Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1862-05-28

bellion like this when whole States hay,
come out and proclaimed their intention
to destroy the life of our glorious Govern
ment, when they have their martial host
in the field, bent on its destruction, un
derstand them to be entirely absolvec
from the protecting ngis of the Constitu
ton. They have struck at your life
They would take your hearts blood
They proclaim themselves ready to do it
And yet, sir, you are to treat them will
lenity! Your Constitution prescribes that
no man shall be deprived of his life, ol
despoiled of his goods, without due pro
cess of law. 1t guarantees to every man
the right Of life, liberty, and property
but are you not compelled to advance in,
to his country with your armies, to plant
your cannon, and destroy him by whole
Grnies together? Is that constitutional.
My Secession friend, if there is any such
here, why do YOU not invoke the Consti
tuition in opposition TO our cannon and
our musketry against these rebels? The
Constitution protects their rights. You
do not invoke it on the battlefield. You
do not summon jury. You do not try
him there by jury, as the Constitution
says you shall. Why do you not carry
your doctrines to their legitimate end ?
Why stop short? Does the Senator from
California pretend that when our hosts
march in battle-array, and meet those OF
the enemy, and it is life against life, we
should summon jury before we begin to
shoot, and see whether they had commit
ted actual rebellion? Your Constitution
says their lives shall not be taken with
out due process of law. | ask You, cavil-
er about the Constitution, where is the
law for it?
Sir, no jurist yet has had the folly to
attempt to limit the powers that a man
may use in defense of his own life when
assailed; and so no statesman will at
tempt to limit the power that nation
may use when the life of the nation is
assailed There is no limit TO it. You
have right to 90 forward in an individ-
ual case in your might, and if your life is
sought, any force, any power, anything
that you may do honestly in defense of
your own life, the law pronounces a justi-
fable act. SO when the life of the ma
ton is assailed by vile traitors embodied
in military array for its destruction, they
are beyond all law, they have repudiated
all law, and the nation, in defense of its
Constitution, its Union, and its flag, may
resort to any means that God Almighty
has put into their hands honestly to main
tain their constitutional rights. l know
very well that small lawyers may get up
on these great questionsof craftsmanship
and pettifogging as a man would to screen
a felon before a justice of the peace, and
place his arguments on those narrow
principles of constitutional law. He may
require all the presumptions of innocence
that are so often reSorted to to shield
culprit from the punishment of his crime.
1t is done here. But sir, the man whose
life is assailed does not summon a jury,
and the nation whose life is assaiied by
traitors need not summon a jury. All
you want is the power, honestly exercised
to put it down.
Let me say, in passing, that every word
and every syllable that the Senator in
volled in favor of Gen. Stone might have
been lust as well, and with more proprie-
ty and more strength, uged in favor of
jeff. Davis to-day. lie had played very
in Mexico he had held high offices un-
der your Constitution and all the argu
ments that the gentleman resorted to to
shield General Stone would be indefinite
lv stronger in the case of Jeff. Davis to-
dav. Lucifer was once a bright angel in
heaven but he fell, and he has not been
much honored in that quarter since
Laughter.
Sir. am tired of hearing there argu-
ments in favor of traitors. The Constitu-
ton takes their lives, their property, their
all. Why shall we stop short? Are they
not in quest of ours? If there IS any
stain on the present Administration, it is
that they have been weak enough to deal
too leniently with these traitors. | know !
it sprung from goodness of heart it |
sprung from the best of motives: but sir, |
as a method of putting down this rebel !
lion. mercy to traitors is cruelty to loyal |
men. Look into the Seeded States, and |
see thousands of loyal men there coerced |
into their armies to run the hazard OF
their lives. and placed in the damnable |
position of peUured traitors by force of
arms. If there is man there bold |
enough to maintain his integrity in the
face of these internal powers, do they !
scruple to take his life, his property, his
all? Sir, by your merciful course you
have paid a premium to treason, and made |
it almost impossible that loyal man in
the seceeded States maintain himself at |
all. Those States are overrun frequently |
by lawless bands of rebels, who do not |
scruple one moment to take their proper
tv and their lives, and treat them with |
every indignity and every cruelty that
perverse ingenuity can invent but on the
other hand, when our armies come along |
there, they deal quite leniently with the
traitor as with the loyal man. What |
teaches human nature? A man having
solely a regard to his self-interest, living |
in one of those communities, will undoubt-
edly reason thus: Il must profess to be 4
traitor; | must cooperate with them, for
if their lawless bands overrun the coun-
try inhabit, ifI show any Union senti-
ment. any love to the old Constitution
md the old flag, ! shall lose not only my
life. but all possess while, on the other
hand, If the Federal forces overrun the
country. they are so lenient that, even
Drofessed traitor as / am, they will
respect not only my life, but my proper
". and all have" Sir. the rule IS as i'm
polite as it is unjust. You should carry
he avenging sword along with your ar
mics. and snite traitors and smite treason.
md put down, and yield protection
% honest, loyal men. Until You adopt
hat course. YOU will war in vain. Mr.. PreSi-
lent, for one, / say let us go forward
against treason and traitors let us put
lown this rebellion at all hazards. If, in
loing so, your darling institution must
20 under, shall not regret it. If it must
5ome to this, that the Union and Slavery
,annot live together, let Slavery die the
leath, for the Constitution, the Union,
md the time honorcd old flag shall live
brewer.
Sir, have been in the Senate for some
time, and | should have been
IN exceedingly dull man if / had not
earned. the course of defense that is con-
family set up here for those who have
ssailed the institutions of our country
There is an unvarying course of remark
hat they indulge in, so that no man need !
,e mistaken as to what they intend
Those who assail the Administration on [
ccount of what they call tyranny to men
with traitors, never to my I