The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1862-11-07

President, and appreciation of his procla-
nation Of emancipation, says: ''Ihe DEM
Ocrats talk about unconstitutional acts.
Nobody pretends that this act is cOnstitu-
tional, and nobody cares whether it is or
not"
think too well of the President, to be-
liete he has done an act involving the lives
and fortunes of millions of human beings,
and the entire social condition of great
people. without caring whether it is con-
formable to that Constitution which he has,
many times, sworn to support.
Among all the causes Of alarm which
now distress the public mind, there are few
more terrible to rejecting men, than the
tendency to lawlessness which is manifest
ing itself in so many directions. No
stronger evidence of this could be afforded,
than the declaration of respectable and
widely circulated journal, that "nobody
cares whether great public act of the
President of the United States, is in con-
formity with, or is subversive of the SUI
preme law of the land,-the only basis
upon which the government rests; that our
public affairs have been so desperate, and
our ability to retrieve them by the use of
honest means is so distrusted, and our will
ingness to use other means so undoubted
that our great public servants may them
selves break the fundamental laws of the
country, and become usurpers of vast
powers not intrusted to them, in violation
of their solemn oaths of Office; and emo
body cares"
1t is not believed that this is just to the
people of the United States. They do care,
and the President cares, that he and all
other public servants should obey the con-
stitution. Partisan journals, their own
honest and proper desire to support the
President-on whose wisdom and trmness
they rely to relieve their country from its
evils and dangers-and the difficulties
which the mass of the people encounter in
forming opinions on questions OF cOnstitu-
tional law, may prevent them, for limit
ed time, from arriving at just Judgment
OF such questions, or Of The cast prdcti-
cal effects dependent upon them.
But the people of the United States do
not expect national concord to spring from
usurpations of power; or national securi-
ty from the violation of those great princ-
pies OF public liberty, which are the only
possible foundation, in this country, of
private safety and of public order. Their
instincts demand purer and more COM
prehensive craftsmanship than that which
seizes upon unlawful expedients, because
they may possibly avert for the moment
some threatening danger at the expense
of the violation of great principles of free
government, or of the destruction of some
necessary safeguard of individual security.
1t is subject Of discussion in the public
journals whether it is the intention of the
Executive to use the powers asserted in the
last proclamation and in the orders of the
Secretary of War, to suppress free discus
sion of political subjects. I have conf
dence in the purity and potriotism both of
the President and the Secretary of War. |
fear no such present application of this
proclamation and these orders by them.
But the execution of such powers must be
intrusted to subordinate agents, and it is
ofthe very essence of arbitrary power that
it should be in hands which can act
promptly and efficiently, and unchecked by
forms These great powers must be con-
fided to persons actuated by party, or To-
cal or personal feelings and prejudices; or,
what would often prove as ruinOus to the
citizen, actuated by desire to commend
their vigilance to their employers, and by
laundering and stupid zeal in their SER
vice.
But it is not this or that particular ap-
plication of power which is to be consider
ed. 1t is the existence of the power, and
the uses of which it is susceptible, while
following out the principle on which it has
been assumed.
The uses of power, even in despotic
monarchies, are more or less controlled by
usages and customs, or in other words, by
public opinion. In good hands, and in IA
vorable times, despotic power is not COM
monty allowed to be felt to be oppressive;
and, always, the forms Of q free govern
ment, which has once existed, so far as
is practicable, are carefully and speciously
preserved. But a wise people does not
trust its condition and rights to the happy
accident of favorable times or good hands.
1t is jealous of power. It knows that of
all earthly things, it is that thing most like
ly to be abused; and when it affects ma
ton, most destructive by its abuse. They
will rouse themselves to consider what is
the power claimed; what is it's origin; what
it's extent; what uses may be made Of it in
dangerous times, and by men likely to be
produced in such times;- sand while they
will trust their public servants, and will
pour out their dearest blood like water to
sustain them in their honest measures for
their country's salvation, they will demand
of those servants obedience to their will,
as expressed in thefundamental laws of the
government, to the end that there shall not
be added to all the sufferings and losses
they have uncomplainingly borne, that
most irreparable of all earthly losses-the
ruin of the principles of their free govern
ment.
What then is to be done 2 Are we to
cease our utmost efforts to save our coun-
try, because it's chief magistrate seems to
have fallen, for the time being, into what
we believe would be fatal errors, if persis-
ted in by him, and acquiesced in by our
selves +? Certainly not. Let the people
but be right, and no President can long be
wrong; nor can he effect any fatal mis-
chief if he should be.
The sober SOun1 thOnpht IF the naOn1a