Year: 1867

dred years. In all that time, no peo-
pie who speak the English language
have bornesuch servitude. 1t reduces
the whole population Of the ten States


all persons of every color, sex and
condition, and every stranger within
their limits TO the most abjcct and de.
graded slavery. No master ever had
control so absolute over his slaves
as this bill gives TO the military officers
over both white and coIored person.


1t may be answered TO this that the
officers OF the army are too magnani-
nous, just, and humane TO oppress
and trample upon n subjugated peo-
pie. ] do not doubt that army Off
GERS are as well entitled 10 this kind
Of confidence as any other class OF
men. But the history of ihe world
has been written in vain If II does not
teach us that unrestrained authority
can never be safely trusted in human
hands. 1t is almost sure to be more
rless abused undera eranycircumstances
and it has always resulted in gross
tyranny whore the ruler who exercise
il are strangers TO their subjects, and
come among them as the representa-
tives of a distant power, and more
especially when the power that sends
them is unfriendly. Governments
closely resembling that hcreproposed
have been fairly tried in Hungary and
Poland, and the suffering endured by
those people reused the sympathies Of
the entire world. IL was tried in Ire
land, and though tempered at first, by
principles of English law, it gave birth
to cruelties so atrocious, that they are
never recountcd without just indigna.
ton. The French Convention armed
its deputies with this power, and sen,
them to the southern departments OF
the republic. The massacres, murders
and other atrocities which they com.
mitted show what the passions of the
ablest men in the most civilized socie-
ty will tempt them TO do when wholly
unrestrained by law.


The men of our race in every age
have struggled to tic up the hands Of
their Governments and keep them
within the law, because their own ex.
perience OF all mankind taught them
that rulers could not be relied on to
concede those rights which they were
not legally bound to respect The
head Of great empire has sometimes
governed it with a mild and paternal
sway, but the kindness of an irrcspon.
sible deputy never yields what the
law does not extort from him. Be
tween such a master and the people
subjected to his domination, there can
be nothing but emnity; he Furnishes
them if they resist his authority, and
if they submit to it he hates them for
their seryility.


| come now 10 question which is
if possible, still more important. Have
we the power TO establish and carry
into execution a measure like this
| answer, certainly not, If we derive
our authority from the Constitution,
and If we are bound by the limitations
which it imposes.


This proposition is perfectly clear,
that no branch OF the Federal Govern
ment, executive, legislative, or judi
cial, can have any just powers except
those which ii derives through and ex-
ercises under the organic law Of the
Union. Outside Of the Constitution
we have no legal authority more than
private citizens, and within it we have
only so much as that instrument gives
us. This broad principle limits all our
functions, and applies TO all subjects.
1t protects not only the citizens OF
States which are within the Union,
but it shields every human being who
comes or is brought under our juris-
diction.


We have no right to do in one place
moro than in another that which the
Constitution says we shall not do at
all. If, therefore, the Southern States
were, in truth, out Of the Union, we
could not treat their people in way
which the fundamental law forbids


Some persons assume that the sue.
cess Of our arms in crushing the oppo.
sition, which was made in some OF
the States TO the execution of the Fed.
eral law, reduced those States, and all
their people, the innocent rs well as
the guilty, to the condition of vassal-
age, and gave us power over them
which the Constitution does not be-
stow, or define or limit.


No fallacy can be more transparent
than this. Our victories subjected the
insurgents to legal obedience, not the
yoke Of an arbitrary despotism. When
an absolute sovereign reduces his re.
bellious subjects, he may dca. with
them according to his pleasure, be.
cause he had that power before. But
when limited monarch puts down an
insurrection, he must still govern ac-
cording to law. If an insurrection
should take place in one Of our States,
against the authority Of the State gov
ernment, and end in the overthrow OF
those who planted it, would that take
away the rights of all the people Of the
counties where il was f'vored by part
or majority of the population Z Could
they for such n reason be wholly out
lawed, and deprived ofthcir sepresen-
tation in the Lagislaturey have al
ways contended that the Government
of the United States was sovereign
within its constitutional sphere, that
IL executed its laws like the States
themselves by applying its coercive
power directly to individuals, and that
Il could put down instruction with
the same effect as State, aud no 9th.
er. The opposite doctrine is the
worst heresv of those who advocated