New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1843-12-01
For The Tribune.
who respect the Laws!

lind, is iilOSt oHllnOuS OF eVll TO our county
| The law requires that members should be elected
by districts. The Argus advises Congress to
treat the law with contempt and total disregard
and to admit members who have becn sent By
States IN contemptuous violation of the law
Should this be done, Of what efficacy will laws
be hereafter You may still, for some time to
come, catch robbers burglars and murderers
and hang them or send them to the States Pri-
son; but even this will not last long. When
Government itself sets the example of disregard.
| ing its own laws, the obligation Of law Is dis
solved and gone. AS well might parent who
sloried in his own plofigacy attempt TO teach
morality TO his children, as Government which
sets the example of violating its own laws at
tempt to bind It's citizens by their PRONUNCIATION.
In either case the poorest understanding sees that
it is nothing but farce. The brutum fuimen
the mere blind force Of law may prevail for
awhile, but It's spirit, It's vitality, its moral obiga-
ton is destroyed. Laws will continue to be en-
forced SO long as the courts or the Government
have power to enforce them; but where there is
the slightest appearance of ability TO resist, the
courts and the Government will be obliged to
| succumb.
admit that the isolated, unlriendcd and alb
horrcd icon may still be condemned and pun
ished. This is done among Savagcs, who live
without any knowledge of law. But it is not
difficult to ioresee cases, and Of no extraordinary
kind or rare occurrence where the law will be
found utterly powcrIess. The obvious ones of
States refusing TO obey law of the Union or
the decision of Its courts, or Of a party in
State or a large portion of its citizens rcbcliing
against State law, first present themselves
Next come cases of mobs and Lynclling, where
/. combination of individuals undertake, in vio-
lation of law, TO execute laws of their own max
lng, according to their own fashion. Then large
bodies Of citizens communities WHO have a
lolnt interest III resisting the enforcement Of
law or of a judgement Of court. Next lnobs,
bent on the execution of some vlndictive or lurl-
Gus purpose And finally the case of con-
demned culprt who has large number of friends
or abetto1s TO protect and shield him.
1t is not necessary TO suppose further instan-
ces. Whenever the law shall have lost It's power
in cases like these, anarchy will have arrived
The state of society in this country will then be
worse than it was during the dark ages in Eu-
rope when the lordly Barons defied Government
from the walls of their castles. Those times had
one rcdeeming feature. Modern liberty owes It's
birth to the stern and unconquerablo independence
OF those lawless mobiles. They wrenched the
sccprc from the hands of greater tylants than
themselves. But what fruit are we to expect
from the triumph of the mob over free instltu
tons like ours (!
confess that cannot look upon the prospect
before us without dismay 1t is not that | care
for these incpicnt violations of law standing
alone, and independent Of their consequences.
1t matters little whether the members illegally
chosen from New Hampshire, Georgia, Missls-
| s'ppl and Missouri, are allowed to take their
seats III Congress or not. They will not in the
slightest degree alter the complexion Of the
House nor affect its proceedings and measures
As a present question it is significant; as
precedent 1t is most portentous. Ages if our
Government should last SO long, will feel the con-
sequences OF such measure. How long is it
III this country since we had the first example
set US OF a violation and contempt of law by Go
vernmcnt? l believe the first instance was
when Georgia hung the Missionary after being
prohibited by the Supreme Court of the United
States. The next was when she refused ODE
dlence 70 a citation of that court issued in suit
instituted against her by the Cherokee nation
The next was when John C. Calhoun and the
State of South Carolina delied the Government
and raised the standard of notification. The
next, when the President, Andrew Jackson, vio
/
compelling the Secretary of the Treasury to with
draw the Government depositcs from the Bank
Of the United States-to say nothing of many
other official acts of Jackson by which the letter
or spirit of the Constitution was violated. These
instances may all be properly said to belong to
the reign of Jacksonlsm They are at any rate
to be found in the chronicles OF his reign-and
verify it was Rehoboom who taught Israel to sin.
The example Of the Heaven denounced ruler did
not end with himself and with his own times
The Reputation of Mississippi, the rebellion in
Rhode Island, the disorderly and anarchica doc
trlnes and naX!ms with which the Loco oco
press has ever since been teeming, the notorious
deddenlng of the moral sense and amazing H.
crease OF crime throughout the land, all had
their inception when that vial of wrath was pour
ed out upon our country.
We have one opportunity left us, and do be-
heve 1t will be the last one, under our present
form of Government, to put an end to the effects
of the wide-spreading poison of his example,
We have already scotched the snake, but have
not killed 1t. The people of this country have
once proclaimed III voice of thunder their con-
demEatlon of the wicked ruler, by their rejection
OF the disciple who protested to walk in his foot
steps. They Will shortly be appealed to to
verse this most righteous sentence. Let them
but once more cylnCc the same constancy and
virtue, and they may aItcrward look for contin-
ucd prosperity and the approving smiles Of Hca-
ven. ARATUs
u The New Haven papers mention The ap,
r'nance ola Sperm Whale in the Sound Madison
Saturday last Chase WAS made by Capt. Morgan and
Others, bat they did in capturing him lie
SAID to have been from Toto 50 .ect in length
MsrHcol.r ErscorAL Cuuncn--The incrcas. Of this
body within few years has been WITHOUT parallel In their