Here is the difference between the constitutional
doctrine and that of the so-called radicals. The State has gone,
but its laws remain, so far as the United States in convention
does not abrogate them; not because the authority of the State
survives, but because the United States so will, or are presumed
to will. The United States have by a constitutional amendment
abrogated the laws of the several States authorizing slavery, and
prohibited slavery forever within the jurisdiction of the Union;
and no State can now be reconstructed and be admitted into the
Union with a constitution that permits slavery, for that would be
repugnant to the constitution of the United States. If the
constitutional amendment is not recognized as ratified by the
requisite number of States, it is the fault of the government in
persisting in counting as States what are no States. Negro
suffrage, as white suffrage, is at present a question for
States.
The United States guarantee to such State a republican form of
government. And this guarantee, no doubt, authorizes Congress to
intervene in the internal constitution of a State so far as to
force it to adopt a republican form of government, but not so far
as to organize a government for a State, or to compel a
territorial people to accept or adopt a State constitution for
themselves. If a State attempts to organize a form of government
not republican, it can prevent it; and if a Territory adopts an
unrepublican form, it can force it to change its constitution to
one that is republican, or compel it to remain a Territory under
a provisional government.
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