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1862] TO PERPETUATE A MONSTROUS USURPATION.

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Constitution of the United States applicable to this case are these:

"No new State shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the junction of two or more States, or parts of States, without the consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned, as well as of the Congress."

Will any intelligent person assert that the consent of the State of Virginia was given to the formation of this new State, or that the government of Francis H. Pierpont held the true and lawful jurisdiction of the State of Virginia? Yet the Congress of the United States asserted in the act above quoted that "the Legislature of Virginia did give its consent to the formation of a new State within the jurisdiction of the State of Virginia." This was not true, but was an attempt, by an act of Congress, to aid a fraud and perpetuate a monstrous usurpation. For there is no grant of power to Congress in the Constitution. nor in the American theory of government to justify it. If it is said that the government of Francis H. Pierpont was the only one recognized by Congress as the government of the State of Virginia, that does not alter the fact. The recognition of Congress can not make a State of an organization which is not a State. There is no grant of power to Congress in the Constitution for that purpose. If it is said that the government of Francis H. Pierpont was established by the only qualified voters in the State of Virginia, that is as equally unfounded as the other assertions. Neither the Congress of the United States nor the Government of the United States can determine the qualifications of voters at an election for delegates to a State Constitutional Convention, or for the choice of State officers. There was no grant of power either to the President or to Congress for that purpose. All these efforts were usurpations, by which it was sought, through groundless fabrications, to reach certain ends, and they add to the multitude of deeds which constitute the crime committed against States and the liberties of the people.

* Constitution of the United States, Article IV, section 3.

When the question of the admission of West Virginia was before the House of Representatives of the United States Congress, Mr. Thaddeus Stevens, of Pennsylvania, declared, with expiatory frankness, that he would not stultify himself by claiming the act to be constitutional. He said, "We know that it is not constitutional, but it is necessary."

It now became necessary for the government of Virginia, represented by Francis H. Pierpont, to emigrate; for the new State of West Virginia embraced the territory in which he was located. He therefore departed, with his carpet-bag, and located at Alexandria, on the Potomac, which became the seat of gov ernment of so-called East Virginia. On February 13, 1864, a convention, consisting of a representative from each of the ten counties in part or wholly under the control of the United States forces, assembled at Alexandria to amend the Constitution of the State of Virginia. Some sections providing for the abolition of slavery were declared to be added to the Constitution, and the so-called Convention adjourned. Nothing of importance occurred until after the occupation of Richmond by the United States forces. On May 9, 1865, President Johnson issued an "Executive order to reëstablish the authority of the United States, and execute the laws within the geographical limits known as the State of Virginia." The order closed in these words:

"That, to carry into effect the guarantee of the Federal Constitution of a republican form of State government, and afford the advantage of the security of domestic laws, as well as to complete the reëstablishment of the authority of the laws of the United States and the full and complete restoration of peace within the limits aforesaid, Francis H. Pierpont, 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."

This order recognized the factitious organization, which was begun in West. Virginia and then transplanted to Alexandria, as the true government of the State of Virginia, and, by the aid of

1862]

WAS NOT REPUBLICAN.

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the United States Government, was now removed to Richmond and set up there. No person was allowed to take any part in this government or to vote under it unless he had previously taken the purgatorial oath above mentioned, and had not held office under the Confederate or any State government. Thus, the taking of this oath, which was prescribed by the President of the United States, became the most important of the qualifications of a voter. Here was a condition prescribed by a foreign authority as necessary to be fulfilled before the first act could be done by a citizen relative to his State government. Such a government was not republican, for its powers were not derived from the consent of the governed. Its powers were derived from voters who had, under oath, said:

"I will abide by and faithfully support all acts of Congress, passed during the existing rebellion with reference to slaves, so long and so far as not repealed, modified, or held void by Congress or by decision of the Supreme Court; and that I will in like manner abide by and faithfully support all proclamations of the President, made during the existing rebellion having reference to slaves, so long and so far as not modified or declared void by decision of the Supreme Court."

Such a State government was not in the interest of the people, but in the interest of the United States Government. The true republican organization, which had been "instituted by the free "consent of the governed to effect their safety and happiness," had been repudiated by the Government of the United States as in rebellion to it; and this fiction had been set up, not by the free consent of the people, which alone could give to it any "just powers," not "to effect their safety and happiness," for which alone a republican State government can be instituted, but solely to secure the safety and supremacy of the Government of the United States. The qualification of the voter was prescribed by the United States Government, and the oath required him to recognize allegiance to the Union as supreme over that to the State of which he was a citizen. Thus the voters under the State government of Virginia were required first to protect the Government of the United States,

and then they were at liberty to look after their own interests through the State government.

Now, it is charged that such acts on the part of the United States Government were not only entirely unconstitutional, but they caused the complete subversion of the States. The Constitution of the United States knows States in the Union only as they are republican States. The Government of the United States was conscious of this fact, and publicly recognized it when it promised to guarantee a republican form of government to each one that it sought to reconstruct. But it violated the Constitution when it sought to place in the Union mere fictions which had not the first element of a republic, which were groundless fabrications of its own minions that could not have existed a day without the military support which they received. Further, it is to be remembered that it does not come within the grants of the Constitution, consequently not within the powers of the Government of the United States, to institute a republican form of government at any time or in any place. Such an act is neither contemplated nor known in the Constitution, as such a government can be instituted only by the free consent of those who are to be governed by it. Any interference on the part of the United States to limit, modify, or control this consent goes directly to the nature and objects of the State government, and it ceases to be republican. To admit a State under such a government is entirely unauthorized, revolutionary, subversive of the Constitution, and destructive of the Union of States.

1862]

DONE ENOUGH FOR GLORY.

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CHAPTER XXXIV.

Address to the Army of Eastern Virginia by the President.-Army of General Pope. -Position of McClellan.-Advance of General Jackson.-Atrocious Orders of General Pope.-Letter of McClellan on the Conduct of the War.-Letter of the President to General Lee.-Battle of Cedar Run.-Results of the Engagement.Reënforcements to the Enemy.-Second Battle of Manassas.-Capture of Manassas Junction.-Captured Stores.-The Old Battle-Field.-Advance of General Longstreet.-Attack on him.-Attack on General Jackson.-Darkness of the Night.-Battle at Ox Hill.-Losses of the Enemy.

THIS defeat of McClellan's army led me to issue the following address:

"To the Army of Eastern Virginia.

"RICHMOND, July 5, 1862.

"SOLDIERS: I congratulate you on the series of brilliant victories which, under the favor of Divine Providence, you have lately won, and, as the President of the Confederate States, do heartily tender to you the thanks of the country, whose just cause you have so skillfully and heroically served. Ten days ago an invading army, vastly superior to you in numbers and the materials of war, closely beleaguered your capital and vauntingly proclaimed its speedy conquest; you marched to attack the enemy in his intrenchments; with well-directed movements and death-defying valor you charged upon him in his strong positions, drove him from field to field over a distance of more than thirty-five miles, and despite his reënforcements compelled him to seek safety under the cover of his gunboats, where he now lies cowering before the army so lately derided and threatened with entire subjugation. The fortitude with which you have borne toil and privation, the gallantry with which you have entered into each successive battle, must have been witnessed to be fully appreciated; but a grateful people will not fail to recognize you, and to bear you in loved remembrance. Well may it be said of that you enough for glory'; but duty to a suffering country and to the cause of constitutional liberty claims from you yet further effort. Let it be your pride to relax in nothing which can promote your future efficiency; your one great object being to drive the invader from your soil, and, carrying your standards beyond the outer bounda

you

have

'done

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