Year: 1864




lConcludedl


RECONSTRUCTION.


The propositions which should obtain
IN The reconstruction of the Union are no
difficult OF statement, and when contrast.
ed with the policy of the Administrators
VIII appear to peculiar advantage.


lhe hrst is, that the States shall stand
as before the war, except as TO change,
which may be agreed upon between O,
among them. The Constitution of the
United States is the rghtful and on,y
bond OF union for the States comprising
the Contederacy, and it is TO stand as it is
IN Its iull integrity, until the par ties yhc
are bound by it shall change its terms O,
aod to 1t new provisions. Any other doc.
trine is revolutionary and destructive and
to be utterly rejected, whether founded
upon Presidential proclamations or stat.
utes enacted by Congress. The powers Of
the Federal Government in al its branches
are confined within the provisions of the
Constitution, and cannot transcend them.
Therefore the Constitution as il is, inclr-
ding Its power Of regular amendment, is
the leading doctrine Of the great party
which proposes TO save the nation 10 this
the cay Of its sore trial. Let the false and
guilty doctrine that the President of the
United States by proclamation, or the
Congress thereof by statute, can prescribe,
alter, add TO or diminish the conditions
OF Union between the States, be discarded
at once and forever, and most of the diff
culties which appear 10 attend the ques-
ton OF reconstruction will wholly disap.
pear. Those departments of the Govern
ment are confined to particular legislative
and executive duties, and cannot touch or
determine the relations of the States with
each other. That field OF power is sacred
to the great organized communities by
whom the Union was formed and by whom
clone 1t can be subjected to modification
or change. We have fought to restore the
Union, not TO change it, much less to
subvert its fundamental principles, and
the accomplishment of its restoration is
the compensation we propose TO ourselves
for all the cost and sacrifices of the
struggle.


But what is impossible TO the Presdept l
or TO Congress it is competent for the
States, in their sovereign capacity by free
mutual consent, at the proper time, to
perform.


The American States required compact
of union TO 60 through the war of the
Revolution, and it was made. Subse-
quently they required an amended com.
pact, creating o more intimate union, TO
secure to them the fruits of independence.
From their deliberations on the latter oc-
casion there resulted that most admirable
instrument, the Constitution OF the United
States, under which the Republic has ex-
isted and prospered for more than seventy
years. And now, under our experience
of revolt and war and misgovernment, we
may conclude that additional securities
for liberty and Union should be establish
ed in the fundamental law. But these
securities must consist of limitations rather
than extensions Of Federal authority, and
must not invade those fields of power
which were left sacred TO State jurisdiction
in the original scheme OF Union.


The Constitution should provide against
the uncontrolled domination of sectional
parties, South or North, in the Govern
ment Of the United States, as the most
indispensable and vital regulation posi-
ble for our safety and continued existence
as Republic. We refer upon this point
to our remarks at the beginning OF the
present address, as exhibiting the grounds
upon which this most important PROPOSE
ton may stand, and as illustrating its util-
ity and necessity beyond all cavil or ques-
ton. An adequate, real, and efficient
check in Government, securing balance
Of power between political interests, is
unquestionably the highest and most
important. point. in constitutional soc
ence and il is most evident that be-
cause our system has been found defective
in this particular, we are now involved in
war and scourged by misgovernment in its
most intolerable, odious, and lawless
forms. The checks already provided in
our Constitution, and which have been so
salutary in their action and influence upon
the Government, must be supplanted by
some proper division which shall more
perfectly perform the Office and function
for which they were designed. For it is
now proved, amid the blood and tears Of
this nation, that all balance in our Gov
ernment may be lost, and oil its checks
be iound insufficient to curb the influence
and guilt OF faction, and secure obedience
to those fundamental principles of liberty,
law, ana right, which were established by
our fathers. We are at war, and blood
flows, and wealth is wasted, aud fana,icism
runs riot, and the Constitution is broken.
and we are bowed down by bitter grief
and sorrow in all our homes, because a
sectional faction rules the Government of
the United States, free from restraint or
curb, or limitation Of its powers. And it
should he made impossible that this con-
dilion Of things can exist, after we have
once extricated ourselves from the grasp
Of calamity.


There should also be a judicious limila-
ton upon the distribution of Federal pat
ronage. The prodigious growth and pres
ent extent Of that patronage in official
appointments, constitute q fertile source
Of corruption and danger. Nearly the