The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1882-04-12

feelings and opposition to slavery in the
Northern states until they arrayed the
Northern against the Southern states and
finally involved the country in civil war
wholly regardless of the constitution and
the laws, and the welfare and safety of
the government and the people, To ac-
compIish this ascendency they proclaimed
higher law than. the constitution and re-
sorted to every possible subterfuge and
and artifice to rouse the anipathies and
sectional prejudices of the people of
the North against the people of the South,
encouraged the escape of slaves, refused to
return fugitiyes as required by the consti-
tuition, mobbed the United States Marshals
engaged in executing the laws relative
thereto, disturbed the safety and domestic
tranquility of the Southern people, and act
ually urged the slaves to rise in insurrec-
ton against their masters. Thus this re-
publican party by trampiing down the
supremacy of the constitution and the laws,
and endangering the safety and very exis-
tence of our free institutions, brought on
the war which cost the country more than
four thousand millions of dollars of public
treasure, and sacrificed more than mil
lion of human lives
After the civil war had been brought
upon the country and the great struggle
commenced, Mr.. Lincoln and the republi-
can leaders generally appealed to the dem-
ecrats IN the northern states for their aid
in putting down the rebellion and presery-
ing the Union of. the states. And the res
olution, noticed in last weeks Register was
passed, declaring that 1.-THE war was not
waged in any spirit of oppression, nor for
any purpose of subjugation, nor of inter
ference with the rights or established insti-
- IL 49, Il ~
constitution and preserve the Union with
all the dignity, equality and rights of the
several states unimpaired," etc. The Pres
ident took into his cabinet Montgomery
Blair and Edwin NJ Stanton, two promi
nent democrats. General Mcclellan, a
democrat, was placed in the most promi-
nent command in the army. Indeed, DEM
ocrats were especially favored with the
leading positions in the army. And to save
the Union of the states and the unity of
the nation the masses of the democracy in
the northern states turned out, so that fully
one half, if not more, of the rank and file
of the Union army was composed of DEM
ocrats. And the war was emphatically
and undeniably fought and the rebellion
suppressed on the basis and with the I'M
Outstanding declared in the Crittenden res
olution aforesaid. But as. soon as the
southern armies surrendered and the south
ern states fell within the power of the
republican party then in power, the tone
of the leaders of that party was changed.
The result of the war was at once claimed
as a partisan triumph and efforts were
commenced to use it as such.
Mr.. Lincoln always insisted, and so did
Andrew Johnson, that the constitutionality
of the war to suppress the Southern re-
bellion could only be justified upon the
ground that the right of secession of a
state from the Union did not exist under
the constitution, and that the ordinances
of secession and all the proceedings.o of the
Southern states against the authority of
the United States were unlawful and void
in legal point of view, and that, there
fore the rebellion of the Southern states
could be rightfully treated as any other
insurrection against the au-
thoTity of the government. 1t is true that
tie rights of revolution on sufficient cause
is recognized in our fundamental law. But
the right of revolution is dependent on the
result, and can only be established by the
success of the movement.
Most unfortunately about the close of the
war, Mr.. Lincoln was assassinated, but
President johnson undoubtedly attempted
TO carry out the same views which Lincoln
had expressed, and which were in fact
embraced in the Crittenden
The constitution mr. kes it the
duty of the president to see that the laws
are executed. And the president in this
required the repeal Of the ordi-
rance of secession, and all the proceed
ngs of the Southern states Hereunder;
10 that in Dec, 1865, those states stood
in a legal point of view where they had
stood an tie Union before they had seeded. 1
But this did not suit the political views
IF the leaders OF the republican party. If
he Southern states should come back into
he Union and cooperate with the demo-
.ratic party in the Northern states, the re-
publican party was likely to lose its ascen-
iency, and be called to an account for its |
wrongs and outrages against the rights of |
he people and of the constitution and the |
olemn pledges of the public faith Hence |
he reconstruction measures, the negro I
outrage, the carpct-bag rule, and the mill
airy surveillance in the Southern states |
These things would never have been heard /
# but for the necessity of surterfuges to +
-eep the republican party in power. No
air-minded and intelligent man can for
doubt that if the Southern states
ould have been relied upon. to support
nd sustain the republican party in its as
no such things as the recon
ii uCtiOn LnCdoolCS oy OOuSICSS, ucSSIO Su1i-
age, or carpet bag and military rule would I
ave been heard of or thought of at all
The reconstruction measures conceded bv
ecessary and unavoidable implication the
light of secession, and that the Southern
tates had actually succeeded in getting
ut of the Union. Mr.. Lincoln's ground
or justifying the war was that the South
IN states were not out of the Union, but
hat all their secession movements being
Unlawful were void, and that they were
till states in the Union, and such is the
heory of the Chittenden resolution. But
0 keep the republican party IN power, the
outhern states had to be totally disfran-
hised after the war was over and treated
s out of the Union until the constitution
f the United States cold be changed, and
be states reconstructed and admitted
lte the Union. The doctrine of
eeesssion was absolutely exploded in
he South by the result Of the
var, but the dead body of it had to be re-
uscitated and perpetuated by the republi-
an party in order to keep itself in power;
Or the reconstruction measures have no
asis whatsoever to stand. upon, except
nat the Southern states had succeeded in
citing out of the Union; and they could
ave got out of the Union of the states
MY by session being right of the states;
not right, they were legally still in the
Tnion. So that the republican party act
ally became the session marty bv its own ,