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The Crisis And Peril

The Crisis And Peril image
Parent Issue
Day
19
Month
May
Year
1871
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Psosident Grant lias made np bis mind 1" Bttetoh ■ the contar c the rebel Stfttefl and stranglo t.his re; ■ liaabtcovrl ;iowill c h-ivc n .1' smvi ■■]■, and when ' cepeating the KOUdsofthe Senatorial counsellor , tamdsDaa right hund of the President, [otnonly v.-iuii, tho i3QtB whose opportuniiioa ai I to investígate an I litical ', ia tiie keaneet to discover, and to t.liu President eendere gt of fvutbority, oonfossed i, wit!i hjaown lip . supported is it was by the oonoofrcnl testimony of half a dozen ot' liis is-i-iuiits. It'ilicCn; ha l uljourned wi thout,giving (vaut evon that mensure of power which he ha to day, and left us to meet tlie fourth dJ "; December rb we stood ou tho firstday of Marob, thoro never would have been a KcpullioiiD. succossor to General Grant in tho White House. - WendeUPhiUpist In othcr wurds, onlen Congresa p-iws : pdwer to stretch tbs longaitn of liis power iuto the oetU ir of tho houdievri b, and control their intemal affaiira l'V military foroe, tli Protident caaaot be renon tb I' publican Presidenti il rtant foi the country toknow i'l ;! r Républil i i; i '. i . : L;r. ■ ■: 11 IS dono this and the motive therefor. It is equally iml for tho peojple, North u mtb, to know kou it hos been done, : d 1 td fee! (bat by tho act the country i eonfrontcd with a crisis and peril as BGtious as thos,' w'iich surrounded Jeffl For s then a new Constitution was lannchcd, so now new amendments are put in oporation. The Republicana of to-day atv ;is ffttally bont on perverting thosc amehdmentB m waroctha vedpraJiirtB in perveriing the Constitution. where is our Jeffierson. We nood not recite her the test of the first SBction ot tho lourteenth amendment. Li its lirjt part it makea cach person born or naturalizad in tlm country i oitizpn of tho United Sbitcs and of the State whérein he resides. Thnn follow throc of prohibitions addressed to n 8t6Cte. The amendment distinctly declares that "no " sliall do any of the pvohibited things. It shall neither mrxf(? a luw wbicn abridgea the privüegeê or imiiumities of fiiizons of the Tuit. il States, nor shiill it deprive any person oflife, liberty, or priijK'i'ty without duo process of law, BOT shall it deny to any person within ils iurisdiction the equai piotection of the liv.s. These prohibitiona are, in legol effect, prepisely Bimilarto thoge contauted in tlie tenth seofion (pi' the Constitution, vrbich declares, among other things, that no St-.ite sliull enter into any treaty, or coin iiioncy, or enüt Irlüs of crodit, or grant any title of nobility.or, without the int of Congress, k ep troops or plnps of war in tiine of peacc. l'ntil kho recent Ku-Klux lt%v it has been iiivan:;lly held that these prohibitions upon the State wero to be enforced by tho judicial power, for which ampié warrant ís in thê twenty-fiflh sootion of the Judiciary act of 1789, which g! Bupreme Court jurisdiction of a caso intoIvíiií; the rr'pujjnancy of a Stato law to the Federal Constitution. It was againat this sectíon that Mr. Oalh'mn levelled his battcries, because it enábled tlio Federal Oovernnunt to regxdate to that cxtont the lf-pisliition of the States, and to say wliether or not such leicislation was oifonsive to the Constitution of tho United States. But the propriety and neeessity of tho section has been affinncd o%-er :;nd over again by judicial tribunals and by publio opinión. ■ Undor this section, if a ytute uñdertook by law to do one of tiie prohibited things, the Supremo Court pronounce i law to that ettect nuil and void. But ijpw tho last Congress has doclarcd that tho fifth soction of the fourteenth amendment, which authorizes Congross " by appropriate kgislatioa to nnfocBfi the Dro-visions of this atticje,'' enables Uongress and thé Executive to go into. tlie States and directly enforoe all the prohibitions contaiucd therein. It will bc observed that the fourteenth amendment is vcry compreh) nsive. If Gongress can authorize the Federal courts and the Federal Executive to go inside and puniah persons wno either abridge thj privileges or immunities of t'io citizens of tlio United States; or dop.ive any person of Ufé, liberty, or proptly : or conspiro to exolude persons froui the cqual protoction of th L&ws, tlicn the Btattes are practically blotted out of existonco, Whenevor the Federal goverrirdant chooeee to Btretch forth the arm of pow(Bt of which Mr. Wcndell Phillips speaks. Wheu the Ku-KIux bil! was under di ::u in tho llousc, Mr. G.irfirld (Hopublican) dcmoiistruted that under the f lu-tocnth amendment Congress has no such power. He c.illed áttention to the fint drafi of an amendmeat, as originally report; d by Mr. Bingham, which did say, in so many woi -, shaii ' havo power to make all laws whicl "bs necessáry and proper fcó secure totho "citizena ■; , ieh State .-til thé pm 1 and immunitii a of citizer - in ;:s, and to all personi in the several "States eqtial proteotion in -the rigbts oí "Mie, liberty, nnd juv.pi rfy." Thii propositioti was so sternly denounoed in tlio H:ius!-, by Republicana as iv.I! as Demxv ri-ai-, that it ui.-.! r was brought to a voto in, eitiier body. The chiefground of obn to it was thai ithorize to do whai ii. has at: under tl. o present Ku-ÉluX law. 8ubsiquently Mr. Th iintróduced aüofthefirsi seotion of the fourteentt amondini I ■..■ stands, except the ürst Bcntence, and it will be peroeived fiat therfe is oxcln li -i therefrom o ■■ jcctionable features of original amendjueiit. It does nat authorise C do tho t!n inent waedonounc . But now Congress, in the Eurthera olitical ■■ has givon a oon 'fourteenth ndmnnt which, if . : apon t o :illy, would have defeated tne amen bout in Congress and beforo (lie poople. [f any one thinks thai we state too broadrytü ■ of tho Repnblican inajority in Congross, onder tkia amondment, to utterly destroy the State Gov orntnenta, lel nitn reud thespeeohesoi ■ ■ and Bingham in the Homo, epi cially the latter, and the spe ichos of Edmunds and Carpenter in the Senate. The. opiniona uttered by these ; in i ent men in the Republican panty on '.'.i.'. occasion ought tó i ■ ovlated throughout tho counny ly Demócrata in order tliat the people tnay boo whltherthis govornment ia srcotbig i's radder in Bíspablican hfvnds. !ít!. p] i wil] oarofull', itudy rheso doöümonts they will approoiate the forco of what wc say, that the peril w f this coún try aro as groat as in the carUet days ot the rupublic, wl pn led Uu Doaiocratio hosts in vindicátion (f i true oostniction of tho Constitution. The dlrBculty with the Ku-Klus law is uot what it authorizes C 'do with fi diBturbing eleineni in bne South, if it oxitt,butthe nnderlying principio thereoí which opeïió wido the gato tolet Congress make and administer criminal and propCl'ty laws in every State of the Union.

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Subjects
Old News
Michigan Argus