1 WHY A SECTIONAL SOUTH CANNOT BE TRUSTED. 25 equal force to the whole matter. It is one volved in the problem of Chinese residence of the most germane of the questions at in these United States. On the one side issue. As a part of the needed reform, na- stand principles not to be lightly disregardturalization should be effected only through ed-our need of labor; our time-honored the Federal and not the State courts and welcome to all industry; our heretofore unjudges. The citizenship given is prima- violated assurance of asylum and liberty to rily national. The alien becomes an Ameri- all coming to us in good faith. On the other can, and not merely a Californian or Ken- side stands an ancient race, patient, persisttuckian. The latter qualification is an inci- ent, with a vast power of pacific resistance dence of residence and not a necessary con- as well as movement, embracing nearly sequence of the citizenship he may have one-third of the world's population, which therein first assumed. There ought to be shows such a capacity for organizing migraalso a complete record preserved of all natu- tion and industry as we have heretofore ralizations, which should be accessible at the hardly deemed possible, and which may well place of record, and by duplicates at the appal us as to the immediate consequences seat of government. American citizenship when the greed of gain on both sides shall is the noblest of public attributes. It co-operate effectually with the extreme should not be lightly assumed, nor those wretchedness and poverty of the masses on applying be allowed to partake without due those Asiatic shores to move them en masse preparations. Once assumed, protection across the Pacific, and so overwhelm our and duties must be made equally secure and Western States and Territories with a popusacred. lation now so utterly and entirely alien to Such, then, are some of the questions in- all our habits, life, and civilization. WHY A SECTIONAL SOUTH CANNOT BE TRUSTED. In and out of Congress, on the forum and in the press, from the pulpit or by the pen of Democratic partisans or "Liberal" doctrinaires, there is a constant burden of complaint, accusing or deprecating, as the case may be, to the effect that the North-i. e., the Republican party-is constantly showing distrust of the South. Senators Gordon, Withers, Maxey, Cockrell, Ransom, and even as moderate a man as Key, of Tennessee, arraign their Northern associates in the Senate chamber as unjust accusers and assailants of a gallant people who have accepted the situation forced upon them in the utmost good faith. In the Senate, as they have not yet obtained control, the accusation is put in the form of complaint and eriticism. In the other branch, however, Lamar, Tucker, Ben Hill, Vance, Singleton, et al., being the acknowledged leaders of a controlling majority, (temporarily so, at least,) do not stoop to deprecation, but assume the judicial and accusing attitude, and arraign not only the Republican party and the Administration it sustains, but in effect assails the defense of the Union it conduct ed, seeking thereby to destroy the historical value of the victory won by its efforts for unity and liberty. There is the desperation of despair as well as the aggressiveness of courage in both the complaint and the assault. It is self-evident that there is a profound distrust of the South among the loyal masses. The shrewdest Democrats, ex-Confederate and Northern, alike see that the people are again" on guard." What has been preached as bringing perpetual peace now proves to be only an armed neutrality at the best. It is well to see why this is so. At Lexington last year Gen. Bartlett pleaded for the Southern prodigal son. At Bunker Hill the Maryland and Virginia troops were cheered to the echo. A little incident occurred on that occasion which illustrates this theme. A small group stood looking on the line of march. It included persons of Southern birth and proclivities, several New England friends, and one well known in former days for anti-slavery service. As the Northern escort marched by the Southerners did not cheer, but when their own friends to. have stood by in approving silence, if not actually assenting to the results achieved by these renewed efforts of firing the Southern heart? While they have not disapproved outrages, or at the best perhaps mildly censured them, the deprecating ex-Confederates passed they saluted enthusiastically. So did all of the group but the one specially referred He was taken to task, and asked why he refrained, to which he replied he waited to see his Southern friends cheer the Northern soldiers. The reply was a hasty one, but it expressed the feeling that rankles—who are typified by such names as those "They were invaders; why should we?" mentioned have given most material aid and comfort to the renewed spirit of sectionalism by pouring out in their own homes, on the floor of Congress, or before the Northern people themselves, (as witness Gordon and Lamar in the New Hampshire canvass in 1875,) the most unstinted assault of all Republican leaders or workers, whether Northern or Southern born, who have had the audacity to reside as American citizens in the former rebel States, and to seek therein to exercise their rights as such by endeavoring to organize a political party on the basis of their own convictions. The incident is insignificant, perhaps, but it expresses a wide-spread feeling, and shows clearly, too, that the old South, the political South, that of slavery and rebellion, of ostracism and White Leagues, still holds its ingrained belief that they are a conquered people, and we are but the triumphant foreigners at best. The North has been slow to perceive all this, but at last it understands. Slow of anger and effort, it is equally as slow to move back again when its spirit has been once roused. Without personal anger, with the kindest wishes to that section and all its people-the old or the new The renewal of the sectional spirit is made South-THE NORTH, those States which re- manifest in the manner of and methods used cognize and maintain in its integrity the na- to accomplish the apparent unity of action, tional will, have at last become rearoused to politically speaking, which is now seen in the issues of the hour and what they imply. the Southern States. The Republican vote The old South, politically speaking, will in the former rebel States cannot be less seek, for this generation at least, to be gov- than one-half of the whole poll, (the colored erned by its traditions. They are all asso- voters number not less than 900,000, and ciated with slavery and its former domi- form at least three-sevenths of the whole nance, and with the advocacy of the doc-body,) and yet, under the processes adopted trines of State supremacy, and its correla- to control them, the Democracy now have tive, secession. The mouths of its orators have so long been inflamed with fiery rheteric, and the intellects of its lawyers are so thoroughly dessicated by the processes of its Past, that it is practically impossible for the representatives of either type, like Hill and Tucker, to refrain from exasperating rhetoric or the lucid presentation of mischievous theories. three-fourths of the representation in the House, over one-half of that in the Senate, and have wrested the Government from the control of Republicans, in whole or in part, within States where they are clearly recognized as having a large majority of the voters. Now, whatever may be the real truth as to the process adopted to secure this apparent unity of sentiment among the States, border and rebel, which were formerly slaveholding, the fact of its existence is evident. In its existence, also, lies the real danger to the Republic. The South long since determined to ruin where it could no longer rule. Hence the civil war, with all It may be said that the Toombses, Hills, Tuckers, and Singletons no longer represent the South; that the Ku-Klux Klans, White Leagues, Louisiana massacres, and Mississippi election outrages are sporadic and not chronic, incidental and surface, and not of the spirit and the flesh also. We are told that its mighty events and consequences. But, it is not fair to judge the South by the utter-demoralized as the conscience and character ance of these representative men; but what else is to be done when for the last ten years the Lamars, Gordons, Keys, one and all, of men and women became under the influences of slavery, this dreadful step would not have been taken but for another fact. The specious doctrine of State sovereignty | cialism over nationality. No one has interlocal liberty to do wrong-was the one which fered with principle or right, except that of held the mass of the Southern whites to the revolting from the Union without righteous service of their daring and reckless leaders. cause or the holding of human beings in Adherence to these views have been, in their bondage. It is true that secession has been eyes, sanctified by the losses of the civil destroyed, civil war defeated, and the South war and the defeat they suffered. It is made as a whole made richer by freedom, personal the means of again consolidating a sectional and institutional. A sectional unity, therespirit; of once more reuniting the Southern fore, which is fomented by constant appeals States under old cries for old issues and by of this character, is one fraught only with an old policy. Every editorial writer, every evil to the Republic. A sectional policy is pulpit declaimer, every orator, old or young, always to be deplored, and doubly so when who airs his voice on public occasions, takes its aim is political control by means of a for his text the "lost cause," and for the solid section dominating the councils of a burden of his plea the necessity of preserv-national party, so called. This is the old, ing its principles and defending its associa-old story of our politics. We fear the Greeks tions. What were its principles? On one side the necessity of organizing legal, civil, social, industrial inequality into government and its administration; and on the other the supremacy of the parts over the whole, of the States over the Federation, of the limbs over the body, of the rights of provin even when they come with presents. So said the wise Trojans, according to blind Homer's report. Are we not justified in fearing a Democracy controlled chiefly by the reunited South, even though it comes with presents in the specious form of good wishes for unity and reconciliation? DEMOCRATIC COURTESY. These are stirring times, and, as was recently remarked, times in which the whole force and ability of the Democrats of the National House of Representatives are engaged in throwing slurs at their Republican colleagues and denouncing the corruption of Republican officials without giving those officials an opportunity to be heard. Mr. John L. Vance is chairman of the Congressional committee which investigated the office of Mr. A. M. Clapp, the Public Printer. The Democratic members of the committee proceeded on their work, not in the spirit of inquiry to ascertain facts, but with a predetermination to give the worst interpretation to everything brought to their notice, and with little regard to the explanation which Mr. Clapp might have been able to afford. The Democratic portion of the committee seemed to have organized themselves into a court to convict at all hazards, and to have purposely kept the Public Printer away from them, though his official affairs were being investigated. from which the spirit of the committee may be seen. So partisan, so unfair, so discourteous a committee has rarely placed before the people the evidence of its own discourtesy and unfairness; and if Mr.Vance's committee is a sample of other Democratic committees, the reports of investigations can only be considered as partisan documents, published with the intention of injuring Republicans, but having no relation to truth or to good morals. Indeed, if the object of Democratic investigations is not to arrive at the truth, but to assail and smirch Republicans, the country ought to be aware of the profligate waste of time they involve, and the shameless expenditures which the people have to pay. The amenities of life have been generally recognized even among political opponents. Between gentlemen the rule of courtesy ought always to prevail; but deliberate, positive, gratuitous discourtesy, whatever may be the character of the report of the investigation presented, is too offensive to be allowed to pass without remark. What will the people think of the following cor The Congressional Record of May 13, 1876, contains the report of the committee. It is interspersed with occasional correspondence, respondence? To this request the following reply was returned by the direction of the committee: HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, WASHINGTON, April 24, 1876. DEAR SIR: I am directed by the Committee on Printing to inform you that they are ready to hear the testimony of such additional witnesses as you may desire to produce. I am further instructed to say that the committee have at your request already examined a number of witnesses from the Government Printing Office; but, desirous that no means be left untried to arrive at the truth regarding the cost of public printing, shall be pleased to hear the statements of others. It is necessary that the investigation be brought to a close, and you will, therefore, bring forward your witnesses during the latter part of the present week. You are further informed that you can examine the testimony at any time after Very respectfully, yours, &c., Hon. A. M. CLAPP, Congressional Printer. Not even Mr. Clymer's committee went so far as this. It did not describe the class of counsel Gen. Belknap desired to appear for him. It never referred to their character nor their social rank. Mr. Clapp's request to appear by counsel was a very proper one, and should have been granted as a matter of course. The value of the report of a committee is the clearness with which it brings out the truth. Counsel are presumed to be able to aid in this direction with great effect. But for the party most deeply concerned in the case to be supposed by the committee capable of employing disreputable counsel, and then to be warned to bring no other than reputable counsel on his behalf into the committee room, is an insult which the people should rebuke, and by letting the rebuke be felt, guard against the repetition of the offensive language. HISTORICAL FACTS FOR THE ADVOCATES OF STATE SOVEREIGNTY. So many things are taken for granted in political history that it is sometimes worth while going back to original sources for correct information. There is no better period than this Centennial year for looking into the governing facts by which American national life and character has been shaped and so far directed. munities practically organized as "free and independent States" possessed of "sovereign" rights, and alone capable of delegating the same to such Federal organization as existed during the Revolutionary period. There is a more or less vague but general acceptance of such an assumption. But the facts by no means bear it out. The word "State" was only We are still confronted by a mischievous used in two instances in connection with philosophy-that of the Southern States' American affairs until after the passage of Rights school-whose persistent harping on the Declaration of Independence. The term their theory has almost convinced the minds applied during the preparatory period of of many that, however practically destruc- resistance was, as to the general body, the tive it may be of all real unity, yet that, in United Colonies, while the separate Colonies history, theory, and fact alike, there is a were commonly described as "Provinces." great deal of truth in and justification of Locally the word "colony" was disused after their assumptions; that the American Union the meeting of the First Continental Congress as it now stands, and the Confederation in 1776. "Provincial Congresses" quite which preceded it, were the work of com- generally took the place of the legislative bodies provided for under the Colonial char- | data show the fallacy of any argument that ters. Nearly all the action taken toward the American Union was formed, either in throwing off the royal authority in explicit its first or its final form, by the action of terms, and organizing separate provincial governments, independent in character, was had under the recommendation of the Second Continental Congress, either in response to direct request for advice made by the several Provincial Congresses or under the powers assumed and proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence. The chief exceptions were the Colonies of Connecticut and Rhode Islaud. These two organized themselves by adopting their Colonial charters as constitutions, expunging the royal authority therefrom and declaring themselves republican States, "free and independent." Georgia also, early in 1776, framed a temporary government without waiting for the formal advice of the Continental Congress, but declared it was "to continue until the further orders of Congress or of this (the one that framed it) or any future Provincial Congress." Virginia took early action, but its State Constitution was framed under the advisory resolutions of the Continental Congress. New Hampshire organized a regular government (temporary in character) independent of charter or other authority, except the advice and recommendation of the Continental Congress, first asked by the New Hampshire delegates therein. Virginia framed and adopted a written State Constitution, organizing a permanent government thereunder before any other of the Colonies. North Carolina adopted a provisional government at an early day. These States acted as such, however, under the initiatory impulse solicited by them and given from that Congress, the people of the several Colonies had in various forms designated to act in their behalf against a common enemy. Connecticut and Rhode Island, then, are the only Colonies that acted of their own deliberate motion or communities declaring themselves to be "sovereign and independent States" as contradistinguished from the expression and wish of the people acting for themselves in such direct form as was possible at the time. In other words, the facts will show that the people were the first movers; that such popular and legislative forms as had grown out of colonial necessities were used by them tentatively only, and that it was the united action of the Continental Congress, representing the people of the several Colonies, that gave initiative shape and form to the subsequent State governments, and not precedent States that formed the Confederation. The United Colonies existed only by virtue of a united people acting through such forms as the occasion offered, and the United States were first known to mankind by reason of a Declaration, adopted in a Continental Congress formed and empowered to act through and by the popular wishes thus expressed. In some of the Colonies the delegates to the First Continental Congress were chosen by the Colonial Legislative Assemblies; in others, as New York, by popular meetings and municipal authority. The Second Congress was chiefly elected by Provincial Congresses, themselves called into being by popular assemblages or by the expressed wish of the First Continental Congress, both bodies acting only as men act in revolutionary times. The pretense or claim for the sovereign rights of independent States was nowhere put forth by any of the Colonies until the Continental Congress, representing the whole people, gave the authoritative expression therefor. The first distinct proposition for assembling such a congress came from a Rhode Island town meeting, which at Provdence, in that Colony, on the 17th of May, 1774, requested the General Assembly to use its influence "for promoting a gress, as soon as may be, of the representatives of the General Assemblies of the several Colonies and Provinces of North America, for establishing the firmest union, and In the remaining States the following adopting such measures as to them shall without waiting to receive such advice, and even in fact without soliciting it. Their charters were quite democratic in character -Connecticut especially so; and by striking out all recognition of the royal power they formed a fair framework for the republic each proclaimed itself to be. con |