as misconceptions,
they demand local seli-gOyernment'-in
other words, the liberty of the people in any
part of the Union to govern themselves in
their so-callcd domestic matters, according
to their own will and pleasure without in
reference Of national authority to prevent
them from depriving others of the rights guar
anteed to them by the Constitution and the
laws Of Congress. There was a time when
the Democratic party wculd have plunged
the country into foreign war, sooner than
allow the most defenseless class of citizens
to be robbed of its rights. The wrongs in
fiicted upon few dozen of cur sailors led to
the war Of 1872. They glOried in the bravery
of Commander Ingraham, who, in 1853,
trained the guns of the st. Louis upon the
Austrian man-0f-war which held as a pris-
oner Martin KosZta, an Austrian-born sub
ject, who had only declared his intention to
become an American citizen; but now, if
protection is given BY the fac of his country
to q natiye-bOrn citizen, who without it would
be deprived of property, liberty, or life itself,
the CRY is raised against the Capitalization OF
Federal power! The old mania of State
rights again RACES, and seems ready 10 rush
back again to secession and new rebellion.
The Democrats would have the Union with
out the amended Constitution. They would
have the privilege of passing such laws in the
slave States as would effectually destroy the
rights of classes OF their OWE citizens, and of
those who would go there from the old free
States; and they would deprive them of all
remedy, by overthrowing the amendments,
or repeating all laws for enforcing them.
"You will ask whether such a scheme is
practicable. Are the new amendments rati-
fed? How can the seceSsionists get away
from them? The Democratic platform adj
mits that these amendments are valid. Is
there any way, except by rebellion, through
which they can be rendered of no value?
Is, nIiltt
pealed. and as a part Of the highest law of
the United States, these amendments may,
by a Democratic majority in Congress, be
practically nullified. The Democratic party
has long head and persistent resolution.
1t does not understand that which it could
not effect. if it could only gain political
power. The Constitution will not execute
itself. 1t provides no machinery for securing
or protecting the rights it guarantees. These
rights may be violated with impunity, if there
are no laws to enforce them; and ifthe laws
are sufficient, if the people who administer
them are hostile, appeals to courts of justice
are in vain. 1t has happened, before the
war, that colored citizens of Massachusetts,,
employed as seamen on board our merchant
vessels which visited Charleston, South Caro-
lima, were seized by the city authorities, i'm
prisoned, and afterwards sold into slavery to
pay the .jailors' fees. The laws ofthe United
States, if executed, would have released these
slaves; but they could not he executed.
These unfortunate victims Of Southern hos
pitalty saw the first CLEAN Of returning lib
erty as it glanced from the shining steel Of
Federal bayonets, when the flying clliyalry
abandoned their last dItch.'
wherever we find an overwhelming public
sentiment, in any part of the country, OPP
posed to any provision of the Constitution,
and to the laws for carrying it out, there we
shall find practical notification, unless those
laws are enforced by Federal power. Such
has been o,ir experience. The fourth article
provides that The citizens of each State
shall be entitled to all the privileges and i'm
munities of citizens of the several States
The magnificent pledge of nationality, de-
signed by our foretathers to be fund of per-
petual union, has been violated from 1880 to
the present hour. Had it been kept, there
woald have been no war. Slavery would
have gradually disappeared. But instead of
this, the slave States denied us every priyi-
lege which, as they thought, would interfere
with their interests. Those who sought re-
dress were subjected to new and still greater
outrage. Ofwhat use was the Constitution
to a Yankee in South Carolina? Even at
the present time, liberty of speech, freedom
Of the press, the rights of loyal men TO prop
erty, liberty of life, cannot be secured in some
parts of the Southern States, unless the arti-
cles Of the Constitution arg made effective by
laws Of Congress, and executed by national
authority. The Constitution without laws Of
Congress is as useless as rlan-of-war with
GU. armament or ammunition. Strip of the
laws which provide the means of executing
the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth ar
tlcles of amendment, and YOU will uulllfy