The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1862-05-15

against your unarmed commerce Oh tire
sea but seized and con6scated the lands
tand' moyeables of every Union man
within his reach who dares open his
mouth in behalf of the Government.
His prescriptions have beggard thous-
ands upon thousands desolated their
hearths aud driven them into exile for
the crime of loving the flag you are
defending. He despises your mercy,
laughs at your forbearance, and spits
upon the olive branch syou hold ont to
him.. He knows that his fate is victory
or death, triumph or exile, and he is re-
solved boldly to stand the hazard of
the die. he has not yet, though bleed
ing under your blows, asked of you
favor; but to the ordinary means of
annoyance has not scrupled to add as
sault upon non combatants, violence to
women and children, the poisoned cup,
the atrocities of savage warfare, and
even the violation of the dead. Sir,
tell me not that snch foe can be rem
dered wickeder or stronger by the use
of any means known to the laws of
war, nor that his resistance can be
overcome by anything but blows well
laid on and followed up from one field
to another. Do not let us delude our
selves with the vain idea that the war
like policy of Fdbius Ctuactator, de-
laying battle to exhaust the strength of
the invader, nor the mild charities of
Henry Nv, feeding his revoted but
half-repentant countrymen to save them
from famine, will tend to appease this
frenzied rebellion. We must fight it
out. 1t is my deep conviction that we
must crush it by our arms, or suffer our
nation to be broken into fragments
which no compromise. or Cancellation
canreunite;exhibiting the CHASTITY wreck
of popular government in the midst
of which liberty will find its grave.
1t has been objected to this bill that
it assumes to forfeit and annul the title
of rebel property before we get it into
our actual possession, and that there
fore, as a law Of capture, it transcends
the rule Of war, which is that the title
does not pass from the owner until the
property is in the firm possession of the
captor; whereas the first section of the
first section of the bill makes no such
distinction, but declares all the title of
the armed rebel to be his property,
wherever it may be in the United
States, to be vested in the Government.
| is admitted that they by the usages
of war between sovereign nations an
actually manucaption is requisite and
the honorable Senator from California,
MIR. McDougall,) who has spoken on
the bill, was quite right in his applica.
ton Of the rule in snch cases. But it
must be recoliected that for citizen of
the United States. to take up arms
against his country is criminal, while
the doing of the same act by for
eigncr serving under his sovereign, is
wholly without private, individual
guilt. The right to punish such a
crime is thing incapable of argument
1t is rs plain postulate rs the right of
the Government to exist, and the Con
stitution places no restriction whatever
upon the power of Congress to punish
it with the single exception that where
the owner has been formally indicted,
tried and convicted in court of law
his-heir shall not fail in his right to in
herit after his death. at-
But the measure before US has moth.
ing to do with the person of the rebel,
but solely with his property lying with
in the United States and our constltn-
tional jurisdiction. The fact that that
jurisdiction may be suspended by vio-
leuce and traitorous resistance in par
ricular localities, does not affect our
power to pass the act nor altar its eff
feet when that suspension shall cease );
for, as have already shown, the Su.
prene Court, in the case of Smith as.
Maryland, hold that no actual posses
sion or seizure by the Government is
requisite and that the title passes 10y
the mere operation Of the law. &c
Cranch, 3o6) So that whenever our
law shall be in actual force there by
the destruction of armedresistancc, the
forfeiture takes effect as from the time
an oct committed. 1t is, indeed. like
any other penal statute; it is to be exc
cuted whenever the object of it is
brought within actual operation. -.
No, sir, the friends of this measure
do not disguise the fact that one fits
objects is punishment, punishment of
the most wanton crime ever committed
since he who took the thirty pieces of
silver betrayed his Lord and Master.
Sir, we all love our country and revere
the memory of our ancestors. But by
that love, by that memory, by the ex-
perienced blessings of free govern cent.
by the hitherto we'll grounded hope that
this unceptred empire" shall be the
praise and glory of the nations by my
love of justice and my hatred of crime,
| shudder at the thought of letting this
great offensc pass without punishment.
Throughout the world the friends of
liberty and beneficient laws will not
thank us for it. Our own countrymen
will loudly accuse us of an omission
which in itself, if not criminal, is un-
natural and dangerous to their future
peace. Sir, pass this confiscation, with
proper determinations. Let itsblieht-
ing breath fall upon the rngleaders
who have betrayed the weak aud un-
wary, whose poisoned words have
frenzied their neighbors, and whose
cruel arms have spread desolation
where peace and friendship once
relgned under the old flag. Garry it