THIS IS A MUST READ ARTICLE – Major-General [And, formerly, first Chief Justice of the Kansas Supreme Court] Thomas Ewing, [Jr.]

THIS IS A MUST READ ARTICLE – Major-General [And, formerly, first Chief Justice of the Kansas Supreme Court] Thomas Ewing, [Jr.], “which the Constitution extends to citizens and aliens alike on every foot of ground within the jurisdiction of the United States–the right of exemption from punishment by ex post facto laws; the liberty of speech and of the press; the right to keep and bear arms . . . The constitutional guaranties were in the way of coercive reconstruction; and Congress was forbidden, in peace, to touch any one of them. Unless these ancient and sacred liberties could be destroyed, vigorous military despotisms could not be established–and, without such despotisms. Radical reconstruction was impossible. While those guaranties remained in the Constitution, and were obeyed, the whole governing talent of the South could not be disfranchised by a sweeping ex post facto law . . . It was indispensable, therefore, to get rid of those constitutional provisions, which are at once guarantied of the liberties of the people, and prohibitions of power to Congress.”, July 4, 1868

[The remainder of the article is available here in PDF format for reading or downloading. The article is a MUST READ!!]