The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1861-02-23
Rinxh.m,s Fore. Bin.

Either our National Revenue Laws should
be enforced or repealed. To keep them as dead
letters on the statue.books for the Administers
ton; to claim them as binding, and still to make
no efforts to sustain them, is humiliating ac-
acknowledgement of our national impotence. Eve
ry day Of such procedure lessons US in the opin'
ion of the world as the letters of Mr.. Dallas
already show Us to be degraded in the opin-
ion of England. And We deserve the disgrace.
Vessels arrive from foreign and domestic ports
at Southern harbors, and instead Of lawful au
thorities Of the Federal, Government find a
mobo0atio rule of one State. They are, almost
universally, peaceable traders, anxious to COM
ply fully with our laws. But our Government,
while claiming authority, fails in any particular
to exercise 1t, and when such tradeEs ash the
line Of their duty, the Secretary Of Soae !.
forced to acknowledge our weakness, and svsdea
giving direct reply. Such Government de-
serves reprobation. 81
The laws must be repealed or executed. And
what argument can be brought in favor of their
repeali Their general tenor is admitted to be
right, and their full enforcement would be con-
sidered right, If the Union still exists. We,
therefore, who still mai9tain the Union, and will
not consent to its destruction, cannot without
disgrace consent to their repeal. South Caro-.
lima, we claim, is as much amenable to the laws
as Massachusetts,, and if treason or unreasona.
BILE defiance of the laws exists to any extent
among her people, it furnishes no pretext for a
cowardly repeal of them, but only q reason for
their more stern and uncompromising execution.
A bill has been reported to Congress by Mr..
Bingham to provide for the enforcement Of the
Revenue laws. It SOUNDED upon the precedent
of the famous Force Bill Of Andrew Jackson in
1882, which has received the eulogies of all par
ties since, no one daring to question its cor
rectness, because the good fruits Of the policy,
ending rebellion like the present before it had
hardly assumed tangible form, are too plain to
admit of argument There are no objection to
the same bill, now, which would not hold as well,
then. Tie simple fact is now, as then, that trail
tors have rebelled against the laws of the coun-
try, and the simple question Is now, as then,
shall the rebellion be suffered. or treason put
down and the laws enforced! Gen. Jackson
adopted the policy Of his Force Bill, and history
tells the result in peace and the triumph Of the
Union,-Mr. Buchanan has chosen different
policy, and anarchy in government, and paraly-
sis in business, and disgrace with the nations of
the world are the fruits We are reaping. Which
Of the two policies is the best, Which Of the
two Presidents jackson or Buchanan,- stands
highest in the esteem of the peoples
We are anxious 10 sustain the Union as it 10,
to sustain it as we'll from foes at home "a from
foes abroad, and any distractions placed in the
way Of constitutional laws We insist shall be re-
moved at all hazards. and by force If need be.
We heartily support any practicable scheme
TO collect the revenue, tested BY successful
precedent; and consequently heartily support
shis Bill, az do the great body Of Republicans
In Congress.