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EECOITSTIlTJCTIOISr 
 
 UNION: 
 
 SUGGESTIONS TO THE PEOPLE OF THE NORTH 
 
 ON A RECONSTRUCTION OF THE UNION. 
 
 BY A CITIZEJST OF IOWA. 
 
 "The unity of Government which coustitutes you one people * * » * Is a main pillar in the edifica 
 of your real Independence. 
 
 " It is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your National Union 
 to yoar collective and individual happiness ; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual and immovable 
 attachment to it ; accustoming yourselres to think and speak of it as the palladium of your poliiical safety 
 and prosperity ; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety ; discountenancing whatever may 
 suggest even a suspicion that it can, in any event be abandoned ; and indignantly frowning upon the first 
 dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties 
 which now link the various parts."— Tra*7i(n5ton's Fareicell Address. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 J. BH^nD BXJH N 
 
 (Successor to M. Doolady,) 
 
 49 WALKER STREKT. 
 
 1863. 
 
I 
 
 
 h 
 
 (^3 
 
 JOHN J. REED, PRINTER, 
 43 CEJJTRK-BTMEET, NEW-YO 
 
i>7 
 
 RECONSTRUCTION OF THE UNION. 
 
 There are occasions, in the convulsive events of nations, when 
 it becomes an i)nperative obligation on the humblest citizen, as 
 well as it is the duty of the most exalted statesman, to become 
 a voluntary mariner on the Ship of State, and to do the part 
 which becomes a patriot in that capacity, in preserving from 
 destruction the Ark of the National Covenant. It is in this 
 capacity, as a private volunteer, that the writer comes before 
 his fellow-citizens, and lays before them such considerations as 
 may influence them to reflect upon the real condition of our 
 common country, and as may lead tliem to ap])ly some effectual 
 remedy to tlie evils which have affected it to such an extent as 
 to have involved it in a fratricidal war, and which threatens its 
 destruction as a nation and our ruin as a people. 
 
 The writer has had some opportunities to know the sentiments, 
 opinions, and feelings of the peoj)Ie of the South, botli in relation 
 to the inciting causes which influenced them to revolt against 
 the Federal Government and their fellow-citizens of the North, 
 and in respect to the terms on which they might again be 
 induced or influenced to unite with the people of the North 
 under one government. 
 
 It is with some hope — a faint one, it is confessed, under exist- 
 ing circumstances — that he might contribute ever so little to 
 bring about a reconstruction of the Union, and be the means, 
 in ever so slight a degree, of perpetuating the blessings of free 
 government to posterity, that the writer presents these sugges- 
 tions to the consideration of his fellow-citizens. They are the re- 
 
Bult not only of his own observations of the working of the public 
 mind, and of his reflections on the state of the country and our 
 pystein of government, but what is of more importance to effect 
 the object in view, these suggestions are a reflection of the 
 Union sentiment of the South, and of the opinion and feelings 
 of Southern men who still hope for a reunion of the States under 
 one system of government. 
 
 From the day on which tlic insurrection in tlie South took 
 the form of Revolution and established a de facto government, 
 which the people of the States that seceded formally from the 
 Union "i-egarded and obeyed as if it were their legitimate govern- 
 ment, it ought to have been perceived by those who were 
 entrusted with the administration of the Federal Government, 
 that to restore the Union as it was, or to reconstruct it upon 
 such a basis as might be permanent, the South should become 
 not merely a party, but a voluntary party, to any new arrange- 
 ment designed to efiect that object. To all intents and purposes, 
 the seceded States became, by their act of secession, and by 
 their confederating together under a compact of their own, 
 a new nation ; and it might and ought to have been foreseen, 
 by the people of the States which remained, as it is called, loyal 
 to tlic old Government, that in any attempt to restore them to 
 tlie Union under the old compact, or in the endeavor to bring 
 about a reconstruction on some new basis, the seceded States 
 should be considered and treated, not as rebels, but as a people 
 liaving as much the right to self-government as those who 
 adhered to the old Government, or the people of any other 
 nation. It is nothing to the pui^pose to allege that they were 
 rebels. This may be admitted without invalidating their ab- 
 stract right to self-government. They acted upon the presump- 
 tion, wliich appeared to them to be well founded, that there was 
 ;i liostility to them in the Northern mind, which manifested 
 itself towards them, not only in the political, but, more griev- 
 ously still, in their social relations. J3y a large portion, a decided 
 majority, as the South thought — and as appears to have been 
 Iho case — of the people of the North, the South felt itself to be 
 roLMi-dcd as an unlit associate, politically and socially, with its 
 Bcctioual neighbor. 
 
The doctrine of the "irrepressible conflict" was felt in the 
 South to mean more than the political relations it pretended to 
 change. The South regarded it as more formidable and repnij- 
 nant to its rights, interests, and social condition than it appeared 
 in its aspect to the North. To the South, it not only threatened 
 a change of the political relations which existed till then between 
 the North and South, but it forbode such a change in the social 
 system and domestic economy of eight millions of people as 
 would, in their relations to the North, throw them back centu- 
 ries in the scale of civilization and enlightenment, and place 
 them in disparaging contrast with, if not in real subjection to, 
 their more commercial neighbor. Hence the alarm of the 
 South at the favor with which the popular mind of the North 
 received the proposition that the States of the Union must bo 
 all slave or all free. Had the Union of free and slave States 
 been an untried experiment, there might have been room for 
 doubt as to whether a people like the American, having such 
 discordant elements among them, and such diversities of inter- 
 ests to foster and protect, could be aggregated and live in har- 
 mony as one nation. But the experiment had been tried, and 
 it was successful beyond anticipation. North and South had 
 been benefitted by the Union ; both sections had prospered in 
 the Union ; each had contributed to the happiness and pros- 
 perity of the other, and both together had, by their united 
 efibrts, become, in one nation, the perfection as it seemed, of 
 human government. Was it not amazing, then, that when the 
 experiment was proved to have been a success, of a people liv- 
 ing so far apart geographically, yet united, and whose interests 
 were so diverse in a pecuniary point of view, yet harmonized so 
 as to ensure prosperity to both-— that one of the parties to this 
 compact, which resulted in this happy state of things, should, all 
 of a sudden, seize, as it were, a firebrand and thrust it into the 
 edifice which gave security, protection, repose, and happiness to 
 both ? In such a light did the South regard the annunciation of 
 the dogma of the " irrepressible conflict ;" and when this dogma 
 was incorporated in the so-called Personal Liberty Bills of North- 
 ern State Legislatures, the forebodings of danger and the appre- 
 hension of evil, with which the South was alarmed at the first 
 
6 
 
 annunciation of this dogma, became a confirmed belief in tlie 
 South that it was the design of the Nortli to subject the South 
 to the moral, political, and social ideas and habits of the North, 
 and to assimilate, malgre the laws of nature, the people of the 
 South with those of the Korth in one system, socially, as they 
 were one, to a great extent, politically. The South knew that 
 such a design was not practicable, and that the attempt of the 
 North to bring about such a state of things could end only in 
 confusion, and if the North persisted in the endeavor to effect 
 it, in violence and civil war. Hence the statesmen, philoso- 
 phers, and economists of the South, seeing, as they supposed, 
 but one means by which the evils threatened them by the attempt 
 to overthrow the laws of nature, and to change by force their 
 social system, could be averted, resolved to have recourse to the 
 remedy, and apply it at once, before the danger became nearer, 
 more menacing, and difficult to overcome. 
 
 As Boon, therefore, as public sentiment in the North mani- 
 fested itself favorably to the doctrine of the " irrepressible con- 
 flict," by the election to the Presidency of one of the advocates 
 of that doctrine, and the representative of all who professed it 
 as their creed, the South felt that to save themselves their only 
 way was to separate from those who had manifestly become 
 their enemies personally, it appeared, as well as of their institu- 
 tions. The excuse of the South for doing this so soon, and without 
 v.'aiting to know what relation the Federal Government under 
 Lincoln's Administration would hold towards them, is, that by 
 remaining in the Union the Government would be so much the 
 stronger and more powerful to carry into effect, in its relations 
 towards the South, the doctrine and policy of the " irrepressible 
 couHict." They took it for granted that an Executive who was 
 chosen to administer the Government from the fact that he, as a 
 I)rivatc citizen, favored, if he did not originate, the docrine of the 
 " irrepressible conflict," would, as a matter of course, carry out, 
 in letter and spirit, the doctrines and policy of the party by 
 whoso votes he was made President. They therefore, instead of 
 waiting till, as they say, it would be too late, made preparations 
 to secure and ])rotect themselves from aggression. 
 
 buch was the position of the far-seeing men of the South. A 
 
large portion, indeed a large majoiity, of the people of that sec- 
 tion could not be Lrought to believe that it was the design or 
 wisli of the people of the North to interfere materially with the 
 people of the South iu their domestic relations, and they were 
 therefore willing to give the new President a fair trial before 
 proceeding to such extremities as to seize the forts, arms, and 
 munitions of war located and deposited in the Southern States. 
 This large portion of the people of tlie South became the more 
 assured that President Lincoln would become the President of 
 the whole people and not of the mere party by whose votes he 
 was elected, from hearing what he had said on taking the oath 
 of office, to support the Constitution of tlie United States. In 
 his Inaugural Address, having, as he delivered it, the condition 
 of the country in his mind, and influenced by the apprehensions 
 of the Southern people of the evils which menaced them he 
 said : 
 
 " Apprehensions seem to exist among some of the people of the Southern 
 States that by an accession of a Republican Administration, their property 
 and their peace and personal security are to be endangered. There has never 
 been any reasonable cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the most ample 
 evidence to tne contrary has all the while existed and be-en open to their 
 inspection. It is found in nearly all the public speeches of him who now 
 addresses you. I do but quote from one of those speeches when I declare 
 that I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution 
 of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right 
 to do so, and I have no inclination to do so." 
 
 He was right in his premises. Apprehensions did exist that 
 the property and peace and personal security of the people of 
 the South were endangered by the accession to power of a so- 
 called Kepublican Executive. And had the President lived up 
 in good faith to the declaration which he then made, and the 
 solemn assurance which he then gave to the people of the South, 
 tiiat " he had no purpose directly or indirectly to interfere with 
 the institution of slavery in the States where it exists, and that 
 he had no lawful right to do so," all would have been well; the 
 insurrection would never have become the rebellion that it be- 
 came subsequently ; the Union men of the South would have 
 preserved the peace of the South despite the efforts of the 
 
Boceders to excite a revolt. Eut, iiiifortunatelj, tlie President 
 thought more of the dogmas of his party than he did of the 
 Constitution of the United States. lie Avas influenced more by 
 the suggestions of the partisans ^vho souglit liis favor for sinister 
 and party purposes than he was by the advice and admonitions 
 of jiatriotic men "Nvho, seeing the danger wliich menaced the 
 country, besouglit him to save it by removing from the public 
 mind, as he could do, the apprehensions of coming evil. Not 
 only did he disregard his oath to preserve, protect and defend 
 the Constitution of the United. States, but he acted in direct 
 conflict with his repeatedly declared, opinion that he had "no 
 lawful right " to interfere with slavery in the States in which it 
 existed ; and. he violated his solemnly expressed assurance, 
 if there be solemnity in any assurance or declaration ever 
 made by man, that he had " no intention " to interfere with 
 slaver}'. 
 
 It seems from recent events that the secession party in the 
 South had the proper appreciation of the President and of the 
 party by whose votes he was elected. They did not trust either 
 the President or his party from the first ; and by degrees, the 
 people of the South who had remained faithful to the old order 
 of things, to the Union and the Constitution, and even to the 
 Administration as the head of the government, became convinced 
 that it was not so much to restore the Union as it was to carry 
 into practical efl'ect against the South the doctrine and policy of 
 the " Irrepressible Conflict," that the war was prosecuted by the 
 Administration. For, thought tiie South, if the object were to 
 restore tlie seceded States and revolted people of the South to 
 the Union, surely it is not by means of devastating, desolating 
 and barbarous war the Administration would try to effect that 
 oltject. If, indeed, it were a mere insurrection which had broken 
 out in the South, and not as it appeared to have become soon 
 after the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln in the presidency, a revolu- 
 tion, it might have been suppressed by the power of the Govern- 
 ment. Put as it became a revolution involving a majority of the 
 jicople of the seceded states in the revolt, and by degrees nearly 
 the whole population of these states, it became apparent both to 
 the Soutli and to a large portion of the people of the North that 
 
9 
 
 it was not by force of arms, confiscation, rai>ino and ontra;jjcs to 
 non-combatants, but by negotiation tliat a restoration of the 
 South to the Union could be eflectcd, or failing in that object, 
 that a reconstruction of the Union on some new basis could be 
 arranged. 
 
 After it became apparent, as it did to the Administration soon 
 after the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, that the South conteui- 
 plated seceding from the Union, the duty of the Administration 
 and of the party which had obtained control of the government 
 was to have removed the apprehensions of the South, and to 
 have given it such assurances, and if necessary to put the South 
 entirely at its ease, to give guarantees, that the Constitutional 
 rights of the Southern people would be both respected and se- 
 cured, and if need be, protected, by the whole power of the Fe- 
 deral Government. ]^o such assurance was given. No such 
 guarantees were offered. On the contrary, the South was ex- 
 pected to i^lace its confidence in the party which embodied in 
 its organization every element in the Northern States hostile to 
 the people of the South. This was too much for the North, for 
 the Administration, for the party which had disturbed the har- 
 mony which existed between the North and South, to expect. 
 
 The South, right or wrong, it matters not for the purj)ose of 
 the argument, believed that it was the design of the President 
 and of his party to change the relations which had till then ex- 
 isted between the North and South. If the President and his 
 party meant to be understood as having no such design, no such 
 intention, how easy would it have been to manifest this feeling 
 by offering such constitutional guarantees as were contemplated 
 by the Crittenden compromise ? This compromise was treated 
 by the President and his party with contempt, and their refusal 
 to accede to it or to any other system of adjustment which would 
 respect the people of the South as an element of American na- 
 tionality, compelled the South to believe, and believing to act 
 accordingly, that their worst fears of the Administration wei-e 
 to be realized, and that the evils they expected to befall them 
 consequent upon the success of the " Irrepressible Confiict " party, 
 were about to be encountered in their most apprehended aspect. 
 
 Without following the course of events any further, let us 
 
10 
 
 Cf>nic to the present condition of tlic conntiy and to existing 
 relations between the North and South ; or if tlie reader prefers 
 to so consider it, between the Federal Government and the 
 rebels. The rebellion is as formidable, if not more so, as it has 
 been since the firing on Fort Sumter. The Federal Government 
 is no better able than it has been to pat it down by force of 
 arms. Admitting, what it is difficult for any one of ordinary 
 percej^tion to do, that the Administration or the Administration 
 party det^ire or design to restore the seceded states to the Union, 
 what can any one think of the means by which it is sought to 
 effect this object. Force is used to compel compliance with or 
 obedience to the authority which exercises it. Now^ what is it 
 to which the Administration or the Administration party desires 
 the South to comply ? "What is it to which the obedience of the 
 South is required ? Is it to the Constitution of the United States ? 
 It surely cannot be, since every provision of that compact which 
 recognizes the rights of persons and of States in their relationa 
 to tlie Federal Government, has been violated by the Adminis- 
 tration, with the acquiescence and approval, and to a" great ex- 
 tent, under the influence of the Administration party, including 
 now, not only Abolitionists and Eepublicans, but hireling .Dem- 
 ocrats. What then is it to which the South is expected to com- 
 ply ; to what authority is it expected of it that it should be 
 obedient? Why, simply to the will of its known enemies; to 
 a usurped authority wliich has no more legitimacy for its uncon- 
 stitutional acts than has the de facto government of the rebels 
 for its existence. 
 
 Here, then, is tlic position, the relation tow^ards the govern- 
 ment and to the Korth, in whicli the South stands now. Sub- 
 jugated it might be by force, but united with the North it never 
 will be, it never can bo, by the sword. The South is a de facto 
 existence in its relations to all the world; a de pire existence in 
 the relations of the Confederate Government to the people of 
 the South. The Confederate Government has been invested 
 with authority by the people of the South, and this authority is 
 obeyed as implicitly and as cheerfully by those people as any 
 government on earth is respected and obeyed by its citizens or 
 eubjeets. This being the case, the South must be treated as a 
 
11 
 
 unit in any eifort to restore the Union, or to reconstruct one on 
 the same geographical basis on wliich the old Union existed. 
 No matter in what light the Confederate Government may be 
 regarded by the Federal Government, or by the people of the 
 JSTorthem States, that government holds precisely the same 
 relations to the people of the South that the Federal Govern- 
 ment holds to its citizens who give it their allegiance. In treat- 
 ing with the Sonth, therefore, for a restoration of the Union, or 
 for its reconstruction, the way to do it successfully, and the only 
 way, is to consider and respect the South as an equal in the 
 negotiation for that purpose. Tin's cannot be done by the 
 sword, by war ; for the object of using the sword is to conquer, 
 and to subdue, and compel the compliance of the people 
 attacked to the rule or dominion of those who use that means to 
 effect their object ; and the very fact that such means is resorted 
 to is an evidence that the party who does so feels himself the 
 superior in authority and power to the party whose obedience is 
 sought to be constrained. This the South will not admit in its 
 relations to the Federal Government. One government, no 
 matter how comparatively few the people may be who acknow- 
 ledge its authority, or comparatively limited in extent may be 
 its dominion, is the equal in sovereignty with the government 
 of the most populous nation on the globe. Russia, with ita 
 many millions of population and its vast geogi-aphical extent, is 
 no more than the equal in sovereignty with France, Spain, 
 Portugal, or the minor kingdoms of Europe ; and hence it is 
 that one nation treats with another as a unit and as an equal, 
 just like two natural persons do who undertake to make a 
 bargain. 
 
 If the Administration, if the people of the Korth, be really in 
 earnest in effecting a restoration of the South to the Union, or 
 in forming a new Union on such terms as will be mutually satis- 
 factory and mutually beneficial to both sections, the w^ay to 
 bring it to a successful consummation, is to make a proposition 
 to the South for a convention in which the Federal and Con- 
 federate governments shall be equally represented, the object 
 being to restore the people of both federations to one govern- 
 ment. This the South will agree to, provided its rights and 
 
12 
 
 interests can be secured and protected as tlicy once were under 
 the Fcvieral Government. 
 
 To this suggestion it will be objected by both fanatics and 
 others interested in the prosecution of the war, that any propo- 
 sition, looking to the restoration of peace and to the adjustment 
 of questions at issue between the North and South, should come 
 from the South, assuming that section of the Union to be l)oth 
 the weaker party, the more in the wrong, and the party which 
 is most affected injuriously by the existing state of things. All 
 this is a mere assum2')tion on the part of the Korth, which the 
 South will not admit. But if it were even all true that the South 
 is the weaker party, that it is the party in the wrong, and that it 
 is more for its benefit than it is for the aSTorth to have an end of 
 the war, and to have the Union restored, does it follow from all 
 this that the North has not interest enough in itself, in the 
 future, in the Union, to make a proposition to the South ? 
 Admitting the North to be the stronger party, as it claims to 
 be, would it not be an act of magnanimity in it to propose 
 terms of compromise to its weaker adversary, especially when 
 that adversary is a part of itself, nationally ? 
 
 Some will object that it would be dishonorable to the North 
 to propose terms of adjustment to the South. How dishonor- 
 able, and why ? Are we not fellow-citizens of the people of the 
 South, of the same country; and are they not our brothers by all 
 the ties which connect one people to another? And is it dis- 
 honorable for one brother, or for a part of a family at enmity 
 with the other portion, to make propositions of peace which 
 would put an end to their enmity, to the slaughter of war, and 
 restore them to their former love for one another. No propo- 
 sition could be dishonorable which would end the infernal war 
 between the North and South, and which would restore harmony 
 between these people. He is little less than a demon, be him 
 what he may in other respects, who interposes his influence to 
 prevent the cessation of hostilities between the people of the 
 Noi-th and South. It would be an honorable as well as a mag- 
 nanimous act in the North to propose peace to the South, and 
 really it is nu.re the interest of the North than it is of the South 
 U) have peace restored to this countiy. However it may be 
 
13 
 
 during the war, which, no matter how long it miglit last, will ho 
 of short duration compared to the long years to follow after- 
 wards, the North will siiffer more in consequence of this war 
 than the South, especially if the South should acquire the sepa- 
 rate and independent existence for wliich it "is so strenuously 
 exerting itself. The South contains in itself elements of wealth 
 with which the North has no comparison, and as a people, the 
 South have that in common among them which will aggregate 
 and combine them in one nationality. The South being out of 
 the Union, what has the North in common to hold the remain- 
 ing States together as a unit ? Nothing. On the contrary, the 
 interests of the East and the West are so diverse and even 
 antagonistic to each other that these sections will not remain, 
 united under one government, should the separate existence of 
 the South become an established fact. For this reason, there- 
 fore, it is the interest of the North, at least as much as it is of 
 the South, to have a cessation of hostilities, and to propose such 
 terms of adjustment as cannot fail to reunite the South and 
 North in one political system. The self-interest of the North, 
 as well as its own existence as a unit, is at stake in the pending 
 struggle. It can both preserve its political unity and promote 
 and secure its prosj^erity by making such propositions to the 
 South for a reconstruction of the Union, as should not tail to 
 effect that object. 
 
 Peace being restored, and it being agreed by both North and 
 South, as it readily will be, that to be one peox:>le, one nation, 
 it only remains to determine on what terms the North and South 
 can be made one. As they exist now, in hostile array towards 
 each other, the South claims to be the equal in sovereignty, in 
 power, in authority, with the North. The North disputes this 
 assumption, and has lost a quarter of a million of men and more 
 than a thousand millions of dollars to maintain its side of the ar- 
 gument, and to what effect ? Better to admit at once the equality 
 of the sections in the negotiation for a new settleincnt between 
 them, than to dispute any longer, to so little purpose as has been 
 accomplished, about abstractions. Let each section, through 
 its representatives, propose the terms on which a new Union 
 might be constructed. Regarding each other as equal, there would 
 
14 
 
 be no cause for the indulgenee of sucli feelings of superiority on 
 one side or of subjection on the other, as might, if indulged in, 
 prevent any negotiations for a settlement from being commenced, 
 and any desirable result from being accomplished. Treating aa 
 equals, neither jiarty would yield, anything to the other in dig- 
 nity, sovereignty, equality. In the negotiation, the Federal 
 Government and the people of the North would be one, 
 party and the Confederate Government and the people of the 
 Confederate States would be another, both equal in every re- 
 spect, and every proposition looking to a satisfactory adjust- 
 ment requiring the mutual consent of both. 
 
 By this means, and on these terms, the Union could either be 
 restored as it once existed or a new Union could be formed, 
 which would embrace in its geographical domain most, if not 
 all, the territorial extent of the United States as they existed 
 previous to the Rebellion ; and the Union which might be 
 formed now would be more lasting, because formed on a basis 
 of experience as well as of interest, of which the patriots and 
 statesmen who formed the old Union had not the advantage. 
 Questions of doubt which have arisen from time to time to dis- 
 turb the harmony of the old Union might be settled by constitu- 
 tional compact in the formation of the new Union; and the 
 checks and balances, which were left too much to be wielded by 
 the caj^rice of the hour, might be connected more intimately 
 with some department of the new Government, which should 
 have the authority and requisite power to wield them for the 
 enforcement of the authority of the Government, and to protect 
 the people individually, as well as the States, in the enjoyment 
 of their resi)ective rights. In referring to checks and balances, 
 it might be well to consider whether the restraints placed by 
 the Constitution upon the Executive j)Ower should not only bo 
 more explicitly defined, and some means besides that of im- 
 peachment provided, to both check the assumption of power by 
 the Executive, and, if assumed, to punish the act. Under the 
 present Constitution, it is true, that the powers, duties, and au- 
 thority of the several branches of the Government are defined 
 and prescribed sufliciently clear, and it is contemplated by the 
 Constitution itself, that in case of doubt or difierence of opinion 
 
15 
 
 between ov among tlic departments of the Government, that tlie 
 Supreme Court shall decide. But it has been experienced that 
 the Executive has no respect for the decisions of tliat tril)iinal 
 when they conflict with the Executive judgment or will ; and 
 that insteiid of conforming to such decisions, the Executive has 
 gone on, and not only disregarded the decisions of the justices 
 of the Supreme Court, in cases involving the rights and liberties 
 of individual citizens, but, in several instances, imprisoned the 
 judges of courts for having attempted to perform their sworn 
 duties. There is, therefore, no protection from the usurpations 
 of power by the Executive under the present ConstituLion, 
 beyond its mere verbal inhibition, which, if disregarded by the 
 Executive, amounts to no more than a dead letter. 
 
 In any new compact, therefore, which might be formed as the 
 basis of the reunion of the people of the United States there 
 should be some constitutional authority given to the Supreme 
 Court to carry into-eflect its decrees, when a conflict would 
 arise between that branch of the Government and either of the 
 others on the construction of the authority given to them by the 
 Constitution, and to protect individuals in the enjoyment of 
 their rights when infringed upon by arbitrary power. 
 
 One mode of doing this might be by investing the United 
 States courts with the appointment of the marshals, and these 
 marshals with authority, under the direction of the courts, to carry 
 into efiect judicial decisions. The marshals, as appointed under 
 the existing system, feel under more obligation to disregard the 
 order of the United States courts than they do to comply with 
 such orders, when the decisions of the courts conflict with the 
 will of the Executive. The defect of our present system is, that 
 if the Executive refuse to carry into eti'ect the decisions of 
 courts, these decisions are of no effect. A perfect system of 
 government would not leave it to the will or caprice of the Ex- 
 ecutive to enforce the laws, or to carry into eft'ect such a con- 
 struction of the laws as the courts might determine. K United 
 States marshals held their oflice during the pleasure of the 
 judges of their respective districts, instead of holding them at 
 the will of the President, these ofiicers would bo more likely to 
 perform their duties in a manner more conformable to the Con- 
 
16 
 
 stitntion, and less repugnant to their fellow-citizens, than thej 
 do under the existing system, or than they will ever do under 
 circumstances involving an issue between the Executive and 
 Judiciary. 
 
 Tlie experience of the day shows that power in tlie control of 
 elective rulers is as dangerous to liberty as it is in the hands of 
 hereditary monarchs ; and that mere verbal inhibitions or re- 
 straints upon the assumption and exercise of power is of no more 
 practical eifect than if the Constitution never existed. Hence, 
 if the people of the United States would preserve that form of 
 government which gives security to liberty and protection in 
 its enjoyment, they must devise some means by which the 
 restraints upon power shall be enforced, and if an attempt be 
 mijde to break through these restraints, to punish summarily 
 and severely whoever commits such a crime against the country 
 and the people. 
 
 Tbei'e is no security in a centralized, consolidated govern- 
 ment for individual liberty. Hence the necessity and the utility 
 of having power divided between the Government of the Union 
 and the Governments of the respective States, and among seve- 
 ral departments and different persons. Provision should be 
 made in the amended Constitution that in all other relations, 
 except such as arc absolutely indispensable to the well-being of 
 the Union Government, the people should be identified with 
 their respective States, and be secured and protected by the 
 States in all their rights of life, liberty, and property. This, it is 
 true, is the theory of those Governments now, but the practice 
 of the Federal Administration does not conform to this theory. 
 On the contrary, it violates not only the relations of the people 
 towards the States, but its own relations, as established by law, 
 towards the Federal Government. 
 
 Mere constitutional compacts will not hold the people to- 
 gether, no more than does constitutional restraints prevent the 
 aBBumption and exercise of arbitrary power. There must be 
 something more tlian the Constitution to hold the people to- 
 gether as one nation, and there must be something else besides 
 the restraints of the present Constitution to prevent Eepublican 
 rulers from becoming despots and tyrants. It is not enough for 
 
17 
 
 unite ourselves together for our mutual good." This may form 
 a Union, but it will not preserve it. There must Le a power 
 to preserve and pci-petuate this Union, and this power must bo 
 created by the people, and invested by them with sovereign 
 authority, but subject to consequences for abuse of power 
 which would in all probablity deter any human beiug who 
 might be intrusted with its exercise from transcending the pre- 
 scribed limitations of its authority. A great defect of the Execu- 
 tive Department of the existing Federal Government is that 
 there is too much power vested in one individual, and that there 
 is no punishment prescribed by law for the malfeasance in 
 office of Executive officers, nor for abuse of power, nor for the 
 assumption of power not granted to the Federal Government. 
 Under the present Constitution, the President or any of his 
 subordinates may, with entire impunity, commit the most fla- 
 gitious acts of despotism. There is no law to punish them, 
 although there is a Constitution to restrain them. This is an 
 anomalous case. It is a general principle that no wrong can be 
 committed that there is not a remedy to redress it ; but the Pre- 
 sident of the United States may do wrong continually with im- 
 punity,, and does so without any apprehensions of being sub- 
 jected to unpleasant consequences. The Constitution provides 
 for his impeachment, but this is like providing for the trial of a 
 person after his death. It is of no practical utility. 
 
 The Constitution says to the President, in substance, " You 
 shall not assume nor exercise arbitrary power nor any power but 
 that which is herein granted, and hereby authorized." But the 
 President and other executive officers, civil and military, do, 
 nevertheless, assume and exercise those powers ; powers which 
 if exercised by foreign monarchs would be called by us Ameri- 
 cans, despotic, and if exercised by their subordinates would 
 be denounced by us as tyrannic, and there is no practical remedy 
 but that of resistance to prevent or oppose this abuse of power. 
 Thus are the free people of the United States left as much at the 
 mercy of those who choose to become tyi'ants and despots as are 
 the merest serfs living under the most arbitrary and absolute 
 despotisms of the Old "World. To some extent this is a defect; 
 
 2 
 
18 
 
 of the Constitution, but to a greater extent it is owing to tlie 
 acquiescence of the people in the exercise of arbitrary power by 
 their public servants. 
 
 Tiie power reserved by the Constitution to the States and peo- 
 ple, should be so vested as that it could be exercised when needed 
 to check the assumption of unauthorized power by the Federal 
 Government. It is a defect of our present system of Govern- 
 ment, that this reserved power cannot be wielded otherwise than 
 by means of the ballot box, and even this means is now controlled 
 and may be still more subjected to the will of the despots at 
 Washington, who have arrogated to themselves extraordinary 
 power. The State Governments ought to be strengthened with 
 more power than they possess, and they ought to be invested 
 with authority over Federal officials who might be influenced to 
 depart, by their acts, from the line of duty prescribed by the 
 Constitution and laws. 
 
 So should the construction of the Federal Government itself be 
 remodelled so as to divide the powers of the Executive between 
 tAvo persons at least, and give each section of the Union a repre- 
 sentation in the Executive Department of the government, as 
 well as in the two other departments. It might be so provided, 
 constitutionally, that both the President and Yice President 
 should not be elected from the same section of the Union, the sec- 
 tions being understood to mean the non-slaveholding States on one 
 side, and the slaveholding States on the other. That while the 
 appointing power should remain, as it is now, in the President, 
 the Vice President should be invested with a veto, as well on 
 acts of legislation as on executive acts of the President to such 
 an extent, and in such cases as would give security and j^rotec- 
 tion to the interests of the section of the Union which the Yice 
 President might specially represent. 
 
 The Union, it cannot be denied, is as much a Union or nation 
 of sections, as it is of States ; and if there be a propriety, as there 
 is, in having States represented in one branch of the Federal 
 Government, and the people hy districts in two branches of it, 
 there is no less propriety and utility in having the distinctive 
 sections represented in the Executive Department. To a great 
 extent this is done already, by the practice of the executive in 
 
19 
 
 selecting cabinet officers, and in consulting with them on the 
 administration of the Federal Government. But the President 
 is not bound to either consult these officers, or to be advised by 
 tliem, much less to be controlled, restrained, or influenced by 
 their will or judgment in any way. The executive powers are 
 all invested in the President ; and though practically he cannot 
 of himself perform all the executive duties, and though the most 
 important of these duties are performed by subordinates who 
 are not responsible for their acts to either the government, the 
 people, the States, or the sections of the Union, these func- 
 tionaries are not known to the Constitution, and the President 
 alone is presumed to be the executive head of the government, 
 the others being mere clerks or secretaries of the President, 
 without any executive will or judgment but such as the Presi- 
 dent chooses to permit them to exercise. To all intents and 
 purposes the executive duties are performed by several persons. 
 It only needs that the executive powers be divided to conform 
 powers and duties to each other, and vest the former by law in 
 the same individual who is required to perform the latter. 
 
 The reorganization of the executive branch of the Govern- 
 ment might restore the Union and preserve it for ages. It can 
 never be restored as it was under the Federal Constitution as it 
 exists. The Constitution must be changed or the Union will 
 cease to exist, not only as between the North and the South, 
 but as among the States of the North after the South shall be 
 either subdued or have acquired a separate existence. The 
 interests of the different sections of the Union, the sections of 
 the Pacific coast and the great West, as well as of the North and 
 South, have become too diverse, and even conflicting with each 
 other, to be entrusted to the care of one executive head. These 
 sections as much need a representation in the Executive De- 
 partment of the government, with Constitutional authority and 
 power to protect their respective interests, as such a representa- 
 tion is necessary to their well being both in Congress and in the 
 Supreme Court. To effect this object, besides providing that 
 the President and Yice President should not be elected from the 
 same section of the Union, as distinguished by slaveholding and 
 non-slaveholding States, the new Constitution might provide 
 
20 
 
 that the Union be divided into sections or divisions, correspond- 
 ing in number, either with identity of local interests among con- 
 tiguous States, or with the number of necessary heads of executive 
 departments. Each of these sections embracing as many contigu- 
 ous States as may have local interests in common, and distinctive 
 from the other States, should be invested witli the right to elect 
 one of the heads of Executive Departments ; and it might be so 
 provided that after the first election, each section or division of 
 States should take its turn in electing the head of a specified 
 Executive Department. By this means, every distinct section 
 of the Union would be represented constitutionally in the Execu- 
 tive branch of the government, and every section would in its 
 turn elect the head of each department. 
 
 It will be objected to this proposition, that such a division of 
 executive power would weaken that branch of the government ; 
 but a careful consideration of the construction of the most 
 powerful governments will show that there is no force in the 
 objection. Practically, as we have noticed already, the execu- 
 tive powers of our own government are divided among several 
 persons, and the executive duties performed by heads of depart- 
 ments. It is so also in Great Britain, where, although the 
 Queen is the nominal executive, the executive powers are really 
 divided among several ministers of state, who are required to 
 act in harmony in the performance of executive acts of govern- 
 ment. It is not the Queen even who makes appointments to 
 oiOSce, but the chief ministers of the crown. The objection, 
 therefore, without going any further for proofs, that the Execu- 
 tive branch of tlie government would be rendered inefficient, or 
 weakened by dividing the executive power among several per- 
 sons, has no great force. The proposed change of the Consti- 
 tution would be little more than conforming the theory of the 
 fundamental law to the practice of most governments including 
 our own, and adopting as a principle in the fundamental law a 
 system Mhich has been found to be both useful and necessary 
 in practice, and which, if recognized as a principle, might be the 
 means of preserving unity of government among the American 
 States. 
 
 Our Government system was designed to be one of checks 
 
21 
 
 and balances, so constructed that while every function of Go- 
 vernment conld he performed by either the Federal or State 
 Governments, no function of Government should be exercised 
 to the prejudice of even one individual, much less of whole 
 communities and of States. But it was impossible for mere 
 human foresight to perceive that such a combination of circum- 
 stances would occur as to be beyond the control of the Constitu- 
 tion by which the Federal Government was established. Ko mere 
 human conception, inspired as it may be by patriotism and en- 
 lightened by statesmanship, could have thought that within a cen- 
 tury after the American people had acquired independence as a 
 nation, and liberty as individuals, they would succumb to a 
 domestic despotism and tyranny a thousand times more grievous 
 in its effects than that which they had thrown off by the vio- 
 lence and sacrifices of war. ]N"or could it enter into the minds 
 of our patriotic ancestors that the example of heroic virtue set 
 by the first President of the Republic would so soon be brought 
 into contrast with the repulsive vices of one of his not very 
 remote successors. It is true that history had presented similar 
 contrasts, but it was under diflerent circumstances. As there 
 was no parallel to that of the colonists in acquiring independ- 
 ence as a people, and establishing for themselves and their pos- 
 terity the most perfect system of government the world had 
 ever experienced, it never entered into their conceptions that 
 their posterity would become so degenerate and debased as to 
 suffer this perfection of government to be subverted by those 
 who might in time to come be chosen to be its administrators. 
 No provision was made by them for such a contingency, and, in 
 this respect the system of government is defective, but it is 
 owing more to the depravity of both the people and their rulers, 
 than it is to any very radical defect of the system itself, that 
 our government has proved a failure. But as experience has 
 impressively and dearly taught the American people, that men 
 void of moral principle, may be elevated from among them to 
 the highest places of trust, honor and power, and that these bad 
 men may in the exercise of power subvert the very institutions 
 of government they were elected to preserve, protect and de- 
 fend ; and as they know also by the same exj erience that self- 
 
22 
 
 interest will influence many persons to favor the most flagitious 
 acts of despotism and tyranny, it becomes tlieir bounden duty, 
 wbile tliere remains any vitality in tlie Ilej)ublic, and patriotism 
 among the people, to make an earnest efix»rt to preserve even a 
 portion of constitutional law as a principle of government, to se- 
 cure even a remnant of personal rights, to establish as inviolable 
 principles, that violators of law in high places as well as am.ong 
 the commonality, shall be held amenable for their crimes, and 
 that it is a crime second only to treason and be made punishable 
 as such, for any oflicer of the government to violate the Constitu- 
 tion, or the rights of persons recognized to be sacred in the peo- 
 ple by that compact. 
 
 By such modifications in the fundamental law as are herein 
 proposed and by others which experience will suggest to be use- 
 ful, a re-union of the States can be eifected, the blessings of a 
 republican form of government and a constitutional system of 
 government will be secured to the American people, and the 
 personal rights and individual liberty which it was the endeavor 
 of our patriot ancestors to purchase for posterity by their lives 
 and nurture by their heroic toils and sacrifices, will be protected 
 in tlieir fullest enjoyment, and once more we shall have a union 
 of States without conflicting sections, a government of authority 
 without despotic power, a country which every American can 
 jn-oudly call his own. 
 
 It is a principle as sound as Truth, and as ajjplicable to one 
 section of the Union as it is to another, that the Union cannot 
 be sundered and national life exist in each of its severed parts. 
 It must be preserved in one to secure to the people of the North 
 at least, the rights of liberty. If left to perish, American na- 
 tionality will become extinct forever except as it might exist in 
 the slaveholding States ; and the security of individual riglits and 
 protection in their enjoyment will depend upon the limited power 
 of States, which will become weak the moment they become 
 sundered from one another. The States will become antagonists 
 for supremacy tlie moment their unity is broken. States Eights 
 in the Federal Union is the equilibrium between the rights of 
 the people and the powers of the General Government ; but with- 
 out the Union, States cannot preserve their Sovereignty nor se- 
 
23 
 
 cure the people in the enjoyment of their rights of person and 
 property. The Union is strong in proportion to the perfection 
 of Sovereignty in the States joined together in Union, so will the 
 States become weak, and in all probability their Sovereignty be- 
 come extinct, should the Union be dissolved. Let it therefore 
 be the endeavor of the American people to preserve the Sove- 
 reignty of the respective States, and the Union of these States 
 under one government, whose power will be co-omnipotent with 
 its duty, and whose duty it will be to give security and pro- 
 tection to both States and people in the exercise of their rights 
 and functions, and not to become an instrument of desjDotism 
 and tyranny in the hands of ambitious or partisan rulers. With 
 such a government the American people will be able to enjoy 
 the gifts of Providence bestowed upon them in a vast extent of 
 country, in the richness and variety of the productions of its 
 soil, in its incalculable wealth of minerals, and in the salubrity 
 of its climate, "Without such a government America will be- 
 come what Asia is, wealthy in everything but in freemen to 
 enjoy, as man should, the blessings of Providence. 
 
H132 74 562 
 
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