St. Cloud Democrat. [volume] (Saint Cloud, Stearns County, Minn.) 1858-1866, 1862-07-10
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t&p;irihncipalities and poowers,' be becomes
most devoutly in love with the Constitu:
Etion,. as he understands it.: No class of
men among us have so much, to say about
the Constitution as those who are known
to sympathize with Jefferson Davis and
Che pirate crew at His heels It will not
be- eforgotten that the red-handed murder
Eers and thieves who set this rebellion on
foot went out Of the Union yelping for the
Constitution, which they had censpired to
overthrow, through the blackest perjury
and treason that ever confronted the AL
,mighty.p I remember no men who we're
50 zealously on the side of the Constitu-
ton or So studiously. carefu ful to save it from
all detriment as Breckipridge and Burnett,
while they remained iominally on the
side of tho Union! Every graceless mis-
creant who has wallowed in the filthy mire
Of slavery till he has outlived his own
conscience, every man who would be open
" Oh tie side Of the rebels if, he bad the
courage to take His stand, every opponent
Of. vigorous prosecution of the war by
the use of all the powers of war, will be
found fulmiaating bis dastardly ;diatribes
On the duty Of standing by the Constitu-
tion. Il notice,, also-and I do not mean
to be offensive-that the Democratic lead
tersfwho' have recently issued a eemi.rebel
address from this city,, arc most painfully
exercised lest the Constitution should suf:
fer in the hands of the present Admins
tration. = 7. 81 - 80
+: Mr.. Speaker, L prefer to muster in diff
ferent company. I prefer to show my
fealty to the Constitution by treating it as
the charter Of liberty, as the foe of rebel
lion, and as amply armed with the power
to save it's own life by crushing its foes.
Sir, who are these men in whose behalf
the Constitution is so persistently invok-
Ell? They are rabels, who have ds6ed its
power, and who, by taking their stand out
side of the Constitution, have driven US to
meet them on their own chosen ground:
By .abdicating the Constitution, and con-
spring against the Government, they have
assumed the character of public enemies,
and have thus no rights but the rights Of
war, while in dealing with them we are
bound by no laws but the laws of war
Those provisions of the. Constitution which
define the rights of persons in time of peace
and which must be observed in dealing
with criminals; have no application what
ever to "A state of war, in which criminals
acquire the character of enemies. The
powers of war are not unconstitutional, be-
cause they are recognized AMI provided
for by the Constitution; but their func
tion and exercise are to be regulated by
the law Of nations governing state Of wal
and not by the terms Of the Constitution
applicable to state Of, peace. Hence I
must regard much Of this clamor about
the violation Of the Constitution on our
part as the sickly higglng Of pro-slavery
fanatics, or the poorly disguised rebel SYM
pathy of sniveling hypocrites. We must
fight traitors where they have chosen to
meet us. They have treated the Consti-
tuition as no longer in force, and We should
give them all the consequences, in full, of
their position. By setting the Constitu-
ton at naught, they have rested their case
on the naked power OF lawless might ;. and
therefore, we will not give them due pro-
cess of law, by trying, convicting, and
hanging them according to the Constitu-
tion they have abjured, but we will give
them, abundant]y, due process ofwar, for
which the Constitution makes wise and
ample provision. Vi Z ! ">..'
have referred, Mr.. Speaker, to the in
auence Of slavery in giving us false views
of the Constitution. 1t has also given US
false ideas as to the character and purposes
Of the war. We are fighting, it is said,
for the Union as it was. Sir, I should be
glad to know what we are to understand
by this. If it means that these severed
and belligerent States must again be uni
ted as one and inseparable, with secession
forever laid low, the national supremacy
vindicated, and the old flag waving over
every State and every rood of the Repub-
lie, then I agree to the proposition. Eve
ry true Union man will say amen to it,
But if, by the Union as it was, we are to
understand the Union as we beheld it un-
der the :thieving Democracy Of the last Ad.
ministration,! with such men as Davis,
Floyd, Mason, and their -forsaken
confederates, restored to their places in
Congress. in the army, and in the Cabinet
fif it means that the reign Of terror which
prevailed in the southern States for years
prior to this rebellion shall be ro-establish-
ed, by which unofending citizens Of the
Free States can only enter "the sacred
soil" Of slavery at the peril Of life; if, by
the Unionsas it was, be meant the Union
with another James Buchanan as its king,
and Chief Justice Taneyr as its ansinted
high: priest, steadily gravitating, by the
weight of its own rottenness, into the
frightfnl vortex of civil war; then am