Year: 1862

ct their own base valuation.


The Emancipation Question In Con.


gress.


It is understood that majority Of tho Judi
ciary Committee will report against the power
of Congress to meddle with the rights of the
Southern States to control the question of negro
slavery within their own limits, when, by force
of arms, those States shall have been subjected
to the federal authority, and that the President
alone, as Commander-in-Ch in the exercise
of war power, has anything to do with the
matter. 1t is also stated in our telegraphic
correspondence from Washington, published
yesterday, that the President and majority Of
his Cabinet are Of the same opinion.


AS long as the President maintains this con-
servative position (and we have no doubt he
will do it to the end), even revolutionary
majority in Congress can effect but little mis-
chief. Suppose the resolutions of Mr.. Sumner
were embodied in a bill tomorrow, the President
would veto it, and he would have the con-
sttutional right refuse to carry it out as Com
mander-in-Chief, for this reason. that the war
was undertaken to restore the Union, not to
break up the State organizations of any Sec
ton of the republic, and that the Presi-
dent has sworn solemn oath to "prcserve,
defend and protect the constitution of the
United States" A war to break up the State
organizations of the Southern States and to
hold them in vassalagc, instead of restoring
their original status of federal allegiance and
State rights, which are reciprocal, and cannot
be subvertcd without revolution, is not a war
for the Union, but against it, The Southern
States are as much portion OF the Union as
the New England States, and it would be
equally competent to Congress to reduce the
latter to mere territorial condition as itwould
be to place South Carolina, Louisiana, Georgia,
Alabama or Mississippi on footing Of provin-
cial dependence. The object of the war and
the Presidents oath is to preserve the whole
Union, and not mere part of it. To break up
fere with its domestic institutions would not be
to restore the Union, but to abolish it, and to
overthrow the constitution.


If a majority in Congress should be insane
enough to adopt any such bill, neither the Presi-
dent nor the generals Of the army would be





ject to the authority of the constitution as any
other branch of the government OF any indivi-
dual; and it is the duty Of all to support the
constitution against all usurpation, come from
what quarter it may. Only convention of the
people of all the States, North and South, can
change the constitution or abolish the finda-
mental principles on which the Union is found
ed. Any attempt to do it otherwise is treason,
and as criminal as TIE acts of JEFF. Davis and
his fellow cOnspirators, and ought to be punish
ed accordingly. The government is union OF
coequal States and the reasonable acts Of amy
number Of individuals in the slave States can
not deprive those States of their status in the
Union. Instead of destroying State govern
ments, the federal authority is pledged to qua
rantee their preservation and the protection of
republican institutions in every one of them
without exception. And what are republican
Institutions! Their very essence is that the
people of each State regulate their own do
mestic institutions in every respect in which
they do not contravenc the constitution OF the
United States.


But we are told that the medtated abolition
of the constitution in the Southern States il for
the purpose of efecting the emancipation
Of the negroes, and that after that is ac-
complished those States will be restored
to their normal condition. This is absurd
on the face of it; for the moment those States
obtain their cocqual footing in the Union it
will be in their power to enact negro slavery
again, Just a. it would be in the power of the
State of New York to do it this very year if it
deemed such o course consonant with its inte-
rests.


But what would the dreams of Sumner Gree
Icy & Co. accomplish If they ould be real
lied In the United States Senate for the present
there would be four Senators black an the ace
Of spades; in the House of Representatives
there would be some forty members of the same
hue. This proportion of negroes would rapidly
increase. Then the republican court at Wash
ington would soon be graced with ebony ambas-
sadors not only from Liberia and llayti, but
from the King Of Dahomey, the Sandwich
Islands and the Gorilla country. just imagine
half score of these fellows sent to Washing
ton to be fattcned, in order to be eaten on their
return The King Of Dahomey sent half q
dozen of bis subjects to the Queen Of England,
expecting that she would have some rare feast


ing upon their choicest parts when pro-
perly cooked. II is very probable an
equal number will be sent by his sable
Majesty to the President Of the United
States, for the same purpose, when diplomatic
relations shall have been established Then
let US picture the greasy squaw of one of the
black ambassadors leaning on the arm of Sena-
tor Sumner, rs he leads her to reception in
the White House, while Greeley follows in his
train with a huge female Gorilla, who will
probably hug him to death before che parts
company with the champion Of amalgamation.
In truth the various aspects of the case are