Year: 1867

/ %
! vital and enduring Importance. Justice re
quires, and the Constitution itself declares


that ali who are affected thereby shall, il
| the Senate at least, have a voice in deter
! mining these alterations Your represen
| tatives in Congress had the same right to q
voice in its adoption, that your State Legis
| lature had in its ratification and the ter


unrepresented States, being equally inter
| ested, have an equal right to be heard both


in Congress and through their State Legisla
| lures; the distinguished feature of our form


of government being that it " derives its JUS
| powers from the consent of the governed d
The original trainers of the Constitution
seem to have had prophetic knowledge thai
a time like the present would come, when
! dlscOntented partisans, after first excluding
| certain States from the Senate, would clamOI
| for alterations that could not be adopted II
! the Senators from these excluded tates
/ were present; hence, to guard against such
| dlrefuI contingencies and to give additional
! permanency to the production of their In
| spIred wisdom, they provided in the last
clause of the 5th Article, that no amend
ment should be made while any State with
out its consent was deprived of its equal
suffrage IN the Senate. Ten States being
thus deprived of their equal sufFraSs in the
Senate, 1t is clear to my mind that no amend
ment could be cOnstitutiOnally enacted even
If ratified by three-fourths of the LegisIa-
lures of all the States; though do not wish
to be understood as applying this to the
legislative enactments during the time these
! States were voluntarily unrepresented.


My high regard, amounting to veneratiOn,
for the Constitution of the United States,
my belief that it was equal to all emergen-
cies of peace or war, and that its provisions
embraced the most perfect system of gov
ernment known to man, having been the
sheetanchOr of my loyalty during the hour
of It's trial, l would be culpabIy inconsistent
if in this, which should be the day of its
triumph, could willingly see it thus mutt
lated of its most beautiful proportions, and
deprived of its most efficient guarantees.
We should learn TO appreciate and obey
rather than seek to alter that sacred instru-
ment, which, in the clear and forcible Ian
guage of the President, is "broad enough.
and strong enough to sustain, in time of
peace, the nation which it bore safely
through a protracted civil war, and which in
its whole integrity and vigOr, throughout the
whole length and breadth of the land, is the
best of all compromises.


a personal and weighty reason for my op-
position to this measure arose from a deter
minatiOn never to be instrumental in dis
qualifying for Office those who otherwise
might be my successful rivals for political
preferment


But notwithstanding all these grave OBJ
jections, [ would, for the sake of peace, have
favored the acceptance of this or almost any
other condition, had 1 not believed as events
have proven, that it was not offered in good
faith as a final basis of settlement, but
rather e to bridge over the pending cleo
tIons, which it accomplished Though it is
said that its ratification by the Tennessee
Legislature caused the admission to their
seats in Congsess of he representatives from
our State, 1t was apparent to all who were
present that they would have been admitted
without it, as the members of the 39th Con-
gress who were candidates for reelection
dared not 60 before their constituents with
out first having admitted these members
This was part of their deep laid scheme,
which succeeded beyond their most san
guine hopes, the more conservative of the
Republican party being deceived, by their
conduct toward Tennessee, into the belief
that this amendment was inteded as the last
condition that would be required


To the Military Reconstruction bill, I am
for the same, and, if possible, stronger rea-
sons, more earnestly opposed; as it is a still
greater and more dangerous departure from
the true theory of our gOVernment-as
taught by its fnunders-actually reversing
the language of the Bill of Rights. which





subOrdination to the civil authorities" and
is in palpable and undisguised violation of
the plalnest and dearest provisions of the
Constitution, which forbid the arrest of a
citizen " without Judicial warrant founded
on probable cause" or his being held " for a
capital, or otherwise infamous, crime, un-
less on presentment by a grand jury" or his
being deprived Of life, liberty and property,
without due process of law" and which also
guarantees the privilege of the writ of
habeas corpus" and a trial by iurv"
Even this, with all its enOrmites Will not
satiate the TavenOus requirements of the
masters and rulers of the Radical party and
unless the Conservative thunder, now being
heard in Connecticut and elsewhere, deters
them from farther violation of plighted
honor, they will next require the Southern
States to drink the very dregs of degrada-
ton, by electing to all positions of honor or
profit the men who have been most unscru~
lOus in maligning them. And when this is
done, their terms of final settIement-like
the delusive mirage Of the desert-will re-
cede as the South advances, till finally it
will be apparent to all, as it already is to
those who have been among them, that no
concessions, no selfabasement will pur-
chase from the Radicals the great cOnstitu-
tional right of the Southern States to vote
in the next Presidential election, and that
New England Radicals are opposed, for all
time, to reunion Of the States, which
would take the balance Of power out of their
hands, and thus deprive them of the spoils
Of Office and the ability to regulate the tariff
and internal revenue laws.


All such enactments as tend to the alb
sOrption by Congress of powers that belong
to the States are greatly to be deplored, as
their tendency and design is to deprive the
States of their dignity, equality and rights"
and thus to disturb that harmonious balance
and blending of powers so beautifully typi-
fed as " distinct as the pillows, but one as
the sea-"


In revolutionary times like these, and
those through which we have just passed,
the timid and selfish are prone to identify
themselves with whichever is the dominant
party-forgetful that it will surely pass away
when the storms that produced it cease
and l am not astonished to hear the argu-
ment made by such that we should, through
motives of policy, render at least seeming
approval to those fragrant usurpations. To
this argument l will only answer: when
ever threatened confscation, or other sordid