Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1881-03-01

placency, on any outrage they might
commit on the "rebel'.whites-the peo-
pie of these southern States, who owned
the country, and alone were competent,
or had the right, to rule it, were banded,
of necessity, together to protect their
lives, their property, their honor. What
would the people of Pennsylvania do il
heather Chinese were suddenly thrown
into their State, enfranchised in mass,
in such preponderating nulnbers that
the political power of the Common
wealth was likely to pass i'm mediately
into their hands :? Q Would you be able
to do as well as the South did? Would
you be able, by innate superiority and
by peaceable means, to keep down these
pagan idolaters and preserve til q institu-
tions of your Stateand the prosperity OF
your citizens from desecratiop and de-
struction? If amalgamation with them
was utterly out of the queeticn-felt to
be crime against blood and ature If.
further, they hated all you loved, esa1ssi
loved all you hated; if, led on by these
feelings and emboldened by ,sncourag-
ing messages and the promise of aid
from abroad, they should proceed sum-
marily to bring you to the 1ust-aff! !
would not the Schuylkill and the Eus-
quehanna redden into wrath, and the
cry, that silences laws, ITO arms! to
arms!" roll down from your mountains
to the sea? Such, and worse, was the
terrible environment of the people of
these southern States They did not
do what you would have done, and
would have been justified in doing.
Blood is thicker than water. and ri
umphed over it. They calmly asserted
their innate superiority, exerted a just
power of repression and control, and SO
vindicated their God given right to
rule. So, in some sense liberty was
maintained; So life and property were
protected and so, female honor was
saved from threatened defilement. The
same necessity, though weakening, is
still upon us; and so long as it lasts
the South, unseduced and unterrified,
will be, trust. as one man.
If the solidity of the South is to be
broken, then they who caused it must
do the work. You come to southern
men, and, in effect. ask them TO undo
the work of your own hands. The So
called amendments to the Federal Con
stitution subjected all that makes life
dear to us, or even tolerable, to the
british passion of an inferior race just
lifted by force and in palpab!e violation
of the Constitution out of slavery. Undo
your work, or at least have the courage
to declare the truth Of history, that
these amendments are not parts of the
\ Constitution.
4 The thirteenth amendment was rati-
fed by Virginia, Louisiana, Missouri,
Tennessee, Arkansas, South Carolina,
North Carolina, Alabama, and Georgia !;
and the votes of these States were nee,
essary to its ratification. Now, the
Congress of the United States, in Feb
ruary, 1867, recite the preamble of their
reconstruction measures as follows !:
"Whereas no legal State COVER nments
| or adequate protection for life and prop
| erty now exist in the rebel States of
Virginia, North Carolina South Carroll
ma, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana.
| Florida, Texas, and Arkansas. etc
Hence the validity Of the thirteenth
amendment rests upon the ratification
of States whose governments were de-
clared illegal by the Congress of the
United States. Ratified by bodies
| which the Federal Congress, to accom-
plish another purpose, found it conve
nient subsequently to declare illegal,
the ratification must be invalid. Ac-
cording to the XXXIXth Congress-the
Congress that accomplished the hideous
programme of recoustruction-the rati-
| fication by these States of the thirteenth
amendment had no more binding effect
than vote on the same proposition
by Hottentots or Bengalese. Is the
! IXXXIXth Congress, Messrs. Editors,
good authority?
| AS TO the fourteenth amendment. The
!XXXIXth Congress assembled Decem-
| Der, 1865. They proceeded to recon-
struct the ''rebel States" by passing the
reconstruction measures the first of the
series becoming law In February, 1867
| The existing governments in those
States were, as we have seen, declared
| to be illegal, and were overthrown. In
palpable violation of the Constitution,
martial law was proclaimed, when there
was not the slightest show of opposition
to- Federal authority. The States were
converted into military districts and
military satraps, with more than pro-
consular powers, were sent down to
take possession of them and govern
them as they pleased Conventions,
called by military authority, were re-
uuired to form new Constitutions for
these States and impose upon the peo-
pie, in their organic law, the terms OF
| the conqueror. State Legislatures, soon
elected and convened, ratified the
| amendment without debate. The heel
of the tyrant was upon them. They
| were told to take the amendment or the
bayonet. Was this a ratification at all
Certainly it was not a ratification in the
sense of that term as employed by the
trainers of the Federal Constitution.
The people of these States-their lead
ers and guides disfran chised-had nc
choice; certainly no choice as between
the ratification and the rejection of the
amendment, but a choice only between
ratification and the surrender of life,
property, and all, to the cruel mercy OF
| irresponsible military despots, who
eemed even to seek opportunities oi
| vested rights. The ratification by the
90 uthern States of the fourteenth amend
| ment was effected by force and torture
an d is therefore null and void.
| Even Mr.. Seward, then Secretary ol
State, practiced and facile as he was in
pol itical regeneration, did not have the
| hardihood to announce unquaflhedfy
the ratification of this Amendment
Hear him in his official proclamation OF
the ratification. He stated that it had
been ratified by twenty-three States
| twenty eight were necessary, and ''ln
six States by bodies avOwing themselves
to be, and acting as, the Legislatures o.
4 the States of Arkansas. Florida, NORTH
A Carolina, Louisiana, South Carolina
and Alabama" In the same proclama
4 tiop he tells US that the States of Ohio
and New Jersey (embraced in the TWEEN
ty three before mentiOned) "have since
\ passed resolutions respectively with
j drawing the consent of each OF sale
/ States; but the votes of these States
il were counted all the same.
i Was the Congress of the United Statel
A that proposed the amendment lndeee
i the Congress of the United States Tit
Constitution declares that the "House
of Representatives shall be composed o
!. members chosen by the people OF th'
several States," and that the "Senat'
shall be composed of two senators fron
each State, chosen by the Legislature
thereof" Was that Congress const1tu'
tionally organized that excluded IRON
representation in both branches OF TN
Federal Legislature the people OF
dozen States who had duly elecSed rep
resentatives and senators. and lnnictet
i upon them, in the reconstruction meas
4 ures, while so excluded, the foules