Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1859-06-18


Of legitimate political capital favorite meth
cd OF recruiting their exhausted stock has been
to raise the cry that the Union is 10 danger
Accordingly, the party in Ohio having arrived
at that desperate stage in bankruptcy which re-
quires an appeal to their last resource, are just
now drawing upon the creduility Of the weak
minded, by raising loud lamentations over an
impending qualification by the Republicans
of the State. But the freemen Of Ohio are not
to be deceived by any such dumb show. Their
love of the Union is honest and ineradicable
and il is because such is the fact that they are
Indignant at the outroges committed in its sa-
cred name that they are jealous of that schem-
ing exacting despotic Slave power, which seeks
to prostitute It TO its own selfish purposes
They are not only jealous of encroachments
upon their own rights under the Union, but they
are jealous in the defense Of the fair fame and
character of the Union. They love it as the
spotless bride of Free dom, aud they are deter
mined to guard it with watchful eyes against
the insiduous approaches aud corrupting nAu-
ence Of On oligarchy that would fain rob it of
all those virtues which make it dear to freemen.
The idea that the Republicans of Ohio have
sought or intend to seek redress for the palpa-
BILE wrongs that have grown up under perver-
sion of law based upon misconstruction Of
the Constitution, in any other way than through
the operation of constitutional remedies, is
therefore absurd. The mass meeting at Cleve-
land, about which so great ado has been made,
proposed no other plan Of action. 1t simply
entered its protest against the subserviency of
the Supreme Court of the United States, which
has been made the instrument of encroachments
upon the reserved rights of the States, and a.
gainst an abuse by Congress of legislative pow
ers, in the odions provisions of the Fugitive
Slave Act and it proposed to remedy these
evils by a reorganization of the Federal Judci-
ary system and reform of the law, to be peace
fully effected by the legitimate use of the free.
mans surest weapon, the ballot The Republi-
can State Convention pointed to the same rem
edy for existing evils.
Meanwhile the only existing mode Of relief
for the rescue prisoners in Jail at Cleveland,
through legal process, was resorted to, in the
application for habeas corpus before the Su-
| preme Court of Ohio. This having failed, the
other remedies more remote, but more conclu
sive and permanent--a reorganization Of the
Federal Judiciary and repeal of the present
Fugitive Act-will henceforth be among the
prominent aims and objects of the Republican
party of Ohio The declaration of q purpose
r.. Al l. i
in the resolutions adopted by the Republican
State Convention coupled with like unequiv-
ocal expression of determination rigidly to
respect the constitutional obligations imposed
upon the States by the Federal Compact"
Such is the manly, ndepe ndent, constitutional
position occupied by the Republicans of Ohio;
that while they will respect every constitutional
obligation of the State to the general govern
meut. they will yet insist upon like observance
of the reserved rights of the states by the gen.
eral government. To maintain these reciprocal
obligations, there is no necessity for collision
between the state and Federal authorities. The
occasion for collision can be avoided by re-
moval of the cause of the difficulty. Even ad-
mittng in the broadest sense, the obligation
resting upon the States to deliver up fugitives
from service, it does not follow that the Fugitive
law of 1850 is an act so sacred in it character,
that the free citizens of Ohio have no right to
question its propriety and validity, nor that all
the odious and degrading features of that law
are warranted by the constitution. If the people
believe it to be wrong they have right to ag.
tate its repeal, and to make an effort to bring all
legislation upon the subject clearly within the
express requirements of the Constitution.
The horror with which such agitation is view
cd by the sensitive Democracy is evidence that
they regard the law as possessing peculiar
sanctity, above that attaching TO all other laws
To test its validity by an appeal to the State
Courts, and to denounce it in popular assem-
blages is an objectionable sin against slavery
and they can find no term harsh enough to ap-
ply to it, short of qualification" Yet this same
consistent Democracy which now is so jealous
Of any interference by State Court with the
adjudications of the Federal Courts in a case
involving the personal liberty of the citizen, did
not hesitate few years ago, under the Bank
tax law, known as the crow-bar law, enacted by
Democratic Legislature, to arraign the State o.
gainst the Federal authorities and to make re-
Sstance to the adjudications of the federal
courts party issue and test of Democratic
orthodoxy This is the party once so fierce
to bring the State into collision with the gen.
eral government, in a mere question of dollars
and cents, that now shrieks qualification" be-
cause question of the legality of the imprison-
ment of free citizens of Ohio under an oppres-
sive and tyranncal law has been legally tested
before our State Supreme Court, and because
the people propose to resort to their constitu-
tional remedy for existing evils
Only last winter, Mr.. Andrews, a prominent
candidate for nomination for the Lieutenant
Governorship, at the recent Democratic State
Convention, introduced bill into the House of
Representatives providing heavy penalties to be
inflicted upon any officer who, in accordance
with the decision of the Federal Court should
attempt to resist the collection of the bank tax
es declared by that tribunal to be uncostitution-
al Vet nur damocrat;c ootar,roro,;oa A.,