Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1862-08-27
From the St. Mary's (Md.) Beacon. ]

ANOTHER BOLD SPEECH FROM MARYLAND.
.SaIus Populi lee .Suprema est. Nobody, We opine
is much surprised discover in times like the pres
ent that men are to be found willing and quick to
support the most shameful and arbitrary assunp-
tons of power 1t has been so since the world be-
gan and we have little hope that it will be other
wise until it ends. Take little heed of SUCH"
says Casca ; eff CAESAR had stabbed their mothers,
they would have done no less" By thus tapping the
dirt under the heel Of power, these natural parlahs
not only obtain Immunity for themselves, but they
also succeed IN putting money in their pockets
They give welcome to the tyrant that they may
safely trade with his suffers The existence osucA
people does not at all astonish that they
are to be found in our midst We were quite pre-
pared to see men, who had abetted mob on the
18th of April 1861 change sides and call Justify for
the blood of that same mob on the 10Th of May fol-
lowing. We expected nothing better of them, and
were not disappointed. When law and liberty are
again uppermost they will, doubtless, be found ma
vigating in opposite direction. When that time
comes, as come it will, we look to behold them,
with faces innocent Of shame, obtrudng themselves
upon the company Of honest men. The natural
inclination will be to hang them up to the first
lamp-post, but we deprecate all such exhibitions Of
violence. We shall rest content to see them kicked
out of the public highway, and limited thereafter to
localities set apart for prostion of a different kind
There is a class of men. however, found support
very worst acts of tyranny, who are justly amena-
BILE to higher and severer standard of judgement
than can be fairly applied to those to whom self
abasement is an easy because natural refuge
These reasoners rest the defense of their public
conduct upon the supposed necessities of the coun-
try and the hour and salus popu lee supreme est,
is their war-cry. This maxim they make to conse-
crate, not only the high handed acts of Lincoln and
Seward but even the dirty vilainy of their mill
tary and police subordinates. A little girl toddling
about the pavements, whose stockings are guilty of
the Confederate colors is arrested and taken to the
station-house that the safety of the people may be
assured? But our present object is not to quarrel
with the prostitution to contest the truth of the
maxim in question. We would remark, however,
| that it is a maxim which has much oftener been
heard from the lips of tyrants than patriots It is
against its application to our times and country,
| however, that we particularly object What is the
plain English of it when applied to our present con-
dition 1t is to suspend the Constitution for an
indefinite period to invest Mr.. Lincoln with plepary
power throughout the land in word, to seat des-
potism upon our shoulders that the subugation of
the South may be facilitated Now, we do not
admit that the subugation of the South is essential
to our salvation but if it could be established to be
before We invest Mr. Lincoln with absolute control
over lives liberty and property not entitled
70 Do SHOWN why this subjugation could not be &C.
compnshed as well by obeying as by overriding the
CONSTITUTION Besides, what security has the coun-
Try tnat Mr. Lincoln will abdicate this imperial
power when the supposed danger has been passed
but wnat really Is the danger which menaces our
safety? The separation of the South from the North
an accomplished fact which no sane man can ignore
II ne would. Upon the part of the South tho war