In considering the constitutionality of the Reconstruction Acts, there is a distinction, recognized by repeated judgments of the Supreme Court, which has not been sufficiently regarded, even by our friends. The Rebel Party, especially in their platform at New York, forget it entirely. They tell us that the Reconstruction Acts are “unconstitutional, revolutionary, and void,” and Wade Hampton boasts that he prompted this declaration. I have already exhibited the power of Congress in four different sources; but beyond these is the principle, _that Congress, in the exercise of political powers, cannot be questioned_. So says the Supreme Court. Thus it has been decided, in general terms, “that the action of _the political branches_ of the Government in a matter that belongs to them is conclusive.”[270] And in the famous case of _Luther_ v. _Borden_, it is announced, that, where the National Government interferes with the domestic concerns of a State, “the Constitution of the United States, as far as it has provided for an emergency of this kind, _has treated the subject as political in its nature, and placed the power in the hands of that department_”; and it is further added, that “its decision is binding on every other department of Government, and could not be questioned in a judicial tribunal.”[271] In the face of these peremptory words, it is difficult to see what headway can be made in contesting the validity of the Reconstruction Acts, except by arms. If ever a question was political, it is this. It is political in every aspect, whether regarded as springing from the necessity of the case, from the rights of war, from the obligation to guaranty a republican government, or from the power to enforce the abolition of Slavery. Never before was any question presented so completely political. Reconstruction is as political as the war, or as any of the means for its conduct. It is political from beginning to end. It is nothing, if not political. Therefore, by unassailable precedents under the Constitution, are these Acts fixed and secured so that no court can touch them,--nothing but the war which Mr. Blair has menaced. * * * * * The Equal Rights conferred upon the freedman are all placed under this safeguard. Congress has done this great act of justice, and, thank God, it cannot be undone. It has already taken its place in the immortal covenants of history, and become a part of the harmonies of the universe. As well attempt to undo the Declaration of Independence, or suspend the law of gravitation. This cannot be. The bloody horrors of San Domingo, where France undertook to cancel Emancipation, testify with a voice of wail that a race once lifted from Slavery cannot be again degraded. Human Rights, when at last obtained, cannot be wrested back without a conflict in which God will rage against the oppressor.