under which the war for the Union was
conducted is to be denounced and proscribed as the party of disunion,
and we are to be edified by addresses on the indissoluble unity of the
nation by Secessionists, who have hardly yet had time to wash from their
hands the stains of Union blood. The leading proposition on which this
conspiracy against the country is to be conducted is the monstrous
absurdity, that the Rebel States have an inherent, "continuous,"
unconditioned, constitutional _right_ to form a part of the Federal
government, when they have once acknowledged the fact of the defeat of
their inhabitants in an armed attempt to overthrow and subvert it,--a
proposition which implies that victory paralyzes the powers of the
victors, that ruin begins when success is assured, that the only effect
of beating a Southern Rebel in the field is to exalt him into a maker of
laws for his antagonist.

In the minority Report of the Congressional Joint Committee on
Reconstruction, which is designed to supply the new party with
constitutional law, this theory of State Rights is most elaborately
presented. The ground is taken, that during the Rebellion the States in
which it prevailed were as "completely competent States of the United
States as they were before the Rebellion, and were bound by all the
obligations which the Constitution imposed, and entitled to all its
privileges"; and that the Rebellion consisted merely in a series of
"illegal acts of the citizens of such States." On this theory it is
difficult to find where the guilt of rebellion lies. The States are
innocent because the Rebellion was a rising of individuals; the
individuals cannot be very criminal, for it is on their votes that the
committee chiefly rely to build up the National Union Party. Again, we
are informed that, in respect to the admission of representatives from
"such States," Congress has no right or power to ask more than two
questions. These are: "Have these States organized governments? Are
these governments republican in form?" The committee proceed to say:
"How they were formed, under what auspices they were formed, are
inquiries with which Congress has no concern. The right of the people to
form a government for themselves has never been questioned." On this
principle, President Johnson's labors in organizing State governments
were works of supererogation. At the close of active hostilities the
Rebel States had organized, though disloyal, governments,