PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 





ion, it i- thoupht it may bp adopted, whilst 



IK-MI st-itc> n ill materially lessen tln-ir 



, lU iu -s will assent t(. the 



..i h.irdi\ t'c expected. The i-llcct. tliL-ii, 



, \>( tin- measure is forever to deny 



to such Slates, or, if they consent to 



nduioii, I" weaken their representative power, 

 ,'uly secure a continuance of such a 

 .s'now control tbo legislation of the 



ninent. Tin' measure, in its terms and its effect, 

 v. bother tl. -i^ned <>r nut, H to degrade the Southern 

 ,ut to it is to consent to their own 

 diahonor, 



r, too, of presenting the proposed con- 



..ni.il amendment, in the opinion of the under- 



i, is impolitic and without precedent. Thesev- 

 .Mioitdments suggested have no connection with 

 ii, it :uli>]ited, would have its appro- 

 priate effect if the others were rejected, and each, 

 therefore, should he submitted us a separate article, 

 without .subjecting it to the contingency of rejection 

 it' the Stati'.s should refuse to ratify the rest. Each 

 -.If, if an advisable measure, should be submit- 

 ted to the people, and not in such a connection with 



which they may think unnecessary or dang_cr- 



- to force {hem to reject all. The repudiation 

 of the rebel debt and all obligation to compensate 

 fi.-rthe loss of slave property, and the inviolability 

 i>t the debt of the Government, no matter how con- 

 tracted, provided for by some of the sections of the 

 amendment, we repeat, would meet the approval of 

 many of the Southern States. But these no State 



uictiun without sanctioning others, which, we 

 think, will not be done by them or some of the North- 

 ern Slates. To force negro suffrage upon any State 

 by means of the penalty of a loss of part of its rep- 

 iv-entation will not only be to impose a disparaging 

 condition, but virtually to interfere with the clear 

 right of each State to regulate suffrage for itself 

 without the control of the Uovernment of the United 



- . Whether tl at control be exerted directly or 

 indirectly, it will be considered, as it is, a fatal blow 

 to the right which everv State in the past has held 

 vital the right to regulate her franchise. To pun- 

 ish a State for not regulating it in a particular w r ay, 

 BO as to give to all classes of the people the privilege 

 of suffrage, is but seeking to accomplish incidentally 

 what, if it should be done at all, should be done di- 

 rectly. No reason, in the view of the undersigned, 

 can be suggested for the course adopted, other than 

 n belief that such a direct interference would not be 

 sanctioned by the Northern and Western States, 

 whilst as regards such States, the actual recom- 

 mendation lieeause of the small proportion of negroes 

 within their limits will not in the least lessen their 

 representative power in Congress, or their influence 

 in the Presidential election, and they may therefore 

 sanction it. This very inequality in its operation 

 upon the States renders the measure, in our opinion, 

 most unjust, and, looking to the peace and quiet of 

 the country, most impolitic. But the mode advised 

 is also not only without, but against all precedent. 

 When the Constitution was adopted it was thought 

 to be defective in not sufficiently protecting certain 

 rights of the States and the people. With a view of 

 supplying a remedy for this defect, on the 4th of 

 March, 1789, various amendments, by a resolution 

 constitutionally passed by Congress, were submitted 

 for ratification to the States. They were twelve in 

 number. Several of them were even less indepen- 

 dent of each other than are those recommended by 

 the committee; but it did not occur to the men of 

 that day that it was right to force the States to adopt 

 or reject all. Each was therefore presented as a 

 i tide. The language of the resolution 

 wus, " that the following articles be proposed to the 

 itures of the several States as amendments of 

 the Constitution of the United States all or any of 

 buch articles, when ratified by three-fourths of the 

 aid Legislatures, are valid to all intents and pur- 



poses as part of the Constitution." The Congreis of 

 that day was willing to obtain either of the submitted 

 iimcndments to get a part, if not abl<; to proi-uns 

 tin- whole. They thought and in that we submit 

 tln-v but conformed to the letter and npirit of th 

 amendatory clause of the Constitution that tbo peo- 

 ple have the right to pass severally on any proposed 

 amendments. This course of our fathers is now de- 

 parted from, and the result will probably be that no 

 one of I!H- suggested amendment-, though some may 

 be approved, will be ratified. This will certainly be 

 th result, unless the States are willing practically 

 to relinquish the right they have always enjoyed, 

 never before questioned by any recognized states- 

 man, and all-important to their interests and security, 

 the right to regulate the franchise in all their elec- 

 tions. There arc, too, some general considerations 

 that bear on the subject, to which we will now 

 refer : 



First. One of the resolutions of the Chicago Con- 

 vention, by which Mr. Lincoln was first nominated 

 for the Presidency, says, " that the maintenance in- 

 violate of the rights of the States" is essential to the 

 balance of power on which the prosperity and en- 

 durance of our political fabric depends. In his in- 

 augural address of March 4, 1801, which received the 

 almost universal approval of the people, amongst 

 other things he said : " No State of its own mere mo- 

 tion can lawfully get out of the Union ; " " and that 

 in the view of the Constitution and the laws the 

 Union is unbroken, and to the extent of my ability I 

 shall take care, as the Constitution itself expressly 

 enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union be faith- 

 fully executed in all the States." 



Second. Actual conflict soon afterward ensued. 

 The South, it was believed, misapprehended the pur- 

 pose of the Government in carrying it on, and Con- 

 gress deemed it important to dispel that misappre- 

 hension by declaring what the purpose was. This 

 was done in July, 1861, by their passing the follow- 

 ing resolution 01 Mr. Crittenden : 



" That in this national emergency, Congress, ban- 

 ishing all feeling of mere passion or resentment, 

 will recollect only its duty to the whole country ; 

 that this war is not wa.ged upon our part in any 

 spirit of oppression, nor for any purpose of conquest 

 or subjugation, nor purpose of overthrowing or in- 

 terfering with the rights or established institutions 

 of those States ; but to defend and maintain the su- 

 premacy of the Constitution, and to preserve the 

 Union with all the dignity, equality, and rights of the 

 States unimpaired ; that as soon as these objects are 

 accomplished the war ought to cease." 



The vote in the House was 119 for, and 2 against 

 it, and in the Senate 30 for, and 5 against it. 

 The design to conquer, or subjugate, or to curtail, 

 pi interfere in any way with the rights of the ^ 

 is in the strongest terms thus disclaimed, and the 

 only avowed object asserted to be "to defend and 

 maintain the spirit of the Constitution, and to pre- 

 serve the Union, and the dignity, equality, and 

 rights of the several States unimpaired." Congress, 

 too, by the act of July 13, 1861, empowered the Pres- 

 ide. it 'to declare by proclamation "that the inhab- 

 itants oi such State or States, where the insurrection 

 existed, are in a state of insurrection against the 

 United States," and thereupon to declare that " all 

 commercial intercourse, by and between the same, 

 l>y i lie citizens thereof and the citizens of the United 

 States, shall cease and be unlawful, so long as such 

 condition of hostility shall continue." Here, also, 

 Congress evidently deals with the States as being in 

 tin- 1'i.ion, and to remain in the Union. It seeks to 

 keep them in by forbidding commercial intercourse 

 between their citizens and the citizens of the other 

 States, .so long, and so long only, as insurrectionary 

 hostility shall continue. That ended, they are to be 

 as at first, entitled to the same intercourse with cit- 

 izens of other States that they enjoyed before the 

 insurrection. In other words, in this act, as : u the 



