Year: 1866




site ground tomorrow. Northern ascend
ency may exclude Southern States from one
Congress-the ascendency Of Western or of
Southern interests, or Of both combined.
may exclude the Northern or the Eastern
States from the next improbable as such
usurpatiOn may seem, tue establishment of
the principles now asserted and acted upon
by Congress viii render them by no means
impossible. The character, indeed the verv
existence of Congress and the Union is thus
made dependent solely and entirely upon the
party anG sectional exigencies or forbearan-
ces Of the hour


Weneed not stop to show that such action
not only finds no warrant In the Constitu-
ton, but Is at war with every principle of
our Government, and with the very existence
of free institutions 1t Is, indeed, the iden-
tical practice which has rendered fruitIess
all attempts hitherto to establish and main
tain free governments in Mexico and the
States of South America. Party necessities
assert themselves as superior to the funda-
mental law, which is set aside in reckless
obedience to their behests Stability, whether
in the exercise of power, in the administra-
ton of government or IN the enjoyment of
rights, becomes impossible; and the conflicts
Of party, which, under constitutional gov
ernments are the conditions and means of
political progress, are merged in the conflicts
of arms to which they directly and inevita-
bly, tend


1t was against this peril so conspicuous
and so fatal to ali free governments that our
Constitution was intended especially to pro-
vide. Not only the stability, but the very
existence of the Government Is made by its
provisions to depend upon the right and the
fact of representation. The Congress, upon
which is conferred all the legislative power
,f kto No 10, e
bran she's the Senate and the House Of Rep
resentatives, whose joint concurrence or as
sent is essential to the validity of any law
Of these the House of Representative, says
the Constitution, (article 1, section 2 " shall
be composed of members chosen every sec
ond year by the people of the several States !"
Not only is the right of representation thus
recognized as possessed by all the States and
by every State without restriction, qualifca-
ton or condition Of any kind, but the duty
Of choosing representatives is imposed upon
the people of each and every State alike,
without distinction, or the authority to make
distinctions among them, for any reason or
uPon any grounds whatever. And in the
Senate, so careful is the Constitution to Sc
cure to every State this right of representa-
ton, it is expressly provided that mo State
shall, without its consent, be deprived of its
equal suffrage in that body, even by an
amendment of the Constitution itself When,
therefore, any State is excluded from such
representation, not only Is a right of the
State denied, but the constitutional integrity
Of the Senate is impaired, and the validity
of the Government itself is brought to ques-
ton.


But Congress at the present moment thus
excludes from representation, in both branch
es of Congress, ten States of the Union, de-
DYing them all shares in the enactment of
laws by which they are to be governed, and
all participation in the election of the rulers
by which those laws are to be enforced In
other words, a Congress in which only twenty
six States are represented, asserts the rights
to govern, absolutely and in its own discre-
ton, all the thirty-six States which compose
the UniOn-to make their laws and choose
their rulers and to exclude the other ten
from all share in their own government un-
til it sees fit to admit them thereto. What
is there to distinguish the power thus asser-
ted and exercised from the most absolute
and intolerable tyranny


Nor do these extravagant and unjust claims
on the part of Congress to powers and au-
thority never conferred up0n the Govern
ment by the Constitution find any warranG
in the arguments or excuses urged Oh their
behalf 1t Is alleged


First: That these States, ty the act of re-



members from Congress, forfeited their right
of representation, and that they can only re-
/ ceive it again at the hands of the supreme
! legislativeauthority Of the Government on its
| own terms and at its own discretion If rep
resentation in Congress and participation in
| the Government were simply privileges con-
/ ferred and held by favor, this statement
might have the merit Of plausibility But
representation is under the Constitution not
| only expressly recognized as n right but it
! is imposed as a duty; and it is essential in
! both aspects to the existence of the Govern
ment and to he maintenance of its authority.
! In free government fundamental and essen
! tial rights cannot be forfeited, except against
| individuals by due process of law; nor can
/ constitutional duties and obligations be dis
| carded or laid aside The enjoyment of rights
may be for time suspended by the failure
/ to claim them, and duties may be evaded by
/ the refusal to claim them The withdrawal
! of their members from Congress by the
! States which resisted the General Govern
ment was among their acts of insurrection-
was one-Of the means and agencies by which
! they sought to impair the authority and de-
feat the action of the Government; and that
/ act was annulled and rendered void when
the insurrection itself was suppressed
Neither the right Of representation nor the
| duty to be represented was in the least I'M
| paired by the fact of insurrectlon; but II
may have been that by reason Of Insured
ton the conditions of which the enjoyment
of that right and the performance Of that
duty for the time depended, could not be
| fulfilled This was, in fact, the case. An IN
surgent power, in the exercise of usurped
and unlawful authority in the territory un
der its control, had prohibited that allegi
ance to the Constitution and the laws Of the
| United States which is made by that funda
mental the essential condition of represen
tation in its government No man within
the insurgent States was allowed to take the
oath to support the Constitution Of the United
States, and, as a necessary consequence, NJ
man could lawfully represent those States IL
the councils Of the Union. But this was
only an obstacle to the enjoyment of The
right and to the discharge of duty-it die
not annul the one nor abrogate the other
and it ceased to exist when the usurpatlor
bywhich it was created had been overthrown
and the States had again resumed their ale


glance to the Constitution and laws Of the


United States


= = 4 -, -,