The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1851-06-17

From the Boston Transcript.
The Peace and Dignity OF tho Common
Wealth.-NO. tIIu

| from the boston lf0usCTtPt.
The Peace and Dignity of tho Common-
| wealth.-No. Kill
| "a fancied loyalty to ia,ci'' Mr. Charles
| Sumner must by this time have become salts
fled that it will be work of supererogaton for
him to go all the way to Washington to assist in
making laws for the people. In the first place,
loyalty 10 G,c is matter Of fancy; and, in the
second place, there can be no use for the lOtoer
Laac, for every father infuses the higher la,o in
| to the embryo of the baby he begets. Equality
| is the beauty and perfection of our system.
The nost Ignorant wild Irishman who comes
among is a legislator. per sc, and it is quite
amazing to behold at what prolific rate he
generates this higher la,c. " is just SO with
the negroes, who would become citizens by
cutting their masters throats, and coming
hither.
| When once begotten, the decisions Of this
higher iaio are final inshe portable tribunal of
every mans breast. The old maxim--so many
men so many minds-interferes not at all with
this delightful system, for the reader will hold
fast to the fundamental principle that loyalty to
iaw--higher or Lo,ccr lis matter Of fancy
| These differences, 50 far from marring the
beauty of the system, as the confusion of
tongues married the operations of, those who
were employed upon the tower of Babel, rather
/
proverbially pleasing is particularly agreeable
in matters of law.
| The reader, | trust, is not so verdant as to
ask in what manner the endless discrepancies
which must arise in the minds of men, while
cosstruing the higher law each one for himself,
can be reconciled. h is the chief beauty of the
code or system that they are irreconcilabe
Were it otherwise, what would the system be
but the old story, the old system, in which the
Legislature makes the laws, stupid od-fash-
oned citizens obey them, and the ultima ratio
for the adjustment of all differences ofopinon is
an independent and upright judiciary? Who,
after swallowing an indefinite quantity of excit-
ing political gas, and ostentatiously holding his
philanthropic nose over the reeking vats of
Free-soil or Abolition, will ever consent to give
up his notorety and become good citizen un-
til he is either severely punished or sufficiently
rewarded?
1t is my humble, but deliberately considered
opinion, that, after Mr.. Charles Sumner shall
be once seated in the Senate, we shall hear very
little more about the '.fancied loyalty to lar."
This is not likely to happen Immediately.
There is another process by which bad citizens,
who are disturbers of the public peace by pro
fession, may be proitably dealt with. Aaron
Burr escaped the halter, and somewhat mar
4
of all good men which followed him through the
latter days of his miserable pilgrimage have in
scribed his tablet with immortal inlamy. What
did he contemplate? He never openly haran-
gued and inflamed the passions of the multitude
by telling them abont the "unconquerablc rage
of the people, at the time of the Stamp act
and stimulating them to the commission of high
| treason, in opposing by force the execution of a
law Of the United States, as did Mr.. Charles
Sumner in Faneuil Hail. He, doubtless, en-
tcrtained the same notions which MIR. Sumner
Ientertains about the ..Jancicd loyalty to tnc;;"
but he did not express those notions!
1t was the design of Burr 70 conquer and be-
come emperor of Mexico-to seize and occupy
New Orleans as necessary to his purpose-and
to effect a disunion of the States. He was
cautious. Over his wine, with Colonel Nor
gan, at Morganza, in August, 1906, his trea-
sonable jaws began to relax, and were opened
more widely. He said that in less than five
years there would be division of the States
"that with two hundred men he could drive
Congress, with the President at its head, into
the Potomac" c"-''ihat with five hundred men
he could take possession of New York He APP
pealed to Col. Dupeyster if it could not be
done. lie nodded assent" Finding the Nor
gans cherished not a fancicd, but real loyalty
he would have carried treason, if in his power,
saying, "Confine yourself to this side the noun
tain, and you'll not be disturbed" Col. Nor
gan communicated his suspicious to the Gov
ernment. The overt act which followed was
the assembling of a small body of men, partial
ly armed, at BIennerhassett's island, in the
Ohio. Burr was not present, and the technical
evidence of his connexion with the enterprise
was wanting, though no reasonable doubt OF II
existed. But there was no technical proof OF
any actual violation Of law Of the United
States, directly connected with incendary ha-
rangues, and effected by the agency of vigilance
committees of fifty, stimulated and abetied by
clergymen and lawyers, as occurred in the case
of Graft and the case of Shadrach.
BY this time, my readers, believe, are o
opinion-the worthy editors of the only papes
excepted-that neither the proclamation of the
President nor the declaration of Judge Wood
bury was unnecessary and uncalIed for"
The present is not the first occasion upon
which this upright Judge has been called to no
tice the spirit of dIsorganzation moving upon
the waters of strife. Among the papers well
worth preserving have this moment drawn
forth number of the Daily .adrertiser, con.
tanning the charge of Judge Woodbury. to the
grand jury n.the circuit court Of the United
CLdteS Ill lou. Hell, dS NOW,
respectable Judge conceived the occasion TO re.
quire clear, explicit, positive, and determined
exposition sof the law and of his purpose te
maintain it. The sentiments expressed upon
that occasion are not, like news on the stock
exchange, good only while they are new; and
shall present some extracts which are perfectly
applicable at the present moment:
"NIiserabe must be the fate of that community
where the ministers of the law themselves dis
posed to disregard it, to aid, countcnance. and
shield its violators."
Again:
at is the more unfortunate when the want o
steadfastness and uniformity and fortitude or
unfaltering courage in the execution OF the laws IL
common; because those qualities not only ne
cessary to ensure an equal administration of the
laws, but indispensable to the general safety o
life and property. For instance, every thing is
exposed dcfenceless, unless all who would have sef
government respected, are not only firm in making