Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1856-08-27
From the N. Y. Tribune. ]

anu hliIlu8 MIN instantly.
From the N. Y Tribune.l
We do not wonder that President Pierce
should have called Congress together again to
compel it to vote the necessary supplies for the
army. For, if the army should once 90 to
pieces, it is altogether likely that the people
might find out that they could do uncom-
monty well without one. And then what
would become of US all 4: A standing army
used to be the dread of all lovers of civil iber-
ty, as the ready tool which tyrants could use
Tor its destruction. 1t was long regarded with
this suspicion in England, which was not al
layed until the device of enacting the Mutiny
Act only from year to year, as well as the an
nual granting of supplies. placed it at the mer-
cy of the Parliament instead of at the disposal
of the King. In this country, the same lust
dislike was felt toward such an institution.
which was seen in the discountenance that
was shown to it until slavery began to take
undisguised control of our affairs. Since the
war with Mexico our standing army has been
double what it used to be, and now we be.
gin to see how Just were the fears of our an
cestors as to the uses which could be made of
this machine when bad men had the control
OF 1t with bad purposes to accomplish.
As the business of the country grew, and
men-were more and more absorbed in devel
oping its material resources and adding to their
wealth and comforts, they grew less jealous
OF the military arm of sthe nation. Indeed,
they thought little or nothing about it. The
cost Of supporting a few thousand soldiers
more or less was absolutely of no importance
at all, and the idea Of the President of the
United States undertaking to overthrow the
liberties of the nation with ten or fifteen thou.
sand men seemed ridiculous. And so it would
be iii the way OF an open ASSAULT co"p q, eszt
TO transform President Pierce into his in,ari
al Majesty Franklin 1. And yet we have lived
to see the destinies of this Imperial Republic
likely to be decided by the weight of the sa.
bres Nof a couple Of regiments of Dragons
thrown into the balance which slavery is
striving to make liberty kick the beam. The
dangers OF standing, army were Gully looked
for when it should be mustered by scores of
thousands and shake the continent with its
tread. We never looked to see The time in
which scurvy thousand or so of men should
endanger our liberties, perhaps forever And
we think thatmen have not yet begun to feel
this momentous fact as it should be felt.
Yet it is certainly so. The diabolcal Ma
chiavelsm of Slavery has so arranged matters
that literally one can chase a thousand, and
two put ten thousand 10 flight. Having first,
by force and fraud, created their bogus Legis-
lature in Kanzas, and given Pierce and his
fellow conspirators the pretense of a de facto
Government, the game was in their hand.
The Border Rutfians were organized into
posse comitatus, and invested with the author
ity of lawful force. Their murderings,
burnings, robbings and ravishings were all
done according to law, and by authority of
the Cabinet at Washington. When the in
stncts of self-defence endangered this Law
and Order, then the troops were sent in to
help to establish it, by putting down all re-
slstance and arresting the more dangerous of
the Free State men. Now, The Free State
men could have swept the Border Ruffians
into the Mississippi or the Styx, had they
been left to battle it ont with them alone.
They might have made short work of Col.
Sumner had he aad his dragons had no
strength but what lay in their sabres. But
they represented something indefinite and ter
rlble. They stood for the Nation, and to
empty any of their saddles would be treason
by the laws; or, at any rate, would be SO
ruled by the United States Judges. The in
stinctive love of order and habits of subordi-
nation which are formed aud nourshed by
civilization, shrunk from this extremity till
every other expedient had been tried. And
so this handful Of dragons have been as eff
lectual an instrument to Pierce and Jefferson
Davis as the whole garrison of Paris was to
Louis Bonaparte and st. Arnaud.
Now If things had gone as these conspira-
tors intended, and as they may 60 yet if the
rising spirit of the North does not defeat them,
slavery would have been violently fastened
upon Kanzas, she wonld have been forced
through Congress, and, by turning the bal
ance of power in the Senate, have compelled
the Free States to choose between uncondi
tional submission to the behests of slavery
forever, and a withdrawal of themselves from
the partnership. This mighty revolution,
therefore, whichever shape it might have ia.
ken, would have been accomplished by a few
hundred soldiers, Differed mainly by slave
holders or their sons. And if this coup d. etat
is hindered from striking as it was designed,
it will be no fault of the Dragons. They
have done their work as well as the troops of
O'Donnell did theirs last month in Spain. If
Liberty survive the blow she owes to them,
though none may have been actually struck
with the sword of steel, it will be through the
good providence of God and the aroused en-
ergy Of the Northern people, and not by any
laches Of the soldiers. Now it may be said,
that these men only obeyed their orders, and
that il were hard not to pay them tie wages
they have earned. Then let the man who
gave them the orders, give them the ldrgesse
too. II is hard that we should pay men for
helping TO rob us Of what we hold most pre-
cious AT least is 1t most reasonable that we
should not pay for this robbery until we are
guaranteed against its being attempted again.
We hold, therefore, that the House of Repre-
sentatiyes have done but the simplest duty in
refusing to keep men in pay except on the
express condition that they shall not be EN-.
ployed IN cutting our own throats.