Newspaper Page Text
to the Papists —that with them is the
Word of God, which ivc have received
tfom them ; otherwise we should know
’'nothina about it."—Luther—Comment,
on John , c 16.
ourTooT TABLE,
Studious Women. From the French of
Monseitrneur Duparlamp, Bishop of
Orleans! Translated by R. M. Phil
lifnore. Boston : Published by Pat
rick Duoahoe, 1869.
We have here a most admirable little
work, if we may be permitted the use of
that adjective. It is admirable, because
its subject is a most interesting one, and
it- discussion equally interesting. It is
~ue from the pen, of one of the most bril
liant minds of France, and is, not exact
ly a defence against the charges of De-
Maestrie, that “the great fault of a wo
man is to be like a man; and to wish to
be learned is to be like a man;” but
rather a vindication of woman, in her
true character, and the opinion of a great
and a c 'od man, as to what “true cha
racter i-or ought to be. He clothes
his subject with the most beautiful lan
guage, and gives examples of what wo
man in her true sphere has done, as well
as his views of what she can do. It is
as we have already said, “an admirable
little work, and will well repay perusal.
Official Monthly Bulletin, of the Great
National Peace Jubilee and Musical
Festival, to be held in the City of
Boston, on Tuesday, Wednesday and
Thursday, June 15th, 16th and 17th,
1809, in honor of the Restoration of
Peace and Union throughout the
Land. No. 1, February, 1869. Pub
lished by George Corledge, 3, Milk
Street, Boston.
We have received a copy of ajJhamph
let of which the foregoing title-page is a
sufficient description. We don’t exact
ly sec, how a Jubilee in honor of the
Restoration of Peace and Union, can be
held in Boston, or any other place, be
fore the aforesaid Peace and Union have
been restored. And of that, there is
very little likelihood now. The indi
vidual who now occupies the position of
President of the United States, is very
likely to go with Congress, in all its
peace disturbing and Union destroying
schemes; and, hence our inability to see
the apositencss of a Peace Festival, at
this time. It looks rather like a Yankee
trick to help “Posting” along in the way
of business, as the music will, no doubt,
be very grand and will attract thither a
large number of visiters, who will be in
time to make arrangements for their
Fall and Winter Trade. Why don’t
our Southern Merchants get up some
excitement of the kind ? A grand Mu
sical Festival in honor of the United
States Congress or Mr. Grant, or any
other object ? It might help our trade
considerably, and balance accounts with
some of the Traveling Yankee shows
which have depleted the pockets of our
people the past season.
The Bulletin contains an inside and
outside view of the Juoilee building,
which is to be capable of holding
50,000 people. The next number will
contain some of the Music to be perform
ed on the occasion.
I he Ladies’ Pearl. —The April num
!>er has been received. The Pearl is an
Eclectic Magazine, published monthly
at Nashville, Tenn., by Jno. Shirley
Ward, Editor.
The Hearth and Home. —The Messrs.
Pettengiii & Cos., are getting out a very
aice paper in the Hearth and Home.
Lis devoted to the Farm, Garden, and
• ireside ; with fine illustrations ; and it
seems to us, to be far above the Har
and Frank Leslie’s publications.
Published weekly, in New York, at §4.00
per annum, in advance.
—..
To News Dealers.—News Dealers
naving copies of No. 51 on hand, will
oonler a favor by returning them to this
Ibce at once. We want twenty or
wenty-five copies.
Lei,ease of the Fenian Prisoners.--
/ i: ° Daily Telegraph says it seems like
a Liat in a few days no persons of politi
' a ' l ime will remain in our prisons.
DAVIS AND LEE ;
OR THE REPUBLIC OF REPUBLICS.
An attempt to ascertain from the Fed
eral Constitution, from the acts of the
pre-existent States , and from the con
temporaneous expositions of the fath
ers, the SOVEREIGNTY, CITIZENSHIP, AL
LEGIANCE and treason of the United
States, the obligation of the Presi
dent's Constitutional Oath, and the
reason why the trial of the Confeder
ate Chiefs was evaded. By one of the
Counsel of Jefferson Davis.
Chapter I.— Introduction.
The American colonies of England
were, at first, so many little flocks of civ
ilization shining on a pagan shore like
glow-worms in the dark. These little
societies were then separated, each from
the others, by hundreds of miles of un
broken forest. All grew rapidly, spread
ing from their respective centres; but
there was no political coalescence. The
mental eye follows them in all their se
parate histories, until they finally appear
as stars grouped in a glorious constella
tion, each shining with unborrowed
fight,
Each from the first was organized and
governed by the sovereign power of Eng
land, separately from the rest. Such or
ganized colony or province was a body
fit for the indwellirg of a soul To make
a State, the peculiar and essential cha
racteristic w r as required, which in po
litical philosophy is recognised as dis
tinguishing a State from a colony, pro
vince; county, or other subdivision of a
State—the absolute right of self-com
mand or self government in all things;
so that when independence was consum
mated, the aforesaid body became in
stinct with its own soul. In other words,
it became a sovereign State.
We may compare these colonies to so
many branches of a great and vigorous
tree, each with the vital energy to live
and thrive independently if lopped off
and planted in its own free soil. When
severed by rebellious swords, each “be
came a living soul,” and each necessari
ly possessed sovereign political will over
its own territory and people. Sovereign
ty could not be out of it, for there was no
political organism and no people other
than these thirteen Commonwealths.
Each was uutramqielled and free, like
an eagle that soars away from his broken
bonds and sees no shadow of power be
tween him and the sun !
The colonies associated themselves to
effect their independence, and made the
celebrated declaration of July 4, 1776,
as the Thirteen United States of Ameri
ca: but, like thirteen persons united so
effect some object, they retained their
respective individualities, and George 111
could but have acknowledged, as he did
in 1783, at the instance of the Ameri
l can Commissioners, that each State was
“free, sovereign and independent.” And
it was quite natural, nay, unavoidable,
that these States should all mutually de
clare, covenant, pledge and guarantee,
as they did do, by their federation of
solemn league, subsisting at the moment
each entered the present Union, that
“each State retains its sovereignly and
independence.” But it must be noted
that sovereignty was not caused by the
declaration, the acknowledgment, or the
compact, or all of them together, for
these instruments merely declared—and
bound the declarants to respect —such
entity or fact. In tiuth, sovereignty only
began to exist at the moment the power
of the State predominated over all op
posing forces and became supreme pow
er; and the precise time of its origin
may be as difficult to determine as is
that of the soul’s existence in the human
child. Suffice it to say, it existed in the
State, or not at all; for there was no
other possible body for it to dwell in than
the organized body of people called the
State.
Each one of these States, thus origina
ting and thus characterised, was a re
public, that is, a community of people,
with the absolute right of self-govern
ment in all things. This sovereignty of
the State is indivisible, and remains in
tegral, even though all the powers of
government be delegated. A person
may give a thousand commands, or del
egate a thousand powers, concerning
what he owns, or of right governs, with
out diminishing his ownership or right
of control. So with a State. For in
stance, the agents of the sovereignty of
England exercise the powers of govern
ment throughout her world-wide domi
nions, while the sovereignty remains en
throned at home—the absolute soil of the
State*.
“The Constitution of the United States
of America” was made or constituted by
the concurrent action of the thirteen pre
existent States referred to, each of which,
during all the time of that action, “re
tained its sovereignty, freedom and in
dependence,” as was declared by all of
>Mgni m fii tmtiim.
them in their solemn league and coven
ant the Articles of Confederation. The
instrument calls itself a “Constitution for”
“United States,” and characterizes the
arrangement made there as a “Union of
States.” For instance, Article I, section
2, speaks of “the several States which
may be included within this Union;” Art
icle IV, section 3, declares that “ new
States may be admitted into this Union;”
and Article IV, section 4, includes the
phrase, “every State in this Union.”
Moreover, the said Constitution declares
that it was to he “established,” and take
efFect, “between the States so ratifying
the same.” Nay, more; its powers were
only delegated, and hence must be wield
ed by trustees and agents, chosen by,
and subordinate to, the delegating States,
while the “powers not delegated are re
sorted to the States respectively, or to
the people” of the same. There is no
evidence, or even hint, of any change of
character of the States; but, on the con
trary, they are named it; the Constitu
tion as absolute and complete political
bodies, which are necessarily the parties
to, and the actors under, the federal sys
tem. And, finally, all elective power and
right was inherent and absolute in the
people composing these States, as every
constitution shows; and moreover, they
declared in the Federal Constitution that
they were, as States, to keep and exer
cise the said elective power. It is pro
vided in Article I that “the people of the
several States” are to choose the “rep
resentatives;” and that “each State,”
“by the Legislature thereof,” is to elect
Senators. Article II provides that “each
State shall appoint” Presidential electors
These Congressmen and Presidential
electors are citizens and subjects of their
respective States, and, iu their vicarious
and representative character, thejr ap
point all other federal officers. So that
here, in the Constitution itself, we have
the most positive and absolute proofs
that the States are sovereign over tue
Federal Government, this being their
mere agency, or, m other words, a part
of their machinery of self-government.
If the States are equal; if the Consti
tution and the resultant government are
made by their will; and it they elect their
own subjects or citizens as functionaries,
there can be as little doubt of their sov
erignty as there is that God reigns su
preme over His creations. And not a
word of American history, or a principle
of governmental philosophy, is inconsist
ent with this view. So plain are these
facts to thoughtful and ecuso*entious men,
that the Governnibnt’s claim of “absolute
supremacy” over aillegiam States, voiced
in the thunders of the recent war, sounds
like the knell of that constitutional free
dom of which the States were the very
citadels. The founders of American lib
erty taught the capacity of our people for
self-government, or, in other words, that
all questions could be settled as they
arose, by reason, with justice, and with
force. They said the system they found
ed was fraught with the blessings of
peace; but while their footsteps are yet
echoing in “the corridors of Time,” and
while we are extolling their patriotic
wisdom, boasting of the precious inheri
tance they left us, and singing psens to
Freedom, the very Constitution they
founded on these principles is perverted
from its purpose, and employed as the
means of destroying a milfiou of our
brethren, filling the land with mourning,
amiihiliating at least one-half of the pro
perty of the country, creating an inex
tinguishable and crushing debt, depriv
ing one-third of our free and. equal
States of the last vestige of their equality
and freedom, and establishing a piece
dent which, if placed upon the generally
assumed basis and followed subjugates
all the States to the “absolute suprem
acy” of a central and irresponsible power,
and destroys constitutional liberty. For
if “the Government” las “absolute su
premacy” over the States that made it,
as the Philadelphia Convention of 1866
declared, its unlimited rght of taxation,
and of raising armameits, enables it to
control all States and action of States
at will, and, finally, to istablish, an em
pire. In truth, this bis already been
done. Wherever then is “absolute su
premacy” in “the Government” there is
no limit to its will or discretion. Unlim
ited power in human hinds may become
as gross a tyranny as cliuld he exercised
by a monster with the |Soul of Mepnis
topheles in the body of a tiger; for man
has the capacity, and ply requires the
downward training, practices and incen
tives to become a devi. Satan was once
an angel of light. Nro, and other ty
rants, and association! of tyrants, pos
sessing absolute suprenaey, rivalled him
as nearly as human imrmities and tram
mels would permit, tis vain to talk
of civilization and (hristianity as re
straints. Bad men usi these as the most
potent means to their ads. It is vainer
to talk of constitutional restrictions, when
rulers by perjured usiipation act—and
glory in acting—in the mfimte field, ot
discretion “outside of the Constitution.”
And it is vainest to suppose that the
phrase, “according to the Constitution,”
is other than a meaningless one, as long
as the phrases, “absolute supremacy in
the Government,’ and “State sovereign
ty is effectually controlled,” are recog
nized as constitutional ones; for “State
sovereignty” is precisely “the sovereign
ty of the people,” the said people having
never been organized for government,
and having never exercised political au
thority except as States; so that if “State
sovereignty is effectually controlled,”
the sovereignty of the people is effect
ually controled, and republican govern
ment is at an end ! It is simply mock
ery to reply that the “absolute suprem
acy” is, by the nation, limited to the
grants of the Constitution, or, in other
wards, that the States are sovereign, ex
cept as to the powers surrendered, when
the twin dogma is that the Federal Gov
ernment is the final judge of the extent
of its powers. Our worst men often get
the highest places, and exercise this final
judgment; their consciences are equal to
any occasion, and they gain what they
wish by ignoring, or rather violating,
their oaths, and justifying themselves
by the tyrant’s plea—necessity. Indeed,
we see at this moment that the people’s
“trustees and agents” call themselves
“the government,” claim absolute su
premacy and regal prerogatives; dissolve
States and make new ones; change the
State governments; remove the highest
officers thereof; give, and take away, vo
ting power; and in short, do many re
volutionary enormities outside of the
Constitution. These things, which every
officer of the Government is sworn not to
do, are really treasonable to the last de
gree, for they destroy the existence of
the States, and dethrone the sovereignty
of the people who are States, and who
politically exist, and politically act, only
as States. Suffrage is—humanly speak
ing—“the pearl of great price” in re
publican freedom. It is the Government;
it is the republic itself: it is vital to lib
erty, and must be absolutely controlled
by the people to whom it belongs, and
not by any government. The voting
power belongs, of original and absolute
right, to the people. It is the real gov
ernment —what we call “government”
being the agency thereof. In a republic,
voting is governing—a republic being a
government of the people by the people,
i. e, self-government. Says Montes
quieu (I Esprit des Lois, p, 12.)
“In a Democracy, there can be no ex
ercise of sovereignty but by the suffrages
us the people, which are their will. Now
the sovereign’s will is the sovereign him
self: the laws, therefore, which establish
the right of suffrage are fundamental to
this government. In fact, it is as import
ant to regulate, in a republic, in what
manner, oy whom, and concerning what,
suffrages are to be given, as it is in a
monarchy to know who is the prince, and
after what manner he is to govern.”
The original voting power is the peo
ple composing the society or State, in
whom, as every State constitution de
clares or implies, “all political power is
inherent.” The derivative or delegative
voting power is an endowment, by so
ciety or the State, of individual members
designated and described as voters in
the constitution of the State. As Mon
tesquieu says, “the laws which establish
the right of suffrage, arc fundamental to
the Government,” and hence they are
found only in the organic laws of the
States, established, of original right, by
sovereign power. It is plain, then, that
if the Government (whether State or
Federal) controls or disposes of suffrage,
without warrant in the Constitution, it
strikes at the very vitals of the republic
from which it derives its entire exist
ence and power and commits perjured
usurpation as well as flagrant treason.
It is equally plain that an insidious and
fradulent revolution is now going on,
tending to subjugate the people of this
country —-just as all other free people
have been—to the “absolute supremacy
of the Government P
Would to God that I could sear upon
the brain and heart of each quondam
State and quondam citizen the words of
tfmt immortal statesman, that best Eng
lish friend of American liberty, Edmund
Burke. “This change,” said he, “from
a;i immediate state of procuration and
delegation, to a course of acting as from
original power, is the way in which all
the popular magistracies ot the would
have been perverted from their purposes.”
On! that our people may heed the warn
ing, and stay the hand of Fate, which is
even now engraving upon the walls of
Time, that
“our own,
Like free States foregone, is but a bright leaf torn
From Time’s dark forest, and on the wild gust thrown,
To float awhile, by varying eddies borne ;
And sink at last for ever !”
[Round Table.
»♦ +
Banner of the South can
be hud of News Dealers in every city.
NEW ORLEANS(LA) CORRESPONDENCE.
OF THE BANNER OF THE SOUTH.
New Orleans, March, 1869.
Banner of the South :
Last Friday night (Feast of St. Jo
seph) witnessed a musical triumph remark
able even in this music-loving commu
nity*. occasion was the rendition of
Rossini’s master piece, the StabcU Mater,
by a choir and orchestra seldom equalled
and never surpassed iu America. The
performance took place in the spacious
Church of the Immaculate Conception,
whose lofty aisles are accustomed to re
echo with the sweetest choir music of
this City ; and was given for the benefit
of Spring Hill College, which was re
cently destroyed by fire. The solos and
concerted morceaux of the sublime com
position, being rendered chiefly by the
artists of the Opera Troupe, left nothing
to be desired on the score of execution;
while the solemnity of the edifice, height
ened by a large attendance of the Clergy,
tended to make it perhaps the most im
pressive concert ever given in this coun
try. Another noteworthy feature of the
occasion was the very large almost
crowded audience • that attended, not
withstanding the storm of wind and rain
that prevailed during the evening As
many hundreds of tickets were held by
persons residing in distant parts of the
City, who were kept at home by the in
clement weather, it is hoped the Concert
will soon be repeated.
All of yesterday and the greater part
of this morning (Good Friday) our streets
have been thronged with streams of
zealous Catholics passing from Church
to Church, making their visits of adora
tion to the various Repositories, whieh
were adorned this year with even more
than customary taste and elegance. The
Cathedral, the Jesuit Chapel and the
Redemptorist Churches in the fourth
district, seemed to be the chief points of
attraction for the masses of non-catholic
curiosity-hunters and sight-seers, who,
however, appeared as much impressed
by the devotional bearing of the Faithful,
as they were pleased with the beautiful
ornamentation, the rich display of flow
ers and the innumerable lighted candles
about the Repositories.
As on all occasions of pomp and cere
mony, Africa wa3 aroused, and sent
forth upon the streets swarms of swar
thy “bretheren and sistoru” arrayed in
their bravest Sunday toggery to honor
the solemn anniversary; and indeed
many persons attribute to the conta
gious example of the large number of
that race among us, the universal fond
ness of our Louisiana people for spec
tacular displays.
’Tis not pleasant in Holy Week to
have the most disgusting vices forced
on one's attention; but the recent open
ing, on our chief thorofares, of the pub
lic, licenced, gambling hells, calls for the
notice and reprobation of every man who
values public morals. These hideous,
public ulcers are among the most in
famous of the diabolical creations of our
late Puritan, Carpet-Bag Legislature.
Their prototype was erected here dur
ing the satrapy of the Beast, in 1862,
for the deliberate purpose—alas ! but
too effective—of corrupting the unfor
tunate youths detained here during the
war.
Butler’s hells, with all the attractions
of dainty lunches, glittering bar-rooms
and luxurious furniture, proved a bat
tery more irrestible to our unemployed
young men, than any field work ever
erected by the doughty hero. Whiskey,
dice, theft and lying were a natural se
quence; and the conqueror’s work was
done. Hundreds who were sober, honest
and truthful at Butler’s advent, are now
—thanks to his efficient training—lit
agents and companions for the once peer
less spoon-thief; and this new atrocity of
our scalawag and nomadic law-makers,
is perpetuating his destructive policy.
Riding up the river bank the other
day, I noticed in front of a friend’s house,
a tiue live-oak, beneath whose shade was
placed a new-made bench, on which sat
a solitary “man and brother” slowly sway
ing himself back and forth, and chanting
a sort of dirge. On enquiring ot the
family, 1 learned that “poor Joe was a
half-witted creature, whom some ot his
sable bretheren had lately “converted”
and convinced of the necessity of attend
ing church. He went once, but left in
disgust because there was no room for
him on the benches. Returning home,
he immediately fashioned a bench for
himself, imagining the bench to consti
tute the Church—and ever since, he
regularly performs his own Church ser
vices with the utmost solemnity and sa
tisfaction. This is the “latest Churcjj
out,” and constructed too on the purcg t
of Protestant principles—the right
private interpretation, with a vengeaue.
Let the Ritualists look to their laurc '
i Percy Vere.
5
