Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1879-05-23
I'VE Have CAPTURED the Capitol

WE nave capJuIOu INC OapiJOl!
cry the Confederate Brigadiers; " down
with the devil-born amendmeutsp' etc.
Brigadier Blackburn puts it in slightly
different words, as follows:
Z" For the first time in eighteen years
the Democracy are back in power in
both branches of this Legislature, and
she proposes to signalize her return to
power-She proposes TO celebrate her
recovery of her long-lost heritage by
tearing off these degrading badges of
scrvitude," etc.
That by degrading badges of scrvi-
tude' this declamatory Southern party
chief meant the war amendments of the
Constitution has been denied. What
did he mean by that phrase? What
are the degrading badges of servi-
tude" the capturing Democracy of the
feminine gender propose to "tear offP"
The succeeding sentence of the stalwart
Kentucky Brigadier sheds some light
on the question. 1--WE do not intend
to stop" in the tearing off perform
ance, he said, "untl we have wiped
from the statute book the last vestige
of you war measures, which, like these"
National election laws, "were born of
the passions incident to civil strife,n
etc. We're not the thirteenth, four
teenth and fifteenth amendments of the
Constitution "born of the passions of
civil strife" quite rs much as were the
National election lawsp Most people
would say they were. They were
framed and adopted during or immedi
ately at the close Of the war, when the
passions incident to civil strife were
still active and intense, and no man of
respectable intelligence needs to be
told that had it not been for the civil
strife and its passions history would
not have witnessed their birth. The
election laws, on the contrary, were
not even suggested until after the coun-
try had been shamed and disgraced by
the monstrous election frauds in New
York in 1868. These laws were in
truth born, not of any war passions,
but of the consciousness of public ne
cessity created by the alarming increase
of corruption in the very foundations
of the Republic.
The deliverance of Mr.. Blackburn is
but one of very large number that
have been emitted by the Southern cap
tors of the Capitol, all of which go to
show a deliberate purpose to undo the
results of the war by "wiping out"
even to the constitutional amend
ments, every measure not compatible
with the pestilent secession or Calhoun
theory of the constitution. In the pol
itical understanding of Southern men
Democracy is Calhounism and Cal
hOunism is Democracy. If there be
single Southern man in either branch
of this Congress who does not hold this
view he is not one who accepts dem
ocrat'' as his party label. Every
Southern Democrat in Congress is a
Calhounist-that is a secessionist; every
Calhounist (that is man who denies
the nationality of the constitution and
afiirms the secession dogma of % State
Sovereignty,') is Democrat.
The proposition to repeal the Ma
tional election laws, or to nullify them
by divesting the Executive of the power
to execute them against the wishes of
the Estate Sovereignty bauditti, is only
one part of this new Call lOunist move
ment to nullify the Matt nal authority.
Another part of it is di closed in bill
just reported from the House Commit
tee on revision of the laws (of which a
Virginia Calhounist named Harris is
the leading spirit), to repeal sections
$50, GIL and 647 of the Revised Statutes
and for other reactiOnary purposes.
These section provide for the removal
of causes from the local to the Nation
al Courts, whenever one of the parties
is an alien or an inhabitant of an
other State, or when the question in
controversy is one involving a civil
right under the National law, or a
title in land under grant of
another State. In addition to the
repeal of these sections, the bill
prohibits the removal to the National
courts of any criminal prosecution
brought against National officer or
any civil action brought by citizen or
an alien against an officer of the
National Government in State court.
The Calhounist notion is that these pro-
visions of National law are in deroga-
ton of the sovereign right of the sew
eral States to destroy the National
organization by multiplying its laws and
disabling the instrumentalities of its
administration. This new bill to facil-
itate notification is not born of the pas
sions of civil strife, but of very cool
and deliberate purpose of the COnfed-
crates to "signalize their recovery of
their long lost heritage" by "wiping
! out the last vestige" of whatever
seems inconsistent with the Calhoun
doctrine of Estates sovereignty" and
National non-eXistence. 1t is another
step in the Calhounist movement, in
which the Confederates do not intend
to stop until they have swept wholly
away the political fruits gained by a
National victory over State sovereign
ty rebellion.
1t is this destructive spirit and pur-
pose of CalhOunism that underlies and
gives offensive character to propositions
respecting the employment of military
force in support of the civil executive
power, which viewed from a different
standpoint, would be inolfensive. To
prevent military interference with
elections, local or National, could of
fend no good citizen; on the contrary,
rs every friend of government by law
must reprobate even the semblance of
government by arbitrary force, SO
every one must applaud whatever
prevents the interference of such
force with that freedom which is
the vital essence of lawful election.
Whatever force intereferes with that
freedom, regulated by the civil law,
whether it be the force of an army
or the force of a mob-the force of
bayonets or the force of bludgeons--is
eqally contrary to the spirit of our in
stitutions, equally unlawful, equally
tends to the destruction of the Repub-
lie. If, then, the civil administration
of the laws be opposed by an unlawful
force, greater than the civil officers
can overcome, what shall be dOnei
The answer is given by the law 1t is
given by the acts of 1892, 1895, 1907
1888, 1861, providing for the employ
ment of military force by the Executive
in support of the civil administration
of the laws against unlawful force anC
,rtolaF,na 10 hKr tha Nation a