The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1862-05-08

QOWn 10 lnc very uaY. L una III recO6-
nized and sanctioned by the great
teachers of the law of war, and by the
most distinguished and magnanimous
heroes who have illustrated the art of
war. As means of hostility, history
shows it TO be so allowable as the kill
ing of our enemies, making them pris-
oners, or weakening them and strength
ening ourselves in any other manner.
The history of the civil wars Of Eng
land ever since the Conquest has been
marked by seizure and confiscations.
The very rule of the common law, by
which the commission of treason is fol-
lowed by forfeiture of real and per-
sonal estate, is plain adoption of the
principle of confscation into the law of
England; and though she now discards
another incident, the corruption of
blood, she would, apprehend, be the
the last nation on earth to reject the
principle of confscation in the prosecu-
ton of her wars. Under this form of
carrying on war, and often as against
the objects of nations with whom she
was at peace, she has too often filed
her treasury with the gains acquired by
her expeditions, almost, if not wholly,
worthy of the name of plunder and
piracy; too often has her navy seized
upon neutral commerce too often have
her privateers plundered the ocean,
carrying home from the Spanish main
the rich ingots from the mines of Mex
leo and South America; too often have
her military authorities violated all the
human rules of modern war i'm :heir
treatment of the enemy; to allow her
to criticise the practice of confscation.
1t does not lie in her mouth to school
us, or the rest of the world, on this SUBJ
ject. She must first blot out from her
history the precedents she has set in
the seizure of the Church property
under Henry WILL, the terrible con6s-
cations of lands and goods at the resto-
ration of the dynasty of the Stuarts,
whose owners were hung and quartered
under the sentences of her Jeffreys and
Scroggs, or forced into exile by the re-
stored tyrants; the confiscation of the
property of many of her cavaliers, who
fled to Virginia and elsewhere to avoid
the pixies of Cromwell and his liberty
loving Puritans; and she must also
expugne from her history the truth re-
corded against her by our fathers in
. their Declaration of independence,
that she had "plundered our seas, raw
aged our coasts, burnt orr towns, and
destroyed the lives of our people"
We need not 60 far back in the his
tory of France to find the most striking
evidence that this principle has not
been renowned as means of war, es-
pecially of civil war. The revolution
of 1889, by which the feudal system
was destroyed and the French nation
regeneratcd, owed its success and the
final triumph Of the great principles
/. which lay at its foundation, to confis,
cations of the property of the enemies
of the republic within the limits oi
France.
know it is the fashion of many to
speak of these things not as prece dents
to be followed by warnings to be heed
ed. The occasion does not require or
allow me to enter into the discussion ol
the abstract justice of these confisca.
tions, and only refer to them as pre-
sentiIlg most signal precedent set by
the leading continental nation OF
Europe. The French people were not
barbarians. They were not adventur.
{ ers like the followers of William the
Conquerer, leaving their own country
10 acquire power, pelf, and plunder in
Britain. They were struggling for free
dom and equal rights. They were
striving to shake off the burdens ol
centuries of suffering and wrong under
their despotic kings and their still more
despotic nobility. They drew thei
sword against prioiIege, and threw
away the scabbard. That we may no,
t accuse them of passionate haste let II.
look upon the picture, which the ablest
, most impartial, and most accurate o
, modern historians draws of their con
dition at that period. Nj. Thiers says
'sThe political and economical state
t of the country was intolerable. Every
, thing was privilege in individuals
r classes, cities, provinces, and ever
' trades. Everything was tramme
t upon industry and the genius of man
! Civil, ecclesiastical, and military dig
: mites were exclusively reserved fo
, certain classes, and among these class
! es to certain individuals. A profession
: could not be embraced except unde
r certain titles and pecnniary conditions
, The cities had the privilege of levyins
and collecting the imposts and shar'
r thereof, and the choice of magistrates
5 Mere favors by the crown were con
$ verted by long survivorships in th'
] family into family property, and di'
z not permit the monarch to give am
e preferences. No liberty remained ex
j. NAMED except in consideration of pc
e cuniary gifts, and the minister had t
: be disputed with for the abolition of
e burden which was wholly without valu
] or utility. Everything was motionles
, in a few hands, and everywhere th
!. few resisted the despoiled many. Bni
e dens weighed upon the one class. Th
), nobility and the clergy held nearly two
:, thirds of the lands; the other thir
S was held by the people, who paid tn
y imposts to the King, discharged
+ throng of feudal rights to the nobility
S paid the tith to the clergy, and, besides
i sustained the depredations committe
/. by the mobiles in their hunting excnl
s;ons The imposts weighed most hea,