Year: 1865

CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT OF oHIo,)
To Resolutions Of Me Legislature of Oh,;o,


Requesting He Senators and Represent


dtires Of that State, an Congress, to Vote


for a Proposed amendment 10 the Con


aHntion IF the United States to Abolish


,Staueyy.


To the Republican Senators and Representatives
of the General Assembly of Ohio:


GENTLEMEN. | have the honor to ac-
knowledge the receipt of a communication
Governor in the form of Joint resolution,
recently passed by your respective bodies, in
which, after the recital of certain PROPOSE
tions you resolve


"That our Senators and Representatives i'm
Congress be requested to use their influence and
grcss to amend the Constitution of the United
states, so that neither slavery nor involuntary
the 1 party 81 Shall RSve been duly S CONVICT
ed, shall exist within the United states. or any
place subject to their jurisdiction, and giving to
Congress power to enforce such prohibition by
appropriate legislation"


The grammatical solution of the last
member of the sentence, ''and giring pOlrer
to Congress-" &C., if it be capable of such
solution, is entirely beyond my power of
perception, and therefore any illustration
which may have been intended by it is un-
available to me. Ifmy moderate knowledge
of oar English could enable me to interpret
the words would endeavor to give Just
appreciation to the sense of the Legislature
of my State. | can conceive of no power
which you in your representative body, or
we in ours, can give to Congress or any
other agency to change the Constitution of
the United States by any other method than
the one provided by the terms of that in
strument.


1t is, perhaps, good custom of the Leg
islatures of.our States, when they justly as
sumo to reflect the popular desire, to in
struct their Senators, and request their
Representatives in Congress to support such
Legislative measures as the people, who are,
at least in theory, the fountain of political
reilectedpopular sense which gives authority
to the instruction or request. Neither the
sober sense of the people of Ohio, nor Of
that portion of them whom | represent, has
ever been declared in favor of the PROPOSE
ton which you ask us to support.


cannot accede to your request to use
any influence, if | have it, or "to vote for
the proposition now pending in Congress to
amend the Constitution of the United
States. Many unanswerable reasons dis
suade me from it. | was elected to the
present Congress principally for the reason
that majority OF the citizens of the Four
teenth District believed me to be unaltera-
bly, attached and faithful to the Constitution
of the Union of States which was based
upon it. The path to my seat was through
a pledge to that primary obligation in a still
more solemn form, an oath to support, main
tain and defend that Constitution. Being
solicited to do what l believe would be a
violation Of that oath, must rely upon my
own sense and conscience, and not upon a
majority of the Legislature of my State, to
interpret the obligation. 1t is of increased
Importance now by reason of the peculiar
exigencies of the times. Your official posi-
ton places you under the same high obliga-
ton. We can none of us escape the Grim
inality of violating our trust, if, by direct
force, or by the assumption Of Legislative
powers which are expressly and purposely
withheld from us, we attempt to overthrow
or change its provisions As the supreme
law of the realm, the Constitution, in its
fifth article, provides the only method by
which it can be lawfully changed Your
attention is invited to the words of that
paramount provision, which seems to have
been forgotten by many who are bound to its
support


The Congress, whenever two thirds of both
v,
amendments to this Constitution, or, ON appli-
cation to the Legislatures oI two-thirds OF the
posing amendments, which, in either case, shall
he valid to all intents and purposes part oi
this Constitution when ratified by the Legisla-
tnres of three fOurths of the several States by
Conventions in three c-tourths thereof, AS the one
or the other mode of ratification may be pro-
posed by the Congress; provided that no amend.
ment which may be made prior to the year lS0'
shall in any manner affect the first and fourth
clauses in the ninth section of the first article
and that no state, without its consent, shall be
deprived of its equal suffrage in the senate.


TO go through the form of framing and
adopting the proposed amendment without
regard to the foregoing acquisitions would
produce as little legal effect upon proprie
, tory rights in the seeded States as woulc
the resolution of political convention il
Ashtabula County. Therefore, request
you, if you can, to inform your representa-
tives in Congress, before they shall be called
!. upon in concurrence with or in rejection o
your judgment, to give their votes, by wha
power or authorize, under the existing state
of facts relating to our political condition
and under the provisions of the fifth article
the Constitution can be amended as pro
posed. The question is not how it may b'
violated and spurned-the secessonists have
sufficiently shown us that.


We all know that eleven States are no
iSPiSSoSSu III 'hO piSoSHo SoiSIcoc, AIT
are not in a condition to give their Assem-
> or dissent to the proposition. The adher
ing States are less than three fourths O.
thirty-four; therefore, until the Union shall
be restored, or enough of the recusant State
shall return to make three -fourths of tht
whole number, the Constitution cannot b.
amended by the assent of the Legislature
or conventions of the people Of the requisite
number of States.


f, What say you, then, is the process b,
which you demand that before "A restoration
OF the Union, or of States sufficient to con
J. stitute three -tourths of the whole confeder
alton, the Constitution shall be amended P
Do you say that the States whose people, il
part, are in rebellion against the Genera
Government, in legal theory, and in fact ar
out of the Union, as they claim to be? ID,
you claim that the rebellious States are for
eign powers and their inhabitants foreigl
people, and not subject to the Constitution
and laws of the United States and tina
therefore the Constitution can be amended
without their concurrence, and afterward
enforced upon them in its new form 2
Every one of you has committed himself T.
a contrary doctrine thousand times. A


our proceedings and declarations since tn


commencement of the rebellion have assert


ed the legal integrity of the Union. W


have waged war upon the Southern people
!. and continue to send against them ou
armies, by the sword, the bayonet, and tn
cannon IN enforce unOn them subiIp patiOl