American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1851-1863, 1861-07-13

attention of the country has been called I
tie proposition that one who is sworn I
take care that the laws be faithfully exeet
ted, should not himself violate them.
course some consideration was given to til
questions of rover and piopriety before thi
i matter vas acted upon. Tie Whole of til
| laws which were required to be faithful
executed were being resisted. and failing {
execution i'm nearly one-third of the State:
must trey be allowed to finally fail of exc
cution, even bad il been perfectly clear tia
/ by the use of tie means necessary TO thei
execution, some single law, made in sue
extreme tenderness of the citizens liberty
/ that. practically, it relieves more of th.
guilty than OF tie innocent, should to yer,
limited extent be violated2 To state th'
question more directly, are ali the laws bu
one to 90 unexecuted and tie government
itself to go to pieces lest that one be viola
ted? Even in such case, would not I'll.
official oath be broken if the government
should be oyerthrown when it was believed
that disregarding the single law would tend
to preserve il. But it was not believed
that this question was presented; it was not
believed that any law was violated; the pro-
visions of the constitution is that the priv
lege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not
be suspended, unless when in cases of rebel
lion or invasion the public safety may re-
ouire it. 1t was decided that we bave a
case of rebellion, and that the public safety
does require the qualified suspension of the
privilege of the writ, which was authorized
to be made. Now it is insisted that con-
gress 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 dangerous emergency. 1t cannot be be-
heved that the trainers of the instrument
intended that in every case the danger
should run its course until congress should
be called together, the very assembling of
which might be prevented, as was intended
in this case by the rebellionists. No more
extended argument is now offered, as an
opinion at some length will probably be pre-
scented by the Attorney General. Whether
there shall be any legislature upon the
subject, and if any, what, is submitted en-
tirely TO the better Judgment of Congress.
The forbearance of this government had
been so extraordinary and SO long continu-
ed as to lead some foreign nations to shape
their action as if they supposed the early
destruction of our National Union was prob
able, while this on discovery gave the exc
cutive 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 man
Tested throughout the world. The reports
of the Secretaries of the Treasury, War and
Navy will give the information in detail
deemed necessary and convenient for your
and action, while the executive
and all the departments will stand ready to
supply omissions or to communicate new
facts considered important for you to know. |
1t is NOW recommended that you give the
legal means for making this contest a short
and decisive one, that you may place at the |
control of the Government, for the work, at
least 400,000.000 and 400, 900 men that I
number of men being about one-tenth of +
those of proper ages within the regions where I
apparently all are willing to engage; and /
The sum Is less than a twenty-third part of
The money value owned by the men who I
seem ready to devote the whole. A debt of
S6O0,O0U,00O now is a less sum per head than
vas the debt of our revolution when we
,ame out of that struggle, and the money
Talue in the country now bears even a great
er proportion to what it was than does the
population. Surely each man has as strong
motive now to preserve our liberties as
ZACH had then to establish them. A right
esult at this time will be worth more now
o the world than ten times the money. The
violence reaching from the country leaves
10 doubt that the material for the work is
bundant, and that it needs only the hand
# legislation to give it legal sanction, and
he hand of the executive to give it practi-
al shape and efficiency. One of the great
st perplexities of the Government is to
void receiving troops faster than provided
or them. In word, the people will save
heir Government if the Government itself
viii do its part only indifferently.
While it might seem, at first thought, of
ut little difference " neither the present
movement at the South be called secession
r rebellion, the mouers, however, well I'M r
erstood the difference at the beginning.
hey knew that they could never raise their
reason to any respectable magnitude by any :
anne which implies violation Of law. They T,
new their people possessed as much of NOR :
sense; as much Of devotion to law and or /
err, and as much pride and reverence for the :
istory and government of their common .
,untry. as any civilized aud patriotic people {
,ey could make TO Advancement directly in /
re teeth of those strong and noble sent l
ents. Accordingly they commenced an in f
dious debauching of the public mind, they I
vented an ingenious sophism, which, IT con- '
,ded, was followed by perfectly logical '
cps through all the incidents to the COM q
etc destruction Of the Union. The sophism
self is that any State of the Union may =
'nStILut1Onally, Win TIE NatlOnaf oOHStltu- e
on, therefore lawfully and peacefully with :
'aw from the Union without the consent of .
e Union or any other State. They little .
sguise the supposed right is to be exercised v
lily for ajust cause, because they themselves !,
e to be the sole judges of its justice is too "
in to merit any notice with rebellion, thus a
gar-coated, they have been drugging the a
lblic mind of their section for more than e
irty years, until at length they have a
ought many good men to a willingness to a
Ike up arms against the Government the n
y after some assemblage of men have en- b
ted the farcical pretense of taking their u
ate ont of the Union who would have been 81
ought to no such thing the day before. N
This sophisE derived much, perhaps the !"
hole of its currency, from the assumption y
at there is some omnipotent and sacred SUI o
emacy pertaining to a State-to each State n
our federal Union. Our State have neither 4.
ore nor less power than that reserved to n
EN- in the Union by the constitution, no one
them ever having been a State out of the =
lion. The original ones passed into the
MON even before they cast off their British a
al nd fhe no. each III