The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-04-26
6. '. B0CACKI,
sas-, Doors, Wall Paper, Cabinet Mantels, Builders' Hardwars and
 Supplies. Mail oredrs solicited.
 and given prompt attention. Phone 330. 34 Commarcs St

Phone $50. 34 Commsrcs St ed perfect and unimpaired. It certainly follows that the State did not cease to be State, nor her citizens to be citi- zens or the Union. If this were other wise. the States must have become for eign, and her citizens foreigners The war must have ceased to be a war for the suppression of rebellion, and must have become a war for conquest and subjuga- ton.
 Our conclusion, therefore, is that Tex as continued to be a State, and a State of the Union, notwithstanding the trans actions to which we have referred. And this conclusion, in our judgment, is not in conflict with any act or declaration of any department of the National Government but entirely in accordance with the whole series of such acts and declarations since the first outbreak of the rebellion"
 The Neutral Ground.
 The Reconstruction period followed the cessation of hostilities in the field. The Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Ar ticles of Amendments of the Constitu- ton were proposed and in turn formally proclaimed as ratified.
 Their enforcement acts came under discussion. Mir. Garfield spoke in the House, July f. 1871, upon bill 70 enforce the provision of the Fourteenth Amend ment. Mir. Bingham from the Joint Committee on Reconstruction, had re- ported, February B, 1S6s, a joint resolu- ton proposing the following amendment to the Constitution of the United States: "The Congress fhall have power to | make all laws which shall be necessary AN | each State all the privileges md immuni- | ties of citizens in the several States; and | to all persons in the several States equal protection in the rights of life. liberty | and property" The debate proceeded | at great length, and the necessity for in- l creased protection to those who had late | ly been slaves. against the hostile legis. | lation of the States. was strongly urged | It was insisted that this amendment | was necessary in order to protect the l lives and property in the Southern | States. It was sought to show how. un-
 der the Thirteenth Amendment. the laws | of the States might be so administered 1 as to put black men into slavery under
 the pretense of sentencing them fol | crime and that without additional power
 given to Congress the General Govern | ment could not prevent such a result | It was affirmed that the guarantees oi | the rights of property and person named
 in the Fifth Article of tie Amendments
 to the Constitution were not limitations | on the State Governments, but only or
 CongI ess and to support this position de | cisions of the courts were quoted. It was
 said that the question was simply wheth
 CT the Congress would give by the pro,
 posed amendment, to the people of tn, | United States the power. by legislative | ofu fn 0h 0aa oR
 for violation of the oaths enjoined upon
 them by their Constitution.
 | MT. Bingham. a very able man and
 most learned lawyer, gave 1t as his opin.
 lon that the proposed amendment would l confer upon Congress a general power oi | legislation for tho purpose of securing tc | all persons in the several States protec | tion of life, liberty and property, subject | only to the qualification that that pro.
 lection shall be equal. He admitted that
 the right to real estate was dependent or
 the State law. except when granted by | the United States. but that the amend. l ment would undoubtedly extend to per. | sonal estate.
 MT. Garfield, in his speech, July f. 1871
 said: Now let it be remembered tha, | the proposed amendment was a plain | unambiguouS proposition to empower
 Congress to legislate directly upon the | citizens of all the States in regard to
 their rights of life. liberty and property l Mark the action of the House. After a | debate of two weeks, in which the pro- | pos '1 amendment was subj Acted to a
 most searching examination, 1t became I evident that many leading Republicans
 of the House woul1 not consent to so rad
 ical a change ;n the Constitution. and the | consideration of the measure was post | poned on motion of Mr Conkling who
 had opposed 1t from the start, and It 1 wont back to the committee, and was | never again discussed in the House '' | Speaking directly upon the merits of the bill then under discussion, MT. Gar | field said:
 | "The distinguished gentleman (Mr. | ShcllabargeD who introduced the bill | from the committee very appropriately
 said that 1t requires us to enter upon un-
 explored territory. That territory. Mir. Speaker. is the neutral ground of all
 political philosophy. the neutral ground l for which rival theories have been strug- gling in all ages. There are two ideas | so utterly antagoniStic that when, in any | nation. either has gained absolute and complete possession of that neutral ground. the ruin of that nation has in- variably followed. The one is that des- | potism which swallows and absorbs all power in a single, central government:
 the other is that extreme doctrine of To- cal sovereignty which makes nationality | impossible and resolves a general gov ernment into anarchy and chaos It makes but l.ttlc difference as to the final | result which of these ideas drives the
 other from the field; in either case ruin | follows"
 MT. Garfield also, in the same speech, said:
 The records of time show no nobler or wiser work done by human hands than
 that of our fathers when they framed this
 Republic. Beginning in a wilderness
 world, they wrought unfettered by pre- cedent. untrammeled by custom, unawed by kings or dynasties. With the history of other nations before them, they sur veyed the new field. In the progress of their work they encountered these an- tagonistic ideas to which have referred
 They attempted to trace through that
 neutral ground the boundary line across
 which neither force should pass. The result of their labors is our Constitution and frame of government"