The offending party, when conquered, may be rendered incapable of doing harm so easily in future. This is according to natural justice. Then again the same familiar authority says:-- “If the inhabitants have been personally guilty of any criminal attempt against the conqueror, _he may by way of punishment deprive them of their rights and franchises_. This, again, he may do, if the inhabitants have taken up arms against him and thus directly rendered themselves his enemies. He then owes them nothing more than what is due from a humane and equitable conqueror to subjugated enemies.”[260] Surely, out of this ample power Congress cannot hesitate in requiring justice to the wards and allies of the Republic through whom the Rebellion was crushed, especially when without justice to them security in the future is nothing but a mockery and a phantasmagoria. * * * * * 3. From these sources of power I pass to that other found in _the constitutional obligation to guaranty to every State of the Union a republican form of government_. Here is the text:-- “The United States shall guaranty to every State in this Union a republican form of government.” This obligation is peremptory, and not discretionary. It is _shall_, and not _may_. The United States _must_ do it. Of course, in executing the guaranty, you must affix a meaning to the term “republican form of government.” To do this I have in this debate endeavored to show the essential principles our fathers had at heart when they founded the Republic. I shall not weary you again with the historic statement. It is enough, if I present the conclusion. According to the Fathers, all men are equal in rights, and, as corollaries from this truth, all just government is founded on the consent of the governed, and taxation without representation is tyranny. Such was their idea of a republican government. It is idle to allege against this definition, that there were property “qualifications” in most of the States, by which the number of voters was essentially limited. This is true. But it must not be forgotten that a property “qualification,” unless unreasonably large, is not a disfranchisement. It is a condition, sometimes onerous, but not in its nature insurmountable, as the condition of color, and it is equally applicable to all. And yet it is apparent, from the recorded opinions of the Fathers, that even this “qualification” was regarded as inconsistent with the genius of republican institutions.