ting knowledge? The Old World, by the Atlantic telegraph, will be drawn towards the New, and the New towards the Old. Our interests will become more identical, our beliefs more reconcilable; the artificial demarcation occasioned by our respective forms of government will disappear, the people of Europe and America, instead of being called English, French, Germans, Spaniards, Prussians, Yankees, Mexicans, &c., will be called simply the people of Europe or America. Nationalities will gradually become less marked, the legislation of different countries will be more and more assimilated, races and creeds will melt into one another, civilization and enlightenment will penetrate the darkest corners of barbarism and error, and the earth will eventually become, what natural laws tend to make it when unobstructed by such impediments as ignorance and restraint, one vast land teeming with wealth and plenty, and peopled by a numberless community secure in the enjoyment of universal peace and happiness.

THE MODE OF RESTORATION OF THE REBEL STATES TO THE UNION.

BY CHARLES P. KIRKLAND, OF NEW YORK.

In

THE term "reconstruction," as applied to the rebel States, though often used, is used very inaccurately, not to say injuriously. It implies ex vi termini, the previous destruction of that which is to be re-constructed. the case before us it implies that those States, as States of the Union, are destroyed; that they do not now exist as such; consequently, that the ordinances of secession were valid; and again, consequently, that a State has the power to withdraw from the Union. It admits the power and the right of secession.

This is an error as palpable as it is dangerous, and should not for a moment be sanctioned even by inference or implication. No. Those States, as States, have never for an hour in a constitutional and legal sense been out of the Union; they have ever been and now are substantive and component parts of it as truly as Massachusetts or Ohio. Very much has been written on the subject of the right of a State to secede from the Union, so much indeed, that the intellectual argument may well be said to be exhausted. It may with equal truth be said that further argument is wholly useless, inasmuch as the question is forever settled, and a judgement alike solemn, unappealable and irresistible has been pronounced by the only sovereign power-the people.

If the mighty war, through which we have just passed and in which we have so entirely and gloriously triumphed, has established any doctrine or principle whatever, it is "that no State has the right or power to, or by any possibility can, withdraw from the Union, except by an amendment of the Constitution permitting it." The fatal heresy on this subject prevailing so extensively in the rebel States was, as has been already mentioned, one of the instrumentalities by which the leading conspirators were enabled to inaugurate the Rebellion; it was a direfully active agent in this fratricidal work; to impress on it the seal of everlasting condemnation and

sweep it, as an operative principle, forever from existence, was one of the objects as it is one of the blessed results of the war.

This judgment of condemnation, obtained by more than four years of deadly conflict and at such an amazing expenditure of life and of treasure, stands, and will ever stand, a proud monument of the intelligent understanding by the American people of the true nature of their Union, of their earnest devotion to it, and of their determination that it shall be perpetual. Never again can this wicked delusion have any practical influence or perceptible existence in this country or in any part of it; it has lived its day, it has performed its unhallowed work of attempting the national death, and has in the attempt met its own; it now lies buried in a grave of infamy without the hope or possibility of resurrection. If, after all this, any man in America is found still to cling to that delusion, and to write or to speak in its advocacy, his bitterest enemy could wish him no worse punishment than he will receive in the pity, the contempt and disgust that will await him on every side.

In determining then the mode of restoration of those States, the very starting point, the first step in the process, is the postulate, that, one and all, they have never ceased, since their admission into the Union, to be, and that they now are members of it, States within it. With this rule as the guide, and with a faithful adherence to it, all difficulties in the way of restoration vanish.

It may be asked what is meant by "restoration,' and what is the differ ence between that and "reconstruction." The meaning of the latter has already been stated; the necessity for the use of the former term arises from the fact that through the unconstitutional, illegal and void acts of citizens of those States, those States and the people thereof have for a pe riod practically omitted to exercise their rights, enjoy their privileges, and perform their duty in the Union; though in the family, they have been refractory, rebellious and disobedient members; their rebellion being at an

*How well is this truth stated in a letter from General Sherman dated at Savannah, January 8, 1865, to a citizen of Georgia. He says; "Georgia is not out of the Union, and therefore the talk of "reconstruction" appears to me inappropriate. Some of the people have been and still are in a state of revolt: and as long as they remain armed and organized, the United States must pursue them with armies and deal with them according to military law. But as soon as they break up their armed organizations and return to their homes, I take it they will be dealt with by the civil courts. Some of the rebels in Georgia, in my judgment, deserve death, because they have committed murder, and other crimes, which are punished with death by all civilized governments on earth. You may rest assured that the Union will be preserved, cost what it may. And if you are sensible men you will conform to this order of things, or else migrate to some other country. There is no other alternative open to the people of Georgia.

"My opinion is that no negotiations are necessary, nor commissioners, nor conventions, nor any thing of the kind. Whenever the people of Georgia quit rebelling against their Government, then the State of Georgia will have resumed her functions in the Union. It seems to me that it is time for the people of Georgia to act for themselves, and return, in time, to their duty to the Government of their

fathers."

end and they desiring to be again in the enjoyment of their wonted rights and privileges, and in the performance of their duties as members of the family (from which they have been for a season separated in fact but not in law), the question is how that " restoration" is to be effected. This brief "statement of the case" explains clearly the meaning of the term toration," and shows the propriety of its use.

res

1. A necessary consequence of the proposition above stated (viz., that no State has been, or is now, out of the Union) is, that all acts of any bodies of men in those States by whatever name called, conventions, legislatures, congress, designed or intended and performed for the purpose of withdrawing that State from the Union, and all acts consequent on or produced by such attempted withdrawal or designed to aid in its practical carrying out, are each and every of them merely void * so as to all sim

*This has been emphatically and solemnly declared in a recent executive paper of President Johnson, in which he pronounces that all acts and proceedings of the political, military and civil organizations which have been in a state of insurrection and rebellion within the State of Virginia against the authority and laws of the United States, and of which Jefferson Davis, John Letcher and William Smith were late the respective chiefs, are declared null and void.

"All persons who shall exercise, claim, pretend or attempt to exercise any political, military or civil power, authority, jurisdiction or right, by, through or under Jefferson Davis, late of the city of Richmond, and his confidants, or under John Letcher or William Smith and their confidants, or under any pretended political, military or civil commission or authority issued by them or of them, since the 17th day of April, 1961, shall be deemed and taken as in Rebellion against the United States, and shall be dealt with accordingly.

"The Secretaries of State, War, Treasury, Navy, Interior, and Postmaster General are ordered to proceed to put in force all laws of the United States pertaining to their several departments, and the District Judge of said district to proceed to hold courts within said States, in accordance with the provisions of the acts of Congress. The Attorney-General will instruct the proper officers to libel and bring to judg ment, confiscation and sale property, subject to confiscation, and enforce the administration of justice within said State, in all matters civil and criminal within the cognizance of the Federal courts; to carry into effect the guaranty of the Federal Con. stitution of a republican form of State Government, and afford the advantage and security of domestic laws, as well as to complete the re-establishment of the authority of the laws of the United States, and the full and complete restoration of peace within the limits aforesaid. Francis H. Pierpoint, Governor of the State of Virginia, will be aided by the Federal Government so far as may be necessary in the lawful measures which he may take for the extension and administration of the State Government throughout the geographical limits of said State."

The case is also very strongly and truly put by General Wilson, in the following letter to the rebel Governor Brown: "Headquarters Cavalry Corps, M. D. M., Macon, Ga, May 9, 1865, 2:30 P. M. Sir-In pursuance of instructions received this day from Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War, I have the honor to inform you that your telegram of the 7th inst., forwarded by my sanction, has been laid before the President of the United States, and the following are his reply and orders:

"1. That the collapse in the currency and the great destitution of provisions

ilar acts of any pretended executive or judicial authority, the creature of Rebellion. This proposition would seem self-evident; the thing created must derive its vitality and power from its creator; and where the latter is wholly and absolutely baseless, is without a particle of the spirit of life, and whose death in a constitutional and legal sense was precisely contemporaneous with its appearance, in such a case, the attempted or pre

among the people of Georgia, mentioned in your telegram, have been caused by treason, insurrection and rebellion against the laws of the United States, incited and carried on for the last four years by you and your confederate rebels and traitors, who alone are responsible for all the waste, destitution and want now existing in that State.

"2. What you call 'the result which the fortunes of war have imposed upon the people of Georgia,' and all the loss and woe they have suffered, are charged upon you and your confederate rebels, who haye usurped the authority of the State and assumed to act as its Governor and Legislature, made acts treasonable to the United States, and by means of that usurped authority provoked the war to extremity, until compelled by superior force to lay down their arms and accept the result which the fortunes of war' have imposed upon the people of Georgia, as the just penalty of the crimes of treason and rebellion.

"That the restoration of peace and order cannot be intrusted to rebels and traitors who destroyed the peace and trampled down the order that had existed more than half a century in Georgia, a great and prosperous State. The persons who incited the war and carried it on at so great a sacrifice to the people of Georgia, and of all the United States, will not be allowed to assemble, at the call of their accomplice, to act again as a legislature of the State, and again usurp its authorities and franchises. Men whose crimes spilled so much blood of their fellow citizens, and pressed so much woe upon the people, destroyed the finances, currency and credit of the State, and reduced the poor to destitution, will not be allowed to usurp legislative power that might be intended to set on foot fresh acts of treason and rebellion. In calling them together without permission of the President, you have perpetrated a fresh crime, that will be dealt with accordingly. I am further directed to inform you, that the President of the United States will, without delay, exert all the lawful powers of his office to relieve the people of Georgia from destitution, by delivering them from the bondage of military tyranny which avowed rebels and traitors long have imposed alike upon poor and rich.

"The President hopes that by restoring peace and order, giving security to life, liberty and property, by encouraging trade, arts, manufactures, and every species of industry, to recover the financial credit of the State, and develop its great resour ces, the people will again soon be able to rejoice under the Constitution and laws of the United States, and of their own State, in the prosperity and happiness they once had. To all good people who return to their allegiance, liberality will be exercised.

"If any person shall presume to answer or acknowledge the call mentioned in your telegram to the President, I am directed to cause his immediate arrest and imprisonment, and hold him subject to the orders of the War Department.

“I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

"JOSEPH E. BROWN, Milledgeville, Ga.

"J. H. WILSON,

Brevet Major-General"

tended creations from such an origin all partake of its character; all fall with it; all are equally inoperative, void and dead ab origine. Here the parent, the source of every thing subsequent, was the ordinance of secession; on this was based the new State, the new constitution, congress, legislatures, every thing; not a moment of real vital existence have any of them had, because the ordinance was wholly and absolutely null and void for the reasons already stated.

It is of the last importance to adhere throughout to the proposition, that no rebel State has been, or is now, out of the Union, and to accept the legitimate practical results of that proposition, whatever they may be. Nor need any apprehension be entertained as to those practical results, if the views above stated, as to the "reconstruction of society," and the "treatment of the rebels indivfdually," are adopted and truly carried out. Let this be done, (and, as has already been shown, it can be done,) and not many months, surely not a long period will elapse before that region will be cleared of the leading spirits of the Rebellion by their punishment or flight, or if they remain, by their quiet and grateful submission to the Constitution and laws of their country; within a period not longer, the prejudices, asperities and delusions of others will disappear before the resistless light of truth, and the great bulk of the people will embrace with earnest joy the blessings of the mild and paternal Government of their country in exchange for the horrors of tyranny, despotism, and war, which they have so bitterly experienced during the last four years. Then, whether under existing or new State constitutions and laws, that people will become, more emphatically than they have ever yet been, worthy citizens of the Republic and safe depositories of the power reposed in them by the fundamental principles of this Government.

But not till then will there be peace, quiet, real and true reconciliation and harmony, whatever course may be adopted by the executive or legislative authorities of the Union.

It may be asked what is to be the condition of those States and the inhabitants thereof till this state of things is reached. The answer is, that they must, ex necessitate rei, remain in their present anomalous condition -but it is to be remembered that the duration of this condition longer or shorter depends entirely on themselves. They can be relieved from it, if they so elect, immediately.* The constitution and laws of each rebel

* The following order for the military re-districting of the State of Virginia shows the modus operandi during this interval: "First.-The sub-district of the Roanoke, Blackwater, and Appomattox, as hereinafter designated, will constitute the District of the Nottaway, under command of Major-General George L. Hartsuff, headquarters at Petersburg. Second-The counties of Accomac, Northampton, Fortress Monroe, and the sub-district of the Peninsula, as hereinafter designated, will constitute the District of Fortress Monroe, under command of Brevet Major-General Nelson A. Miles, headquarters at Fortress Monroe. Third-The counties of Princess Anne, Norfolk, Nansemond, Southampton, and Isle of Wight, will constitute the District of Eastern Virginia, under command of Brigadier-General G. H. Gordon, headquarters at Norfolk. Fourth-The counties of Nelson, Amherst, Bedford, Campbell, Appomattox, Pittsylvania, Henry, Patrick, and Franklin will constitute the District of Lynchburg, under command of Brevet Brigadier-General J. Irwin Gregg. Fifth-The county of