Juliet signal. [volume] (Juliet [i.e. Joliet], Ill.) 1844-1???, 1861-08-13
VOL. 10 NO. 9.

! Constitution, its high handed usurpations
OF power, formed any part Of deliberate
conspiracy to overthrow the present form
OF Federal Republican government and to
| establish n strong centralized Government
IN its stead. No, sir whatever their pur-
poses now, l rather think that, in the be-
ginning, they rushed headIessly and head
long into the gulf, believing that, as the
seat Of war was then far distant and diff
cult of access, the display of vignr in
reinforcing Sumter and Pickens, and in
calling out seventy fire thou sand militia
upon the firing of the first gun, and above
all, in that exceedingly happy and origin al
conceit OF commanding the insurgent States
to "disperse in twenty days" would not,
On the one hand, precipitate crisis, while,
upon the other, it would satisfy it's own
violent partisans, and thus revive and re.
store the falling fortunes of the Republican
party.
can hardly conceive, sir, that the Pres
dent and his advisers could be guilty Of
the exceeding smy of expecting to carry
on general civil war by mere posse com.
ftdtusao three nesths militia 1t INV be.
indeed, that. with wicked and most des-
perate cunning, the President meant all
this as mere entering wedge to that which
was to rive the oak asuhdes OF possibly rs
test, to learn the public sentiment of the
North and West But, however that NAV
te, the ralid secession and movements of
Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas, and
Tennessee, taking with them as l have
said elsewhere, four millions and a half OF
people, immense wealth, inexhaustible re-
sources, FIVE hundred thousand fighting
men, and the grGres Of Washington, and
Jackson, and bringing up too, in oue single
day, the frontier from the Gulf to the Ohio
ard the Potomac. together with the aban-
donment by ore side, and the occupation
by the other, of Harper's Ferry and the
Norfolk navy yard and the fierce gust
and wbirlwind of passion in the North,
compelled either sudden waking up of the
President aud bis advisers to the frighteul
signifcancy of the act which they had
Committed In heediessly breaking the vase
which imprisoned the slumbering demon
of civil war. or else a permanent but most
rapid deyelOpemeDt Of the daring plot to
foster and promote secession, and then set
up new aud strong form of Government
in the States which might remain in the
Union.
pose, i assert here to-day, as a Represen.
enbifVJ that act Vi tDe Az
ministration since, has been a glaring
usurpation Of power, and a palpable and
dangerous violation Of that very Constitu-
ton which this civil war is professedly
waged to support. Sir, pass by the proc,
lamstion Of the 18th of April, summoning
the miiilia-not to defend this capital
there is not wcrd about the capital 10 :be
proclamation, and there was then no posi-
bic danger to it from any quarter; but 70
retake and occupy forts and property a
Thousand miles of-summoning, say, the
militia to suppress the so called insurrec-
ton. i DO not believe in February last,
when Mr.. Stanton, Of Ohio. introduced the
bill to enlarge the act Of 1895, that that act
ever contem plated the case of a general
revolution. and Of resistance by an organs
lied Government. But no matter. The
militia thus called out, with a shadow at
least, of authority, and for period extend
ing one month beyond tue assembling Of
Congress, were amply sufficient to protect
the capital against any force that was likely
to be sent against it-and the event has
has proved it-and ample enough also a.
suppress the outbreak an Mary :and. Every
other principal act OF the Administration
might wei! have been postponed, and ought
to have been postponed, until the meeting
OF Congress or, If the exigencies Of the
/ occasion demanded it, Congress should
| forthwith have assembled. What If two
States should not have been represented, al
| though even this need not have happened
but better this, o thousand times, than that
the Constitution should be repeatedly and
fdgrantly violated, and public liberty and
! private right trampl under foot. As ror
Harper's Ferry and the Norfolk navy yard
theJ rather needed protection against the
| Administration, by whose orders millions
Of property were wantonly destroyed
which was not in the slightest danger from
any quarter. at the date Of the prociama.
ton.
But, sir, Congress was not assembled al
once, as Congress should have been, and
the great question of civil war submitted
to their deliberations. The Representatives
| Of the States and of the people we're no
allowed the slightest vuice IN this the mos
momentcus question ever presented to an,
Government. The entire responsibility 0
the whole work was boldly assumed by ia,
Executive, and all the powers required fol
the purposes In hand were boldly usurpeC
from either the States OF the people, Of
from the legislative department; while thu
voice Of the judiciary, the last refuge and
hope of liberty, was turued away from witt
contempt.
Sir, however much necessity-the ty,
rants plea-may be urged in exteuuatior
of the usurpations and infractions of the
President IN regard to public liberty, Their
can be no such apology or defense Uf hi,
invasions Of private right. What overrul
ing necessity required the violation Of th,
sanctiiy of private property and priva:,
confidence What great public DANCE
demanded the arrest and Imprisonment
without trial by c,mmon law, Of one singh
private citizen, for an act done weeks be
sore, openly, and by authority Of his State
IL guilty Of treason, was not the judicia
power ample enough and strong enough
for his conviction and punishment What
then, was needed in his case, but the pre-
cedent under which other men, in otheI
places, might become the victim Of exeeu-
tive suspicion and displeasurel
As 10 the pretense, sir, that the Presi
dent has the constitutional right to suspend
the writ Of hGbeds corpus, will not vast,
time IN arguing it. The case is as plair
as words can make it. /, is q Legislative
power; it is found only 10 the Legislative
article; it belongs TO Congress only to d
it. Subordinate officers have disobeyed il
General Wilkinson disObeyed it, but h
sent his prisoners on for judicial trial
General jackson disobeyed il, and was re
p-lmanded by James Madison; but n
President, no body but Congress, ever be
fore assumed the right TO suspend it. And
sir, that other pretense, Of necessity, / re
peat, cannot be allowed. 1t had no exis
teBce in fact. The Constitution cannot b
preserved by violating it. 1t is an offens
to the intelligence Of this House and Of tn
country, to pretend that this, and the othe
gross and multiplied infractions Of the Con
stitution and usur2stions of power wer
done by the President and his advisers on
of pure love and devotion to the Constitu
ton. But if so. sir, then they have bu
one steU further To take, and declare, IL