Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1862-04-28
TneI.anamarts of Liberty.

In these degenerate days, when party false TO
true liberty bestrides the Government of the Uni
ted States it will prove profitable to look back to
the golden era when we had patriots and states
men at the head of our national affairs. From
the first inaugural message of President JEFFER-
son we make the following extract:
The diffusion of information and the arraign-
ment OF all abuses at the bar of public opinion.
freedom of religion, freedom of the press, free
dom of person under the protection of h0beas
corpus and trial by juries impartially selected
these principles form the bright constellation
which has gone before US and guided our steps
through age of revolution and reformation.
The wisdom of our sages and the blood of our
heroes have been devoted to their attainment.
They should be the creed of our political faith,
the text OF our civil instruction. the tombstone by
which to try the services of those we trust; anu
should We wander from them in moments of error
or alarm, let US hasten to retrace our steps and
regain the road which alone leads to peace liber-
ty and safety.
These words send music to the ear of the ma
ton and encouragement to the hearts of the PEG
pie. They are the words of freedom, spoken in
the presence of the free and in the councils of the
great and good men who achieved our first
4
of all abuses at the bar of public opinion" Mr..
JEFFERSON declared was one of the duties mo
one then denied the right of a good citizen,
and il is to-day as sacred a duty as it was
in 1870, or at any later period. There are those
who deny that right in the fear of Grace, 1862,
and would, if they dare, enact new sedItion laws
to punish the out spoken citizen As for the free
dom of religion, who does not remember the
mobbing of converts in Boston, the burning o,
churches in Philadelphia, the bowling mpreca-
tons of Know Nothingism against foreigners and
Catholics, and the general saturnalia which the
descendants of the old Federal faction revived,
long after JEFFERSON and the Democracy had
laid that stupid and intOlerant faction in its po-
litcal grave. That old defunct party has its imi-
tators to day, and they as bigOled, as reckless
and as prOscriptive as were the Essex Junto in
the palmy days of HARRIsoN GRAY OTIs and
CALEB STRONG. Like the BOurbOns OF France,
they never recanted an error and never learned
wisdom from the hard experience of the past
They are the men who virtually control this
Administration now-the BEN. WADEs the CHAs.
SUMMERS, the HENRY Wilson's, the CHANDLERs
of Michigan. the FEssENDENs the GIDDINGsEs, the
| JULIENs, the THAD. STEvENsEs, and host OF
other such violent slavery haters, scattered from
| Maine to Missouri They belong, some of them,
to the War Committeeman of Bull Run nOtOri-
ety-who constantly urged our Generals on to
| defeat, when the Generals are big fools enough
to pay attention to them. These same men have
assaulted the liberty of the press, the liberty oil
| speech, and the sacredness of the h0beas corpus
and have done every deed and counseled every
outrage on the great principles which JEFFERSON
labored to establish security for the rights of
the people.
| Let us frequently advert to the great landmarks
which the early fathers of the Republic lett ior
our guidance Let no Democrat-no man who
loves his country, of any party-forget that the
observance of the I1rittsn law Is a duty which
neither the President, Congress, nor the people
can disregard without eminent peril to our rights
and liberties; and, to use Mr. JEFFERsoN's strong
and eloquent language, "should we wander from
them in moments of error and alarm, let ms
hasten to retrace our steys, and regain the road
which alone leads TO peace liberty and safety"