Democratic standard. [volume] (Georgetown, Brown County, Ohio) 1837-1850, 1840-09-03

men OF hrmness, merit, years, abilities
and experience discarded IN their applica-
tiOn for Offices, for fear they possess that
independence, and men of meahness pre-
terred for the ease with which they can
take up and advocate opinions, the COLI
sequences of which they know but little
Of--when shall see the sacred name of
religion employed as a State engine to
make mankind hate and persecute each
other, shall not be his humble advocated"
The second count in the Indictment, on
which the sad Matthew Lyon was con-
vic;ed, charged him with printing and
publishing seditious writing or libel, en-
titled I" Copy of letter from an Ameri-
can diplomatic character in France, (Mr.
Joel Barlow,) to member of Congress
in Philadelphia" which was in the fol-
lowing words, to wit: "The misunder.
standing between the two Governments
has become extremely alarming; conf
dence is completely destroyed; mistrust,
jealousies, and disposition to a wrong
attribution Of motives, are go apparent as
10 require the utmost caution in every
word and action that are to come from
our Executive mean if your object is
to avoid hostilties. Had this truth been
understood with you before the recall of
Monroe--before the coming and second
coming of Pinckney; had it guided the
pens that wrote the bullying speech Of
your President, and stupid answer of your
Senate, at the opening of Congress, in
November last, should probably have no
occasion to address you this letter. But
when we found him borrowing the Ian
guage of Edmund Burk, and telling the
world that, although he should succeed
in treating with the French, there was no
| dependence to be placed in any of their
Engagements; that their religion and mo-
raiiiy were at an end, and they had turn
ed pirates and plunderers, and that it
would be necessary to be perpetually arm
ed against them, though you are at peace,
we wonder that the answer ofbOth Houses
had not been an order to send him to the
mad-house. Instead Of this, the Senate
have echoed the speech with more ser
Witty than ever George the Third expert
enced from either House of Parliament"
"Upon this Indictment" TO use the
words of late committee, Matthew
Lyon was convicted and sentenced by the
court to be imprisoned four months; to
pay fine of one thousand dollars, and
the costs Of the prosecution, taxed at six
ty dollars and ninety-six cents; and TO
stand committed until the fine and costs
were paid; which were paid, as appears
by the exemplifcation of the record of
the said trial proceedings, now in the
archives of this Housew
Here we pause in astonishment, that
the madness of infuriated zeal should
have driven party into measure of so
unexampled an imprudence as the insti.
tuition of criminal prosecution for Ian
guage which, when we compare it to the
rabid effusions of the Wing press of the
day, seems so tame and so guarded, that,
did we not know the unsubdued energy
of the bold and honest Democrat by
whom it was used, we would be tempted
to infer that, in the dread of the ven
geanCe of his enemies, he had carefully
avoided any expression that might even
by the most stretched and forced con-
strurtion of that odious law, bring him
within the iron grasp Of any of its penal
enactments. Indeed, such an inlatua-
ton would appear incredible had its mem
ory been left entrusted, in tradition only,
10 the keeping of contemporaries, the ap-
palled Witnesses of the wild orgies of the
times, so aptly termed 'the reign of ter
ror,' instead Of being preserved, record
ed and undyIng, IN the young annals OF
our country. The Federalsts, then DOM
inant and rioting in the exercise of the
power wrested from the people, had be-
come halucinated by the truculent hope
ofperpetuating their sway by the swords
Of mercenary soldiery,sa standing army
of 49, 900 men, to beraised during peri
cd of profound peace, commanded by o..
ficers, CulIed, as they termed it, from
among the gilded aristocracy of the land
by the support of not few lawyers, bo
dy of men, often too ready to enlist un
der the banner of high-handed power
and lastly, by the sanction obtained TOI
their acts, at the hands Of "willing ju
diciaryp'
Each day was marked with some VIC
lence, acted with the sembance and the
forms of justice, in courts oflaw; but moi
the less, on that account, in violation o
the supreme law of the land-the Amer
ican Constitution. Fries, an industrious
Pennsylvania farmer, a German by birth
we believe, but natural citizens-let tht
Germans, too, remember this at the bal
lot box, in November next-was tried
and all the rules protective Of life ant
, liberty were SO openly disregasded an
: trodden upon by Federal Judge, that
1 son Of President Adams, youth Of ur
! sophisticated judgment, and unused t
: judicial subtleties, (not ]. @. Adams) rt
/ ported to his father that the German fa
. lzS.. c,,Il IN,