Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1861-07-11
.1a ~ M oCR a. xT-

has been done ueder II are Questioned. and
the attention of the country has been called
to the proposition that one who is sworn to
take care that the laws be faithfully executed
should not himself violate them. OF course
some consideration was given to the ques-
tions of power and propriety before this mat
ter was acted on.
The whole of the laws which were required
to be faithfully executed, were being resis-
ted, and failing of execution in nearly one
third of the States Must they be allowed
to FINALLY fail of execution, even ifit had
been perfectly clear, that by the use of the
means necessary to their execution, some
single law made in such extreme tenderness
of the citizens liberty, that practically it
relieves more of the guilty than of the inno-
cent, should to a very limited extent, be
violated.
To state the question more directly, are
all the laws but one to go unexec1ted, and
the Government itself to go to pieces lest
that one be violated ? Even in such case
would not the official oath be broken off if
the Government should be overthrown, when
it was believed that disregarding the single
law would tend to preserve it?
But it was not believed that this question
was presented 1t was not believed that any
law was violated. The provision of the
Constitution that the privilege of the writ
of habeas corpus shall not be suspended
unless when in cases ofrebelliou or invasion
public safety may require it, is euivalent
to provision that such privilege may be
suspended when in cases of rebellion or in
vaslon the public safety does require t-
1t was decided that we have case of rebel
I'D Il ca
the qualified suspension of the privilege of
the writ which was authorized to be made.
Now, it is insisted that Congress, and not
the Executive, is vested with this power
But the Constitution itself is silent as o
which or who is to exercise the power, and
as the provision was plainly made for a
dangerous emergency, it cannot be believed
that the trainers of the instrument intended
that in every case the danger should run it's
course until Congress could be called togeth
er, the assembling of which might be pre-
vented, as was intended in this case by the
rebellion. No more extended argument is
now offered, as an oppnlon at some length
will probably be presented by the Attorney
General. Whether there shall be any legis
lation upon the subject, and if any what, is
submitted entirely to the better judgement
of Congress.
The forebearance of this Government had
been so extraordinary and so long continued
as to lead some foreign nations to shape
their actions as if thoy supposed the early
destruction of our National Union was pos
sible. While this on discovery gave the
Executive some concern; he is now happy
to say that the sovereignty and rights of
the United States are now everywhere prac-
tically respected by foreign powers, and
general sympathy with the country is mani
tested throughout the world.
The reports of the Secretaries of the
Treasury, War and the Navy will give the
information in detail deemed necessary and
convenient for your deliberation and action
while the Executive and all the Departments
will stand ready to supply commissions, or
portant for you to know.
Ii is now recommended that yon give the
legal means for aking the contest short
and decisive one; that you place at the
control OF the Govern nent, for the work, at
least 40C 600 men, a I'D S400 600 coo. fha,
number Of men is about one-tenth of those
# proper ages within the regions, where ap-
psrently, all are willing to engage, and the
sum less than twenty-third part of the
money value owned by the men who seem
ready to devote the whole.
A debt Of $500, 900 900 now is less sum
rer head than was the debt Of our reyoluti0n
when we came out of that struggle, and the
money value In the country now bears even
greater proportion to what it was then.
than does the population. Surely each man
has as strong motive now 10 preserve our
liberties as each'bad then to establish them
A right result at this time will be worth
more 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 material for the work is abundant
and that it needs only the hand OF gisla,
tion to give it legal sanction, and the hand Of
the executive TO give it practical shape and
efficiency.
One Oh the greatest perplexifies of the Gov
ernment is to avoid receiving troops faster
than it can provide for them.
In word, the people Will save their Cav
ernment, if the Government itself will do its
part only ind ferently well. 1t might seem
at first thought, to be of little difference
whether the present movement at the South
be called secession or rebellion. The NOV
u
At the beginning they knew they could new
er raise their treason to any respectable mag
nitude by any name which imphes violation
of law. They knew their people possessed as
much of moral sense, as much of devotion to
law and order, aud as much pride in, and
reverence for the history and Govern ent of
their common country as any other civilized,
and patriotic people.
They knew they could make no advance
ment olrectly in the teeth of these strong and
noble sentiments. Accordingly, they com,
menced, By an insidnous debauching Of the
pubic mind. They invented an ingenious
sophi5m which, Il cor ceded, was followed by
perfectly logical steps through all the incl
dents to the complete destruction of the
Union. The sopbism itself is that any State
of tbe Union may, consistently with the Ma
fional Constitution and therefore lawfully
and peacefully, withdraw from the Union,
without the consent of the Union CT of any
other State. phe little disguise, that the
supposed right is to be exercised only for a
Just cause, because they themselves are TO be
he sole judges of its justice, is too thin co
merit any notice.
With rebellion thus sugar. coated, they
have been drugging the public mind of their
section for more than thirty years, and until
at length they have brought manv good men
to willingness to take up arms against the
Government the day after some assemblage
of men have enacted the farcical plete of
taking their State out of the Union, who
could have been brought to DO such thing the
day before.
ThiS sophsm derives much, perhaps the
whole of its cure icy, from the assumption