Carroll free press. [volume] (Carrollton [Ohio]) 1834-1861, 1848-06-16

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instead Of reporting the mailer back IN the sole
competency Of Congress, be assumed mos, ROY.
ally 10 consider every hing further rs remiued
to his sovereign discretion, the Congressional
instruction 10 treat as dissolved by The lue and
all that lltIle wrong) which he had done, and
himself invested, al Ihe ffsl coninyed or incur.
red failure Of negotiation mot final. and which
he had no righl TO act on further il il bad been
mali with authority 10 proceed 70 War mea.
sures, open and secret, without any son Of de-
ference to the lawful authority Of Congress.
Such are the vast, the boundless, the strictly
desPorc and discretionary powers which the
Presdent-who has Fulfilled the hopes OF De.
mocrucy" by his strict construction Of the Con.
sIitulion- has directly usurpcd, as 10 the ini,ia.
lion Of war, that highest and most awful Of al
the acts which society can do. These usur.
Palons reach to nothing short Of su5yerling the
whole constitution Of The Executive power, as
one dependant on the laws or coordinate with
other authorities. g. leave the Presidenl-plain.
/ ly 10 speak us our forefaihers, would have spo.
ken, let their degenerate sons stop The eur as
they may-no longer a legal Chief Magistrate,
but constituted trampler Oh all law and right.
And now, aller thus sezing. in all the cases we
have enumeraled-cases which il will be vain
to dlspule-Ihe lnialive and original power Of
war, what next! What but that, Of course, he
has proceeded TO exercise as he liked, and for
what objects suited him, all the subsequent,
power of conducting warl Having assumed al
home all the rights Of KING, he has gone on
TO practice abroad all the claims of CoXQUERoR.
Here, he had arrogaIed 10 himself all political
power over our foreign relations: there he has
capped the column Of that sovereign discretion
with The open and absolute assertion for him
self Of all civil, all military, all municipal, all
religious, all Pecuniary, and every olher sort
tof authority. All this, enormous as il is, will
abundanIly appear under The following specif.
cations:
/. He has set up Civil Governments; he has
continued them in authority, seeking not even
Il legal sanction for them; just as if these things
had no need 10 flow from any other source than
himself.
2. He has issued to them Constitutions, in
which, by strange confusion of the obligations
Of that Of the United States with his own will,
he has given or Withheld as much or luIe OF
either as seems to him good.
). He has BY his mere rescript, enacted for
New Mexico and California codes Of law, in
which civil or military character, an Amer.
} ican or Mexican, Catholic or Protestant
prevails, as peases him; while in other quarters
equally subdued (along the lower Rio Bravo
E and at Tampico and Vera CRUZ he has, unde
e like circumstances, granted no constitution AM
i no vote.
l. 4. He has in some of these quarters abolish
n ed and in others left untouched their native re
! ligious establishments Of Catholicism, alleging
a where he abolished it, that Constitution of III
q United States OF which, in .Other particulars. h
5 only granted them what he chose, bul of whicI
, the benefits must either enure TO them entire, o
not nj all.
t 5. In certain conquered regions he has ex
T acted allegiance; and in Others equally subdued
he has not; thus making fidelity to the countr,
of ones choice into a Thing from which he ca
t unloose, or with which he can bind, whole pro
E vnces, at his pleasure.
|, s. In Santa Fe men have been tried for trea
e son, and for that alleged crime put to death
Il Now, treason is a crime that an alien canno
B. commit. These men were aliens, not only be
cause they owed allegiance 10 another Govern
o TnenI, but because neither there nor any wher
i else, could they be converted into clzens, ex
}. cept BY the joint virtues of the laws oil the Uni
n ted States (Which had not been extended 1
e them) and their own free consent, (which ha
II not been given.) Their execution, therefore
'f was mere murder, if they were prisoners {
l. war, not czens; and if they were citizens, ther
!. treason against the United States being an o.
% fence not cognizabIe except by cour of tn
e United States, these victims, tried, convicted
e and put TO death by sham tribunals, were S
: many American citizens murdered.
J. 7. The Executive has, in New Mexico an
Is California, attempted 10 create a citizenship c
u the Tinted States, apart from the Constitute
d Of The United States, Of which he had dealt OF
ie 10 them but fragments; citizenship consisln
only apparently in a forced oath Of allegiance
L privalion of the protection Of our laws or lrbl
IS nails, the special franchise of being tried f
- treason by any body that Colonel Price or Gel
m eraI or Colonel somebody else should appoir
e, and the inestmabe immunity Of living und
n military law.
ct 8. As if, however, all benefits were matte
'r not ofright, but Of his grace, he has granted
l. such citizenship in other quarters equally en-
lie tied 10 il, whereby perhaps il comes that noboC
I'd has there been hung or shot by Executive a
I'd lhorily.
C. 9. Organizing governments and institutil
laws as he liked, all Offices for the territori
le which he had erected have been appointed
II. his authority, and by the same authority hi
been fixed The compensation Of such officer
n and directed how The means of paying the
i'd shall be raised.
re 10. He has, in many of these cases, addc
n; such civil employmenls to the military or nav
commissions which officers previously hel
n, accumula,ions of trusts and mixture of SC
,ir vices altogether foreign TO the maxims of o
0. Government.
IL. lie has not asked any Legislative acts
cd legaize the Offices and salaries thus create
ev nor has he asked any Senatorial confrmati
is of his appointments 10 such offices.
II 12. He has, Of himself, constituted courts
H. New Mexico and California; but the appt
= - l.. g,