Year: 1866

Cne maintenance Oh It's authority. In ire


Governments fundamental and essential right


cannot be forfeited except against individual


by due process of law nor can constitutions


duties and obligations be. discarded or lait
aside. The enjoyment of rights. may be fol
time suspended by the failure to CLAIM


them, and duties may be evaded by the refu


sal to perform them. The withdrawal O


their members from Congress by the State:
which resisted the General Government wa.
among their acts of insurrection-was one o.


the means and agencies by which they sought
to impair the authority and defeat the action
of the Government; and that act was annulled
and rendered void when the insurrection itsel


was suppressed. Neither the right of repre-
sentation nor the duty to be represented was
in the least impaired by the fact of insurrec


ton; but it may have been that by reason
Of the insurrection the conditions on which
the enjoyment of that right and the perform.
ance of that duty for the time depended
could not be fulfilled. This was, in fact the
case. An insurgent power, in the exercise Of
usurped and unlawful authority in the terri
tory under its control, had prohibited that
allegiance to the Constitution and laws of the
United States which is made by that funda-
mental law the essential condition OF repre-.
sentation in its Government. No man within
the insurgent States was allowed to Jake the
oath to support the Constitution of the United
States, and, as necessary consequence, no
man could lawfully represent those States in
the councils of the Union. But this was only
an obstacle to the enjoyment of the right and
to the discharge of a duty-it did not annul
the one nor abrogate the other; and it ceased
to exist when the usurpation by which it was
created had been overthrown, and the States
had again resumed their allegiance to the
Constitution and laws of the United States.


Second. But it is asserted, in support of
the authority claimed by the Congress now
il possession of power, that it flows directly
from the laws of war; that it is amt ng the
rights which victorious war always confers
upon the conquerors, and which the conqueror
may exercise or waive in his own discretion.
To this We reply that the laws in question
relate solely, 80 far as the rights they confer
are concerned, to wars waged between alien
and Independent nations, and can have place
or force, in this regard, in war waged by a
Government to suppress an insurrection of its
own people, upon its own soil, against its
authority. IF we had carried on successful
war against any foreign nation, we might
thereby have acquired possession and nrls-
diction of their soil, with the right to enforce
our laws upon their people and to impose
upon them such laws aud such obligations q,
we might choose. But we had before the
war complete jurisdiction over the soil Of the
Southern States, limited only by our own
Constitution. Our laws were tho only ma
tional laws in. force upon it. The Govern
mcnt of the United States was the only Gov
ernmeut through which those States and their
people had relations with foreign nations, and
its flag was the onl flag by which they were
recognized or known anywhere on the face
of the earth. In all these respects, and in
all other respects involving national interests
and rights, our possession was perfect and
complete. 1t did not need to be acquired,
but only to be maintained and victorious
war against the rebellion conld do nothing
more than maintain it. 1t could only vindi


cate and re. establish the disputed supremacy
of the Constitution. 1t could neither enlarge
nor diminish the authority which that Consti


tution confers upon the Goyernmentby which
it was achieved. Such an enlargement Or
abridgement Of constitutional power can ht
effected only by amendment Of the ConStltu-
ton itself, and such amendment can be made
only in the modes which tie Constitution it.
self prescribes. The claim that the suppress


sion of an insurrecton against the Govern


ment gives additional authority and power to
that Government, especially that it enlarge
the jurisdiction Of Congress and gives thai
BODY the right to exclude States from repre-


scntation in the national councils, without
which the nation itself can have no authority
and no existence, seems to us at variance
alike with the principles of the Consi1utlon
and with the public safety.


Third. Bat it is alleged that in certain par
ticnlars the Constitution OF the United States
fails to secure that absolute justice and ini-
partial equality which the principles Of our
Government require; that it was in thes


respects the result of compromises and con-
cessions to which, however necessary when
the Constitution was formed, we are no Ion
ger compelled to submit, and that now, hay
ing the power through successful war and
lust warrant for its exercise in the hostile
conduct of the insurgent section, the actual
Government of the United States may impose
its own conditions, aad make the Constitution
conform to all it, provisions, to its ideas OF
equality and the rights OF man. Congress a.
its last session proposed amendments to the
Constitution, charging in some very lmpor.
tant particulars the authority OF the General
Government over that of the several States.
and reducing by indirect disfranchisemenl


the representative power of the States III
which slavery formerly existed; aud it is
claimed that these amendments may be made
valid as parts Of the original Constitution,
without the concurrence of the States to be
most seriously affected by them, or may be
imposed upon those States by three tourths
of the remaining States, as conditions OF their
rc.admission to representation in Congress and


in the Electoral College.


It is the unquestionable right of the people
of the United States to make such changes
in the Constitution as they, upon due delib,
Grafton, may deem expedient. But we insist
that they shall be'made in the mode which
the Constitution itself points out-in confor'
nifty with the letter and the spirit OF that in
strument, and with the principles of self-gov-
ernment and of equal rights which lie at the
basis of our Republican institutions. We de-
nythe right of Congress to make these changes
in the fundamental law, without the Concur
renee 6f three fourths of all States, including
especially those to oe most seriously affected
by them {; or to impose them upon States OF
people, as conditions of representation, or Of
admission to any of the rights, duties or OBJ
legations which belong under the Constitu,
ton to all the States alike. And with still


greater emphasis do we deny the right of any
nortion OF the States excluding the rest of the


States from any share in their, councils, tc
propose or sanction changes in the Constltu
ton which are to affect permanently theil
political relations and control or coerce the
legitimate action of the several members o


the common Union. Such an exercise o
.....1, n nsorpotion inst No l1nwQr