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About Weekly constitutionalist. (Augusta, Ga.) 185?-1877 | View Entire Issue (July 24, 1867)
TtaSt? the Co„»lltuttoD, andU.ey■v»e»t lation. • - * lIUMBER 111. * When any measure of legislation in Ame rica is presented for our acceptance or ap proval, the first question should always be : Is ic constitutibhal ? or, better phraseology would be, Is it aathorized by the Constitu tion ? For, in America, the distinctive, dis tinguishing feature of government, btate and Federal, is the written CoMUlutwn. Tins is the Alpha and Omega of all true Ameri can statesmanship. It is also the only im pregnable fortress of American liberty.- The written Constitution are words which shonldbe repeated by every citizen every dav and every hour, and held as indispensa ble to the preservation of American politi cal life, as is air, or water, or meat and drink to the preservation of animal life. • . In entering on the discussion of the mili tary bills, the first remarkable fact which strikes us is the general concessit that they. are not in accordance with the Federal Constitution. In the debates on the passage of the supplemental bill, Some of the advo cates of these measures upon submitting to the people of the several States affected, to decide “ for or against ” the State Conven tion, through which the purposes are to be accomplished, because # 1 the people should vote for a Convention and thereby admit and • approve the propriety and necessity for the measures, the whole plan would be relieved of the unconstitutional objections ! Thus, even Radical fanatiesfound it necessary to provide some excuse for their consciences! And this excuse consists in an attempt to secure the consent of the people—yea, of the people to be degraded—to the scheme which is to degrade them, and thus to rest the legality of the plan not upon the Consti tution but upon the consent of the people! — And this consent is to be secured by dis franchising intelligence, by military rule, by threats, and last, though not least, bribery f The negro race, duped by emissaries and aided by deserters of their own blood, is to give consent for the white race ? Mr. Stanbesy, in his argument before the Supreme Court, though denying the juris diction of the court, in the case made, felt it necessary to disclaim any admission that the bills were constitutional, but admitted the contrary, and hoped, when the proper case should be made, which he admitted could be made in many ways, the court would discharge its duty. It is true that Me. Sumner, and such as he, claims that Congress has the right, under the Constitution, to pass such bills and for all the States, and locates the power in two clauses of the Constitution: that which re quires the United States to “guarantee a republican” government to each State, and the latter clause of the fourteenth amend ment which authorizes Congress by ap propriate legislation to enforce” theemanci tion of the slave. But whatever may be claimed for Mr. J Sumner it. is certain he is not respectable authority on questions of cOn • stitntional law. No fanatical mind can be ' regarded as safe, or income respectable as an ex plunder of law; because fanatical minds will accept nothing as true except what they desire to be true. But law is an inflexible rule, and none but inflexible mind's, rigid in spite of theories and hard laws can either truly learn, greatly love, or safely expound the law. But even if Mr. Sumner and such as he had reputation as lawyers, such reputation would be destroyed by the very positions assumed; for no legal or logical or well balanced mind can say it is necessary or proper to disfranchise White people; to es tablish military, .rule; to abolish the trial, by jury, and to suspend the privilege of habeas corpus, in time of peace, for all races and colors, in order. to guarantee republi can government of the States, or to enforce the emancipation of the slave. . It may be safely assumed, therefore, that ail respectable' legal minds in America, whether for or against those military bills as a plan of reconstruction, admit the bills are not authorized by any provision in the Constitution. Indeed, the advocates of these bills And the authority for they' adop tion not in the Constitution but in certain outside of the Constitution j —in a condition of things not anticipated and not provided for by the Constitution; and some And the power in ‘necessity, some in humanity and some in international law! Before I conclude these notes it is my pur pose to devote separate and special atten tion to each of tin! apologies for these bills (for they are not arguments;) but I wish to say now that if these positions, or any of them be true, then Congress has found for itself a much broader grant of power put side of the Constitution than exists inside of that instrument. Indeed, they have found outside a power by which they can destroy the Constitution, by which alone the Congress itself was created and has be ing. If this be so, our fathers did a silly work in providing a written Constitution. Then, we may say, that what legal minds admit is true, %o-wit: That these military bills are not authorized by any provision of the Constitution, and, if justifiable at all, they must be justified by circumstances— by some condition, by some authority out side of the Constitution, i And now, wise, prudent, patriotic readers, lovers of law and law’s safety propound and answer this ! question : If Congress has a sphere, a do minion, an existence, outside of the Con stitution, whence does it come, where does it lie, and what is its extent, its length aud breadth'd Do you not know there is no dominion outside of the Constitution and | laws but the dominion of anarchy —grim, bloody, lawless, thriftless anarchy? Do you not know’ tnat the very definition of anarchy is, outside of laic, disregard of law, abandonment of law ? Have not all people who have gone into anarchy, and reaped her riot of ruin, done so under the pressure of bad men and circumstances ? And will i Americans, black and white, abandon j the w’ell deflued boundaries, the safe expo sitions, the well-tried, ever sufficient and glorious protection of a w r ritten Constitu tion, and rush into the wild outside to find i safety for person, or for property or for j liberty ? But the argument must not stop here.— These military bills are not only Hot au thorized' by, but are directly contrary to, the Constitution. Thef subject citizens to trial for capital and infamous offenses with out indictment by a grand jury ; and this, the Constitution says, shall not be done.— They* authorize trial without a jury, which, the Constitution says, shall not be done; and the Constitution, on this subject, is so tender of liberty that it rloes not trust the matter simply to a prohibition, but it de clares, with repeated emphasis, the ri ht: “ The trial of all crimes, except iu cases of j impeachment, shall be by jury. In all erim- j inal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy 1 the right to a speedy and public trial by au ! impartial jury.” They suspend the privilege of the writ of' habeas corpus when there is neither insurrec- ! tion nor invasion, wiiich the Constitution i says shall not be done. In these and other respects, then, military bills are in direct conflict witii the plainest and most solemn injunctions and guaran tees of the Constitution. But these bills not only thus most fla grant!v* violate the provisions of the Federal Constitution, but they abrogate and destroy in whole the ten States j formed bv the people, and authorize anew j, ! people to*form constitutions, not according to the wishes of either the new or the old electors, but according to the wishes and.; j under the direct dictation of the authors of j these military bills, not one of whom re : skies in either of thß ten States- thus tram pled on, or can be sufeject to the govern ment of*the constitutions which they thus dictate* ' ' - ! Nor is all'yet told. These bills not only violate and destroy governments, but they j destroy—most ruthlessly destroy—the very principles on,which all American constitu- j tions and governments- are based, and to secure and perpetuate which, constitutions, I State and Federal, were made. Magna Charter; Bill of Eights; Petition of Rights; the Settlement ;' the glorious principles of the Common Law ; the compact wisdom of eenturies ; the fruits of many bloody revo lutions ; all the guards and guarantees which patriots, statesmen, judges and peo ple, by sword and by pen, for eight hundred years have been providing and perfecting to build up and make immortal that most , wonderful blessing of hnfqgn genius and 1 power—the structure of Anglo Saxon lib-1 erty—are abrogated and withdrawn from i ten millions of people, of ali colors, sexes and classes, who live in the ten unheard and excluded States, and that, too, by men, I repeat, who do not live in these States, and who never think of them but to hate, and never enter them but to insult! Surely this is enough, but the argument requires me to add that the body of men who enaeted these military abominations were not the Congress, and had no author ity to legislate. By the Constitution all Federal legislative powers are vested in a “ Congress of the United States.” This Con gress “ shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives?’ The IJouse “ shall be com posed of members chosen by the people of the several States f The Senate “ shall be com posed of two Senators from each State Now, was the body of men who pretended to enact, these bills so composed ? If not, they did not—they could not—be the Con gress. Why were they not so composed ? By their own act. Members to compose the Congress were chosen by the people and all the States* for the House and the Senate. But the members from ten States were ex cluded from their seats by the members of the other States, thus reducing what would have been a Congress to a fragmentary conclave of members. No sophistry, no fanaticism, no ambition, no perjury, and no force can escape the conclusion. These t military bills have no authority. 1. Be cause they are not authorized by the Con stitution. 2. Because they are contrary to—absolutely annul—the Constitution.— And 3. Because they have never been pass ed by the Congress. - Naturalists tell us of a venemous reptile which sometimes be comes so furiously enraged it sticks its fangs in its own flesh and dies of its own poison. And it does, seem fitting that these mad violators of the Constitution they were sworn to support, these wild exterminators of States, these adroit but furious murderers of law and liberty, should first, by. their own act, have destroyed themselves in their preparation and desire to destroy others. 'lt do not shrink from, but do most hear tily rejoice at, the inevitable conclusion to which the argument, nerved by the very sinews of lqgi<?and warmed by the purest : love of country, must lead; and, if Ameri ! can patriotism shall not finally" and forever ! die, but shall awake from the - trance into ! which ambition and lust for place have i thrown it, then will lines —dark lines—yea, lines as black as tins tar red night, be'drawn, j and with, a power nervous with indigfiatioil, I around all the records and the bastard ■otti | cial existence of these fragmentary cou j claves of Republicanism ; “libellers” and all ! will be declared to constitute no part of | authorized American law, or of legitimate i American will. | Time was ! .all, yes, the time was, when jto say to an American citizen a proposed j measure was not authorized by the Constitu j tion w r as enough. It was rejected. And ! has the filial power, or that which, in re publics, is worse and mightier, ami more j to be avoided than war—which is the father of wars —wliieh begot our war, and which seems determined with an adulterous ma nia to multiply its lie H-visaged brood—the corruption of party manipulators —wrought so great a change? And lias the time al ready come when Americans—even South ern Americans —can entertain, as a ques tion, whether they will accept, and by that acceptance make valid, a proposition which is not authorized by the Constitution; which destroys the Constitution; which mocks the very principles which made, which gave soul to the Constitution; which tramples thus on the Constitution in order to destroy existing Southern State governments founded in the consent of the people, and to form others not founded in the consent of the people; and which, in form mg these new governments, disfranchises existing electors distinguished for intelli gence, and enfranchises new electors noto rious for ignorance; and while the new gov ernments, so formed, are not to suit either new or old, learned or ignorant, black or white electors, who are to live under them —but must suit who have never lived in these States, who never expect to live in these States, and who forget their own oaths and the interests of their own people to indulge the hatred by which they op press the of these Southern States ? And have we some of these same party manipulators, who were born under our skies, who have been trusted by our people, who boast of their honors, who now advise and try, coax and labor to persuade and by turns threaten, deceive, and slander, to com pel ns to accept this iniquity ? Oh, depths of infamy ! Open, open, far deeper depths for the dwelling of these cun ning monsters of treachery, that they shame not with their presence the lowest of the damned spirits which now inhabit your labyrinths ! NUMBER IV. Having shown what every fair mind ad mits, and what every legal mind must con clude, that these military measures are sub versive of the Constitution and fatal to the very life of all American principles of gov ernment, let us now proceed to examine the reasons urged to justify or induce their ac ceptance by our people. After careful con sideration I And that all the reasons whieh I have heard or read are included in the following five propositions and allegations: 1. We are helpless, it is alleged, and can neither resist nor prevent the adoption of these, measures. 2. That if we refuse to accept this plan of reconstruction, a worse one will be provi ded. An appeal to our fears, and therefore a strong or rather dangerous position. 3. That if we. reject this plan Congress will become more offended, and will confis cate our property, and take the substance we have left. This is an appeal to our Avarice—a very dominant passion of human nature. 4. That we of the South are a conquered people, and are bound to accept the terms of the conqueror, and that these bills are the terms of the conqueror. 5. That the negro, being now free and made a citizen, is entitled both lor his own protection and in accordance with the prin ciples of popular government, to political as well as civil equality with the white race, and that ci\ il equality will lx? idle without political equality. • This last position is urged chiefly by Northern supporters of these bills, and has a semblance ot 'consistency and principle, and I have, therefore,.included it in the list of arguments or positions to be answered? • , I have Ho difficulty whatever in finding the most satisfactory replies to all these alleged reasons. ' Indeed; I affirm, with absolute confidence, that all the good which it is claimed will come of the acceptance of these measures, will come and. can only come of their rejection; and that all the evils which it is alleged will result from their rejection will necessarily and naturally result from their acceptance. But I find it very difficult while writing and impossible while speaking, to exhibit what I do not feel; and, while making the analysis, it will be a task to exhibit any respect either for these positions or for those who use them. For the educated politician—the man who has experience in public affairs and who aspires and labors to be a.teacher and coun sellor of the people—and who urges these teachings and counsels, •-1 am exceedingly filled with contempt;” because I can but believe that such a man consciously dese crates the truth, and recklessly, but with most conciliating address, hazards every interest of the people only that he may take the benefit of being “ on the strong side.”— Alas, what pen shall ever be able to recount the countless horrors which have resulted from—been wrought by—that demoniac spirit of Our political leaders to be on the strong side, and to make issqes and pander to passions “to keep the strong side!” This spirit made “ bleeding Kansas,” rent the Union in twain, drenched the country in blood and clad the people * with mourning ; demoralized, deceived and betrayed the most gallant people under the cycles of the sun to the most humiliating subjugation, and now counsels, urges, threatens to com pel dishonor to a people who have nothing but honor left. But I know there are many people who are honest, and even intelligent on most subjects, who commit grave political er rors and mistakes. If would be strange if they did not, when there are so many in fluences to deceive. In popular govern ments, therefore, and more especially now, since so much proposed to be given to so much ignorance, it is necessary to answer the knave in his argument, lest lie make a fool of his hearer. First, then, it is said, we are, helpless, and cannot prevent the success of these military bills. Well, if this is true, why ask our consent ? If success does not de pend on consent, why beg, and coax, and threaten to secure? If we must be dis franchised and have an “ enemy’s govern ment ” forced upon Us, spare us the gratu itous dishonor of consenting ! If a fiend, with the power, should come to burn your house, or rape'your wife, or kill your fami ly, and should coolly ask your consent, saying you had better consent, for if you did not he would burn, or rape, or kill any how, and perhaps, being incensed by your refusal,do all; would you consent?. I like the spirit of the old Roman Centurion. A decemvir—a ruler of the strong side—be came enamored of the humble centurion’s “daughter.” He first persuaded, but per suasion failing to secure consent, he resort ed to his power, the power of his office. When the houy of helplessness was reached, the father snatched a knife and plunged it into the breast of his daugh ter, exclaiming, “ This is all, dearest daughter, I can give tliee to preserve thy chastity from the lust and violence of a tyrant.” And what was the' result in heathen Rome.? The soldiers and people honored the .father, and rose with indigna tion and abolished the decern viral power of Rome forever, and the guilty decemvirs slew themselves. And to thin day this thing is told as a memorial of the noble father, and of the glorious army and people who avenged him. And the daughter’s name was Virginia, The virtue of all our daugh ters, and the pride of all our sons are se cure only in our sense of honor. But are we helpless? If we contemplate resistance by arms, I concede that now we are helpless. Rut our strength is not in arms. Our strength is in the Constitution. If. the Constitution is strong we are strong, and if we arc helpless the Constitution is helpless. I have #iown if these military measures by forced uport us the. Constitu tion is destroyed. On its parapets alone let us mount our guns and fire. on. The most startling evideifce of our progress to ward-anarchy is the idea with some, I fear many of our people, that the Constitution can do us no good. The very thought should alarm every man on the continent who lias property, or liberty, or peace, who desires to get or to keep either. The only possible hope I have in the future for any thing good or safe to the people of any sec tion and of any colof, is founded in the be lief that the Constitution is not dead—is not helpless. It has been sadly disregard ed, abandoned and trampled on, I admit. — But its enemies are too cruel. They insist upon dealing their blows too often, too quickly and too recklessly. Their motives are becoming manifest. The murderer’s in tent is at last being- seen. The people will come to the rescue; they will come in wrath, and these long rioting enemies will call on the very mountains to hide them.— If I am mistaken, if the Constitution is dead, if the' people have lost the will to save it; these patriots and Christians and all order-loving men have but one duty to perform. That duty is to pray—pray ear nestly—pray unceasingly, that the Caesar of American history would come and come -quickly. . Our noble Governor sought,to test tile constitutionality of these measures before the Supreme Court by a bill Hied in the name of the State. I am glad he did so. It was a manly effort, for which our chil dren will praise him. Besides, he gave the court an opportunity of deciding an import ant question which may be one day involved. He failed to get the test, because the court was not able"to decide that it had jurisdic tion in the form in which the question was made ; not because Georgia was not a State, but because Georgia being a State the ques tion, as made, was political only. But the humblest of the ten millions of the people of the ten States, whose rights of person or property are interfered with by one of these military officers, can make the question and make it judicially; and then the court must decide it, and will decide it, aud can decide it only in faror of the citizen. Ido most earnestly' hope that every citizen, whose property is seized or whose person is ar rested under ptetense of these military bills, will promptly appeal to the law. lam aware that our people are attempted to be frightened from this appeal to the courts because the}* are told it will be years before a decision can j>e forced ! This is not tru§. A decision on a writ Os habeas corpus , must come at once from the District Court, and in a short time from the Supreme Court. But, if this delay is to defeat the applica tion, would not people for the same reason assert no right by the law, aud thus submit to all outrages or take the law in their own hands ? And must the right on which all rights depend be abandoned because the law is slow ? But it is said that while the courts are waiting the Congress will complete its work. But if the courts finally hold that the work Is completed without any authori ty under the Constitution, will not all the work go for nothing and ou* existing gov-j eminent bt>restored ? . i . gut suppose it will take one year, or five j years, or ten years to “ force the court to a decision ?” would it not be better to brook j the court’s delay for even ten years than ■ to accept anarchy and slavery tor a ceu ti'rv I No’; there is neither logic, nor sincerity, j ftor patriotism in this argument . or excuse,; that we are helpless. If w© consent to and i accept these military measures, then we are helpless, because they, by that consent,; I become valid —become our act. It we do not ; accept —if we vote against- a Convention— 1 i thru never can become valid. They never can i lx-'flnallv-enforced. This is the reason, and : ! the only*reason why every means is resort- j jedto to secure our consent. Without that i consent these acts have no vitality. There I 1 4g for these corrupt party Manipulators and bribed deserters from their own honor no ■] refuge from disgrace, but in success of their i scheme of ruin. There-is no possible way of success except by the people’s consent to their own ruin. Therefore, it Is that emis saries come, and renegades Labor, and ori ginal secessionists become orthodox loyal ists, and by persuasions and by threats, by bribing some and alarming others and deceiving all, seek to get the people to eon- The wicked violators of the Constitution would cover their crimes by calling it Pro gress and getting the people to tread with them in their country’s death-march. The itinerant vender of his people’s honor would escape the infamy of his trade by in ducing the people to join in the sale. What! will the people violate the Consti tution to get strength, or abandon the laws to find safety? Then, is the mariner skilled who throws away his chart and compass to find his way over the sea ; and the madman has become wise who forsakes his shelter to avoid the storm. “ One of the banished crew, I fear, hath ventured from the deep, to raise new troubles ” NUMBER V. It is said, in the next place, that- if we do not accept the present plan of reconstruc : tion proposed in these Military Bills, anoth er plan more odious and oppressive will be provided. Further disfranchisement, it is said, of the white race, will take place, and it may be a total disfranchisement of ail but the blacks and their fellows in suffer ings and former bondage—the persecuted loyalists; and who alone will then have the government of the State. But if the present plan fails because it is unconstitutional, how can a worse plan—a plan still more unconstitutional —succeed ? If it is not in the power of Congress to dis franchise a few, how can it disfranchise ali ? Congress can neither make nor unmake j electors , and every member of the Congress knows it. And every act which seeks or pretends to make or unmake voters in a State is void and will be declared so ; and every election held or constitution formed, or government organized by voters who are made voters only by Congress is void anil will be declared so. Every man who is made a voter by the laws of his State, and is denied that vote by Congress, is wronged, and every agent or officer of the Congress, or other person, is a ‘ wrong-doer , and responsible in all the penalties and damages prescribed by the State laws.— The only danger possible lies, in the strange fear of the people to assert their rights, and the consequent disposition to consent to the wrong. From consent. a lone ca u wrong de, rive power, and when once consented to its power becomes irresistible. If they did not sec, or think they saw, a fatal inclination in our people jo yield, Congress and the renegades would not ask their .consent, nor dare to .inflict the wrongs, For to attempt. the wrong and fail (and without consent they must fail), can only bring disgrace on those who make the attempt, When the burglar knows the owner of the house is awake and determined to resist he will uot dare eiiter; but if lie knows the owner is asleep or disposed to yield, lie is sure to enter; he is invited to enter, A Congress, or a fragmentary conclave there of, who breaks the Constitution to inflict wrongs on an unresisting people, is more criminal • and far more cowardly than the burglar; and the man who is Within—who is of the people—and ,who counsels, submis sion to the wrong, is far more to be de spised than a burglar or than even such a Congress. Os like character is the threat that, if* we reject their plan, Congress will, in anew plan, add confiscation. He is to be pitied for his simplicity, .who does not know that Congress has no more power to confiscate the property of a peaceful citizen than lias a political meeting or a church mob ; and that the very attempt would necessarily end the existence of the Congress attempt ing it. • *. • But unmanly and without foundation of either law or reason, as are these threats of further attempts at disfranchisement and confiscation, they are of surpassing import ance hi other respects, and demand the most Serious consideration of our people.—- The position urged upon us is this: We must submit to. a proposed wrong lest a greater wrong follow. We must surrender our franchises, because, if we do not, our property will fee taken also. Now the first point to which I lieg attention is this : These positions admit that the party (or. power if you please) .which proposes the present wrong, has already the will to inflict further wrong; that the Congress which requires you to consent to the destruction ■of your franchise has already the will to rob you of your property. Thus, you are asking to place your prop erty for safety in tfee keeping of that power whieh already has the will to take it. You are importuned to escape the power of lion by rushing to Ills embrace; to avoid the fang of the serpent by placing your hand in liis mouth! This is precisely the point. Will every man in the South ponder it—repeat it— never forget it? Disfranchisement confis cation, and far worse evils will not come— cannot come—through our existing State government. Never 1 But they can come, and they will come through the government, which this plan of reconstruction proposes to establish for our existing State govern ments. Who in all these States favor or agitate for confiscation except the Northern emissary and Southern renegade, and the negro when prompted and directed by tfiese emissaries and renegades? Are wc not warned? Read the resolutions of .negro conventions and whenever you find one of these conventions in which these emissaries and renegades are the devilish prompters, you will find confiscation threatened, or apologized for, or justified or demanded.— And the very men who are to form, organize, control and administer, and en joy the offices under these new governments proposed by these Military Bills. And when we admit the power to abrogate ex isting governments and organize new gov ments to be composed of such men with such views and for such purposes, these abrogations and disfranchisements, and new organizations, will continue until such men do effectually control, and such views and purposes do effectually prevail. The,whjple purpose of these Military Bills is to add these ten States to Radical party power; nothing less than the complete accomplish ment but by disfranchising, impoverishing, distroying and driving off all the true, and. noble, and manly-and country-loving of the i Southern people; .and delivering over our bright and beautiful land to the riotous rule j and miscegcnating orgies of negroes. Yankee-; and base apostates from their own kindred, eolor, country, and blood. I would not ( fear the docile negro, left to himself. He ; would soon know his true friends, in his 1 interest, and be useful. But the Africanized j white man is an enemy to the peace and the j interest* of both races, and ' would be an ad- j mitted monster in any age or country of barbarians. * ■ I admit, then, that we are in danger of confiscation. Those who outlaw' patriot ism and intelligence would not scruple to rob. The representatives who violate the I Constitution they are sworn to support, in j order to abrogate State government, and ; I reduce the people to military bondage, could J not add to their iniquities fey taking what I little property we have left. Asa, people i we have but little—scarcely enough to pre- j (vent starvation. All the world seems to be ; moving to send bread to keep us alive.—. I What a curious people we are! fi.t objects j i of charity and fit. subjects for confiscation ! ' The same train brings the bread to feed, the ■ officer to oppress, and tlie.emissary to breed i strife, and to rob! Alas, we have been j robbed—robbed iu war and in peace, and by foes and by friends. A few are rich.— They prospered while their victims were sacrificed —showed a talent to make money while their dupes showed a will to lose blood. These might naturally dread con fiscation, and in view of the sacrifices they made to get the property, it may be reason-' able they should make greater sacrifices to keep what they made, for what is honor worth to sucli ? But even these should not altogether lose their reason. May they not long be nursing a power that may consume them ? Thieves are not always to be trust ed, even by tlieflr Mends and co-laborers.— It is safer to avoid a danger than trust to controling it. When we abandon the safeguards of the Constitution, and trust ourselves to the magnanimity of its violators, we shall em brace the surest means of procuring the loss of all things. But, I scorn to pursue sucli a line of argument. A people who are willing to' sacrifice honor to avarice are beyond the possibility of redemption. If the ..very statement of the proposition does not awaken a feeling of abhotence we are indeed in a sad condition. If anything can be baser than degradation it is such a motive for sinking to it. Lost property may be recovered ; burned cities may be rebuilt; devastated fields will bloom again ; even buried children, fallen for their country, will live again in the quickened spirits of new generations. But as with in dividuals so with people and communities —the sense of honor once lost is lost for ever. Yea, more : the history of human nature, singly and in communities, teaches, without exception of example, that when self-respect is once lost, self-abasement once accepted, cities, lands, liberty, country, cannot be retained. It is natural, too, that all others should lose respect for those who lose respect for themselvel. If we accept the humiliation proposed for us, all mankind will be ashamed of us, our children will be ashamed of us, and our very enemies, whose hatred prompted tho shame, will niock and deride *us. Even now I believe the impression which a few have been industrious tq pro duce, that our people are willing to recon struct under these acts, has damaged us. more in the estimation of* all honorable minds, than anything else that lias hap pened. Ido not know Gen. Pope.; but if, us I assume? he possesses the ordinary in stincts belonging, to an American gentle-, man, lie must have felt an almost nauseat ing pity for the poor men who gathered about him in Atlauta, and forgetting the history of their fathers and the character of I their institutions, welcomed, with feasting j and rejoicing, the inauguration of military -despotism over one of the Old Thirteen, whose j sons were irt the first revolution, and who j holds iu her bosom the asligs of Pulaski 1— ' A brave man loves courage in others, and despises sycophancy, especially that syco phancy which makes sacrifices to power to secure safety, perhaps patronage for itself. Heroism in defeat, patience in suffering, the preservation of honor in the midst of mis fortune, are the sublime virtues which every thing on earth admires, and everything iu Heaven rewards, and which never fail to lift a people possessing them, however tem porarily unfortunate, to final prosperity and renown. And a people, however great, who - propose dishonor to the helpless, who would take advantage of misfortune to force op pression on the unresisting, will surely sink by the weight of their own infamy to mire, and everything on earth and in Heaven will rejoice at the fall. I admit I have often overrated the intelli gence, and virtue, and endurance of our people. Everything they have done, from the suicidal repeal of the Missouri Compro mise to the criminal and factious demorali zation wdiich compelled our surrender, has been contrary, to my wishes, and against my protest. But Ido not believe they are iso lost to every instinct of manhood as to accept the plan of State destruction pro posed by the fanatical representatives of other States, as contained in these military bills; Many at first were taken by surprise, and were tempted with a desperate thought lessness to yield. But they will reject the hateful thing they had almost embraced. Colored People Who Think.—ln the village of Terry, Hinds county, Miss., the 4th was celebrated by a barbecue and speaking by whites and blacks, of which 3,000 were" present. Ex-Governor A. G. Brown presided and several other distin guis'hed Mississippfans addressed the crowd, and so did Rolla Williams, Geo. W. Harris and other colored men. The distinguishing feature of the meeting was, that although 2,800 of the 3,000 were blacks, Radicals and Radicalism were the chief objects of denunciation. The negro speeches were sensible and show that the colored men up there are beginning to com prehend how hypocritical is the Radical assumption that they are the only true friends of the. negro. Here in Mobile the same ideas are crawl ing through the heads of the colored meg, and that class is as distinctly divided into two parties, as ever were the Whigs and Democrats in old times. The Congressional tyrants may yet dis cover that in the negro suffrage lottery they have drawn an elephant. * [Advertiser & Register. Russia and Ireland. —The National In teUigeneer'says that the cable dispatch, pub lished a few days ago to the effect that the Russian Cabinet had addressed a dlploma fic note to the Governments of France, Great Britain and the United States, in re gard to the condition of Ireland, is untrue. The statement was caused by the publica tion in an English paper of a burlesque note of this tenor. Rebel Stuff. —The Declaration of Inde pendence was read to the negroes of Mem phis on the Fourth at a pic-nic. They be came highly incensed and the most of them left, declaring they didn’t go there to hea such d—cl rebel stuff. THE WEEKLY CONSTITUTIONALIST WEDNESDAY MORNING. JULY 24,1867 TO OUR SU3CRIBER3. The Wbeki.t Constitutionalist will here ifter be mailed on Tuesday instead of Wednes day,morning. We make this change to accom modate many subscribers. It is oui aim and purpose to make the paper a first class news and I family journal, and we confidently hope that the influence ot our subscribers will be exerted to aid us in doing so by extending its circa ation. HON. H. V. JOHNSON’S LETTER. We present our readers with a noWe let ter from the Hon. H. V. Johnson on the ! political .situation. His summing up of the iniquities of the Military Bill is concise and luminous. His reasons for rejecting its despotic terms are cogent and far-pervading. His advice to liis fellow-citizens to prefer any sacrifice to a dishonorable compromise is just such counsel as every man in Geor gia expected from one so pure, so high minded, so philosophical. To the Freedmen of G-eorgia. no. v. Abolition originated in England, but uol till the loss of her American colonies anil the progress of Yankee commerce had taught her the value of our products and the control of the cheap raw material of Southern agriculture. She recognized thnt up to that time the na tion that possessed the trade of the East had been able to control the commerce of the world, until the development of a system of slave labor in America had supplied the raw material there, three thousand miles nearer to Europe than by the passage - round the Capes, Horn and Good Hope. She saw at once that her policy was to destroy the slave la bor of America and reduce us to the same state as the colonists of the East India were in, that her hundred millions of Hin doos might thus overdo our four million of negroes, who, under the direction of white energy and intelligence, were supplying tho elements of general American prosperity.— Our cotton brought two hundred millions of dollars every year, and this made us so flourishing, that while the negro was the lightest worked and happiest basis laborer in the world, wages generally were the highest for .white and black. ' Here then both Old and New England, for his own ends, wished to destroy slavery, and they did it. But, lo! as soon as the war wasf over it became evident to both that they had reck oned without their host! The negro was going tp work again, and seemed likely to do more for wages than before. They would give the material for still greater trade to the world, which overthrew old England’s calculations ; whilst by'bringing the manu facturer on the grand water powers of the South, right on the borders of the cotton liclds, overthrew those of Massachusetts.— Here was a quandary,*Which was soon set tled. How *t Let us see. After - the surrender, all appeared about to settle down, and even Massachusetts showed that she did not wish entirely to destroy the South, when suddenly the same man who appeared in New England at the beginning of the abolition agitation of 1834, George Thompson, member of Parlia ment of Great Britain, appeared in Boston. Very soon after the Radicals became more bitter than ever, and nothing less than the destruction of the .South was resolved on. Now how is that to be effected? Neyv England only wants us so paralyzed as to exercise no other energy but that which will keep us forever hewers of wood and drawers of water for her, and is willing to leave us enough to do that effectively.— This she proposes to do by giving the black people a vote, which she expects to be used as she may dictate, whereby the white men of the South being adroitly divided, the ne gro becomes the dominant *“ third party.” But does she suppose that England, whose money judiciously spent, rules or thwarts the policy of all nations, will al low this ? She, in her self-sufficiency may think she cannot prevent it, but long head ed England lias already used the hate of her Sumner and Jack Cadeism of Wilson, Stevens and the like, to advocate universal suffrage as the best means of bringing on a collision of races, and thus destroying the Indies of the South and the basis of New England's commerced rivalry at one fell blow —in the destruction of the negro race in America. No one acquainted with any considera ble portion of the secret history of diplo macy since the year 1773 can doubt this.-*- How then defeat it ? The answer is : Let the people of the North and the ne groes alike open their eyes to the trap laid for them, and let their good sense tell them that it is utterly impossible for two races, so broadly separated as the white and the black, to live at peace. on from? inti;. For farther particular*, address t or GEO.KUHN & COjH tj 10! 480 Broadway, New ToiKfh' B This is no Humbug or Gift Enterprise. • exc !nyl4-c2 ! ran W neg WOOL ! WOOL!!* gi v<« and j|g ATHENS MANUFACTURING Cofl purchase WOOL in the dirt or whi. exchange ail kinds of COTON or ailt for WOOL. They have made daring and J* ai improvements in their Wool 2li*etial)le9 them to make far superior ROLLS jjpLEN GOODS to any made heretofore by •Sending Wool mark plainly the nsjae of fH P on the package, that we may know from whH e. R. L. BLOOMFIELD, M ca f Agent Athens Manufacturing CompagM
