The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-10-18
WE RISE TO INQUIRE.

Immediately after the war, when the
south was all torn up, so to speak, and
ever other man in the north had recon
struction plan of his own to advance and
insist upon, the contention at last crystal
lied upon scheme by means of which the
southern states could be placed in pro-
stationary condition. The full effect of
this was that all the "erring sisters' were
to remain under military law out of the
union until they adopted the amendments
proposed TO the Constitution of the United
States, being numbered respectively the
thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth. Every
one of them, of course, gave the necessary
ratification and were duly restored to
their wouted sovereignty. This gave
rise to serious question, one that has not
been altogether settled yet. II the states
were not in the union at the time the
amendments were acted upon, what power
and authority did they have to act concur
rently with those states which
| ing upon the national charter
new conditions? Aud if they had such
power and were as matter of fact in the
federation-never really having gone out
of it. as some claim-what right did the
federal government have to prescribe the
rule of action which they should adopt re-
garding the amendments or anything else!
| 1t is and has been looked upon as question
of Jurisdiction, the ratification given by the
southern states being void in either case
when tested by the strict rules of national
law, for the reason stated, lack of member
ship insthe contracting power, or coercion
being the grounds upon which the claim of
negation rested. The only answer, sub
stantially, which the Republicans could, or
at least did, make to this indictment, was
that which appealed most strongly to the
prevailing loyal sentiment north and south,
that of great popular and pressing neces-
sity, matter the very ingredients of
which forced it up above and away beyond
the usual environments of mere
law in its everyday sense, and this plea
and the results achieved were accepted as
a finality in the case So it has rested and
so 1t stands.
This is not the only instance in which
extraordinary measures have been adopted
by the government, all going to show that
in times of great necessity or excitement
prescribed rules are suspended and suct
action adopted as the exigencies of any
particular condition may demand. For in
stance, the assassins of President LINCoLS
and other officers of the government, were
tried by military commission, and it be
ing civil offense and the country at peace
the proceedings were in form illegal an
the executions which followed wer,
judicial murders, strictly construed. Sc
with the trial and execution of WIRz, tn,
commander of Andersonville prison. Ye
the country upheld these proceedings fo
the reasons already suggested.
There is not much gained or to be gained
we know, by discussion of such subject
now. Yet discussion of them has it
uses, in that it brings before us the some
) times overlooked but always existing fac
( that governments, like men, have thei
r times of weakness, of depression, of dc
parture from rule, of excitement, and
may be of injustice itself, the last name
not always of necessity in any case but in
cide1tally in the course of peculiar proceed
s ings growing out OF unusual circumstances
s And surely no injustice is so emphatic o
3 determined as that which continues whel
: all grounds upon which it once rested hav
disappeared. We have been in the habi
: for instance, of looking upon the admissio
g to statehood of one territory after another
4 while ours more populous. thrifty and il
/ telligent than any of them-was excluded
as an injustice If not an outrage. The repl
: always came back that peculiar col
n ditions obtained in our case, and until the
e ceased to be, our situation as wards of th
!, government having political existence b
,. prescription and representation by SUI
france would be continued. Waving for th
e present all opposition to that plan, and COZ