Reconstruction, then, must come, as the Union came, by the action of the
people within the territorial limits of each recreant State. That it
will so come is, in a manner, assured and made certain by the action of
Kentucky, Missouri, Virginia, and Tennessee. Surely, we cannot expect
the political action of an oppressed minority, in any one of the rebel
States, to anticipate the National forces sent for their deliverance.
The armed combinations in those States have overborne all opposition,
and, during the past two years, have wielded the complete powers of a
military despotism. The Southern confederacy is a monstrous usurpation
in each and every rebel State. The United States is intent on dethroning
that usurpation, for the purpose of restoring, to every man who asks it,
the rights guaranteed to him by the Constitution of his fathers; and for
the equal purpose of asserting its rightful powers as the National
Government under the Constitution. The present Administration, then, has
taken the only course possible to be taken without open and flagrant
violation of the Constitution, which is the sole and sufficient warrant
for the war. For this course Abraham Lincoln is entitled to the
gratitude of the people. His conscientious policy has been the salvation
of the Republic, maintaining its integrity against armed rebellion, on
the one hand, and, on the other hand, saving it from destructives whose
zeal in a noble cause has often blinded their minds to the higher claims
of the Nation: in whose existence, nevertheless, that cause alone has
promise of success.
But, it is asked, does not rebellion affect the institution of slavery?
Not as a State institution, so far as the municipal law of any State is
concerned. That the slaves of rebels may properly be confiscated, as
other property, seems not only reasonable and right, but also in
accordance with well-settled decisions of the Supreme Court. Moreover,
the Constitution gives to Congress the power to prescribe the punishment
of treason, and undoubtedly the Supreme Court will hold the Confiscation
Act under that power to be constitutional and valid.
But does not the Emancipation Proclamation operate to confer freedom on
all slaves within the rebel States? This question must likewise be
brought to the Supreme Court for adjudication. If the Proclamation can
be shown to have the qualities of a legislative act, doubtless it will
operate as a statute of freedom to all slaves within the districts named
in it. But it must be remembered that the Executive cannot make law. The
Proclamation, as an edict of the military commander, can only operate
upon the condition of such slaves as are in a position to take advantage
of its terms. As such military edict, therefore, it might be of no force
outside of the actual military lines of the United States armies.
But the fact of freedom to many thousands of slaves by reason of this
war, and the inevitable speedy breaking down of the institution of
slavery as one of the consequences to slaveholders of their mad folly,
are beyond dispute, and assure us of the wise Providence of Him who
maketh even the wrath of man to praise Him, and the remainder of wrath
He will restrain.