Litchfield enquirer., 1861-07-11

bSAhB III iIRiu1us lu tne D0fuer SfntQs .aI ed, in fact the middle states, there are tbos. favor policy which they call armed ncutrsli That is, an arming of those states to prevent Union forces passing one way, or the disun the other, over their soil. This would be n union completed. Figuratively speakinv would be the building of an impossible wsIi long the line of separation, and yet not quite
 impossible one for under the guise of neu,r ity it would tie the hands of the Union men.
 freely pass supplies from among them to inc
 surrectionists which it could not do as an ov
 enemy. At stroke it would take all the troul
 oil the hands of secession, except only what nj,
 ceeds from the external blockade Ii womb
 for the disnnionists that which of all things ,h
 most desire-feed them well and give them
 union without a struggle of their own. It rcco
 nizes no fidelity to the Constitution; no oblig
 tion to maintain the Union; and while yes many who have favored it are, doubtless. iovi citizens, 1t IS nevertheless very injurious in d feet. Recurring to the action of the goyeri
 ment, it may be stated that first call was mad for 75,00O militia, and rapidly following this, proclamation was issued for closing the ports the insurrectionary districts by proceedings the nature of blockade. So far, all was belei
 ed to be strictly legal.
 At this point the insurrectionists announce
 'helr purpose to enter upon the practice of pr
 watering.
 o'her calls were made for volunteers to serv
 three years unless sooner discharged, and als TOT large additions to the regular army anl navy. These measures whether strictly legal or not, were ventured upon under what appeal. ed to be popular demand and public nsessss. ty, trusting then as now that Congress would readily ratfy them. It is believed that nothiu'
 has been done beyond the constitutional compe. tency Of Congress. Soon after the first call fo& militia 1t was considered duty to authorize thN commanding general, in proper cases, accordini to his discretion, to suspend the privilege of th writ of ha6cGs corpus; or, in other words, to ar rest and dctain, without resort to the ordinar processes and forms of law, such individuals d he might deem dangerous to the public safety r This authority has purposely been exercised buV very sparingly. Nevertheless legality and proI priety of what has been done under it are quesl toned, and the attention of the country has beei called to the proposition that one who is sworu to take care that the laws be faithfully executed should not himself violate them. Ofcoursc somd| consideration was given to the question of poyll and propriety before this matter was acted up1 on. The whole of the laws which were required to be faithfully executed were being resisted and failing of execution, in nearly one-third on the states. Must they be allowed to finally fail| of execution, even had it been perfectly clear that by use of the means necessary to their OK ccution, some single law made in such cxtreme| tenderness of the citizen liberty, that practical ly 1t relieves more of the guilty than the inno- cent, should to limited extent be violated !-I To state the question more directly, are all the laws but one to go unexccutcd, and the govern ment itself to go to pieces lest that one be vio- lated Even in such ease would not the offs cal oath be broken if the government should be overtlirown, when it was believed that disregard ing the single law would tend to preserve it. But it was not believed that any law was violat- ed. The provision of the Constitution that tho privilege of the writ of ha5eds corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in case of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it, is equivalent to a proviaion that such privilege may be suspended when. in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety does require it. It was decided that we have case uf rebellion, and that tle public safety does require the quail flied suspension of the privilege of the writ, which was authorized to be made. Now it is in- sisted that Congress and not the executive, is vested with this power. But the Constitution itself is silent as to which or who is to exercise the power, and the provision was plainly made for a dangerous emergency, it cannot be believed that tEc framcrs of the instrument in- tended that in every ease the danger should run it's cour Q until Congress could be called togeth- or, the very assembling of winch might be pro vented, as was intended in this case by the re- DPiHOh. NO more CNtenUeu argument lS HoN lfforded as an opinion at some length will prob- ,bly he presented by the attorncy-general.- Whether there shall be any legislation on tho subject, and if so, what is submitted entirely tS
 he better judgment of Congress. The forbca'- ince of this government has been so exiraordn- ,ry and so long continued as to lead some for ,ign nations to shape their action as if tn z sup posed the early destruction of cur natio'al Chi- 'n was probable. While this, on discovery, l,n, se1l h. " to say tltat the sovereignty and rihts of the United States are row everywhere practically respected by foreign powers, and E .ECneraI sym pathy with the country is maniftBted through cut tEe world.
 Tha reports of the Secretaries If the Treasury, War and Navy will give the information in dO- tail deemed necessary and convenient for your dclihcration and action, while tic executive and all the departments will stand rcndy to supply omissions to communicate new facts consider ed important for you 10 know.
 It is now recommended that you give the legal means for making this contest short and dr- cisive one; that you place at the control of the government for the work at least 40O.0,W men and S4Oa, ,o00,000. That number of men is about one-tenth of those of proper age within the re- gions where apparently all arc willing to engage, and the sum is less than twenty-third part of the money value earned by the men who seem EsHuy lO teNOte iHe NhOle A ucDt oi siA huh- drcd millions of dollars now is less sum per head than was the debt of our revolution when We came out of that struggle, and the money value in the country bears even greater pro- portion to what was then than does the popula- tion Surely each man has as strong motive now to preserve our liberties as each had then
 to establish them.
 A right result at this time will be worth moro to the world than ten times the men and ten times the money The evidence reaching us from the country leaves no doubt that the matc- rial for the work is abundant, and that 1t needs only the hand of legislation to give it legal sane ton and the hand of the executive to give it practical shape and efficiency. One of the great. est perplexites of the government IS to avoid receiving troops faster than it can provide Tor them. In word, the people will save thcir government, if the government itself will do it's part only indfferently we'll It might seem at
 first thought to be of little difference whetheF the present movement at the South be called se-
 cesson or rebellion the movers, however, well
 understand the difference. At the beginning
 they knew that they could never raise their trea-
 son to any respectable magnitude by any name
 which implies violation of law they knew their
 people possessed as much of moral sense, as much
 of devotion to law and order, and as much pride
 in its reverence for the history and government
 of their common country as any other civllizeo
 and patriotic people. They knew they could
 make no advancement directly in the teeth or
 these strong and noble sentiments, accordingly
 they commenced by an insidious debauching ef
 the public mind; they invented an ingenious
 sophism which, if conceded, was followed oy
 perfectly logical steps through all the incidents
 of the complete destruction of the Union. The
 sopbism itself is that any state of the Union may
 consistently with the nations Constitution, ana.
 therefore, lawfully and peacefully, withdraw rom
 the Union, without the consent of the unlcn .s Us
 of any other state. The little disguise that 'ns