Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-11-15
John G. BreckInrIdRe.

1t is not fair to strike man when he is
down, and John @. Breckinridge, we take it,
is down for ever. Among host of traitors,
be is one of the most offensive, just because
he tries to make himself least so. They are
all unprovoked conspirators, all breakers Of
solemn oaths-but most of them are open in
their shameless course, and make no lsbored
attempts to reconcile months of treason with
years of constitutional observance. But Mr..
Breckenridge does not yet avow any con.
rection with the Secession cause, to which
all his labors are manifestly devoted. He
wants every body to think that he is a con-
sistent conspirator, and that his treason is
the offshoot of peculiar devotion TO the Con-
stitution. This is as if Julian the Apostate
should have justified his relapse to Pagan
ism by quotations from the Bible.
Men dislike this form of guilt beyond most
others. 1t looks like contemplate weakness,
or like peculiarly cold-b'ooded audacity.
But we app1ehend that the reader of Mr..
Breckinridge's address will not class him
exactly in either category, but will rather
regard him as the victimto a great extent
self deceived of those singular State rights
doctrines which have done so much toward
bringing on this rebellion. In this light only
is he worthy of present notice, or will he be
impaled in history. He declares that when
be ceased to be Vice. President of the United
States and became entitled to a seat in the
Senate, "the Union had been dissolved by
the withdrawal of seven States" Thus his
argument maintains that one State (for there
is nothing peculiar in the number seven) can
dissolve this grand frame of government,
and set the other thirty three flying from the
orbit of allegiance. This is the State rights
doctrine in substance. How long could our
sys'e remain undisturbed with such notions
spreading over our entire section of the
10 nd
ticians of every grader And is it not worth
heavy war to crush out the first STRINGS
of principle so deadly fatal to all our
national blessings2
But having invented such simple methods
of destroying the Constitution, these State
rights copspirators profess to consult that
instrument to prove that the destruction is
irremedable. Mr.. Breckiuridge points to
the clauses requiring two Senators to be
chosen from each State and at least one Rep.
Tesentative, and says there are now none
clauses in the same spirit. Now the old
fashioned way is, on discovering that the
Constitution has been violated to repair the
violation, to right the wrong; and not to
give up the Constitution as gone. The same
instrument makes it the duty of the Presi
dent to enforce the laws; and if he fails in a
given instance, allthe powers of the Govern
ment and the people rally to his support, and
his authority is in no respect diminished.
Congress is authorized to coin money; but il
by a foreign blockade, or from any other
cause, no bullion should be received, SO that
the clause for some time could not be carried
out what ignoramus would say that Con-
gTess had ceased to exist, or that the Consti-
L tuition had become a nullityp Equally ab
su1d is Mr. Breckinridge's notion that be-
cause of extraordinary violations of the
Constitution at this time, the instrument is
forfeited and the violations are justfiable
The very time to support the Constitution is
when it is assailed, aud the magnitude of the
dangers measures the patriotism of the loyal
citizens.
But bad SIS Mr.. Breckinridge's theories are,
his practice is worse. Believing, as ne says,
that the Union was dissolved, he had the
hypocrisy to sit for months in its highest
legislative body, drawing pay from its treas
| ury. When he pretended there was no SEN
| ate he claimed to be Senator, that he might
| play the traitor and aid the enemies of his
country. And now when he argues that the
Constitution is no more, he INDUCES in long
and whining complaints that the Admins,
tration is violating the same Constitution
which he intimates is peculiarly dear to him
But enough-the model traitors of the past
must make room for John O. Breckenridge
not for his "bad eminence" in their line, but
| for the meanness Of his methods, in which hs
| has no riVal.--BOStOn Journal