“What do I contend for? I say that the will of the people must prevail, when it is ascertained; but there must be some legal and authentic mode of ascertaining that will, and then the people may make what government they please.”
“All that is necessary here is, that the will of the people should be ascertained by some regular rule of proceeding, prescribed by previous law.”
“But the law and the Constitution, the whole system of American institutions, do not contemplate a case in which a resort will be necessary to proceedings aliunde, or outside of the law and the Constitution, for the purpose of amending the frame of government.”[205]
Happily, we are not constrained to any such revolutionary proceeding. The new governments can all be organized by Congress, which is the natural guardian of the people, without any immediate government, and within the jurisdiction of the National Constitution. Indeed, with the State governments already vacated by Rebellion, the Constitution becomes, for the time, the supreme and only law, binding alike on President and Congress, so that neither can establish any law or institution incompatible with it; and the whole Rebel region, deprived of all local government, lapses under the exclusive jurisdiction of Congress, precisely as any other territory,—or, in other words, the negation of the local government leaves the whole vast region without any other government than Congress, unless the President should undertake to govern it by military power. Startling as this proposition may seem, especially to all who believe that there is a “divinity doth hedge” a State hardly less than a king, it will appear, on careful consideration, to be as well founded in the Constitution as it is simple and natural, while it affords easy and constitutional solution to all present embarrassments.
I have no theory to maintain, but only the truth; and in presenting this argument for Congressional government I simply follow teachings which I cannot control. The wisdom of Socrates, in the words of Plato, has aptly described these teachings, when he says,—
“These things, as I affirm, are held and bound (though it is somewhat rude to say so) in reasons of iron and adamant, as would really appear to be the case,—so that, unless you, or some one stronger than you, can break them, it is not possible that any one who says otherwise than as I now say can speak correctly; for my statement is always the same,—that I know not how these things are, but that of all the persons with whom I have ever conversed, as now with you, no one who says otherwise can avoid being ridiculous.”[206]
Show me that I am wrong, that this conclusion is not founded in the Constitution, and is not sustained by reason, and I shall at once renounce it; for, in the present condition of affairs, there can be no pride of opinion which must not fall at once before the sacred demands of country. Not as partisan, not as advocate, do I make this appeal, but simply as citizen, seeking, in all sincerity, to offer my contribution to the establishment of that policy by which Union and Peace may be restored.
Looking at the origin of this power in Congress, we find that it comes from three distinct fountains, any one of which is ample to supply it. Three fountains, generous and hospitable, are found in the Constitution ready for this occasion.
First. From the necessity of the case, ex necessitate rei, Congress must have jurisdiction over every portion of the United States where there is no other government; and since in the present case there is no other government, the whole region falls within the jurisdiction of Congress. This jurisdiction is incident, if you please, to that guardianship and eminent domain belonging to the United States over all its territory and the people thereof, and springing into activity when the local government ceases. It can be questioned only in the name of the local government; but since this government has disappeared in the Rebel States, the jurisdiction of Congress is uninterrupted there. The whole broad Rebel region is tabula rasa, or “a clean slate,” where Congress, under the Constitution of the United States, may write the laws. In adopting this principle, I follow the authority of the Supreme Court of the United States in determining the jurisdiction of Congress over the Territories. Here are the words of Chief-Justice Marshall:—