The Lansing state Republican. [volume] (Lansing, Mich.) 1855-1874, 1862-05-07


ly attached to our government, We are called up
on 20 discharge. Our neighbors and kindred
are in the 6eld; they are freely, gallantry, gio-
riously shedding their blood in defense of the
Government. Let ~ be mindful of them, too,
and show them at least that We are in earnest.
Again, il il further objected tina: the bill vio-
lates the rights of private property a. secured
by the fifth amendment of the Constitution,
which provides that no person " shall be depriv-
ed Of life, liberty, or property, without due pro-
cess Of law, nor shall private property be taken
for public use without just compensation"
What have already said would seem to be Q
sufficient answer to :his objection; for If, under
the power to make and carry on war, private
property may be seized and confscated. il 10
quite clear that whatever cases the amendment
nay include, il does not include that. The war
power takes il out of the category of property
thus protected. But that the amendment does
not relate, and was not desiged to relate to q
state Of var, 10 plain from the very terms in
which il is couched-no person "shall be de-
prived Of life, liberty, or property" Surely,
gentlemen do net intend to be understood as
saying that life and liberty may net both be Ia
ken in war, without formal service of process
OF court of justice upon the person Who 10 to
lose them! If go, then not an enemy has been
Gin by our armies, nor prisoner made since
the adoption OF the amendment, whose death or
capture has not left upon our troops the guilt Of
homicide or false imprisonment The victories
of Lake Erie, the Thames, Piattsburg, and New
Orleans we're all unconstitutional, the seizures OF
British property On land and sea we're so many
cases Of "uespsss De 6onis dsportatis;" Lun-
dye Lane was . mere illegal foray upon the coil
and freehold Of John Bull and Perry and Har-
risGn, Macomb, Scott and Jackson, in achieving
| their victories, made the egregious mistake OF
| supposiDg themselves acting under beligersat
Constitution, instead OF non-combatapt, Quaker
| Constitution. May add. without giving offense,
that hope We have no General now in the field
disposed to give this doctrine practical appli
cation?
But to return. IL is quite clear that the
amendment, instead OF applying 10 a state OF war
xss intended TO secure the regular admiuistrs-
ton OF justice where a state OF war did not ex-
list; TO secure every 10y al man within the actual
dominion OF the Constitution against iawess VIC
Ience TO his lite, liberty, or property, and to pre-
vent the taking OF his property for the public
neces sites or uses without paying nm it's fair
value: in short, to place him beyond the reach
OF il Justice, rspseity, or violence Of his own
government, should II be dIsposed to Cypress
hin aud TO give him the benefit Of trial il
\ the courts OF that Government. But il certainly
can have no application TO a district Of countr,
| ~here hOstties are carried o. for the plain
reason that il j. impossible that civil Courts
should perform their functions in such localities
| aud the old maxim " hich found IN Coke and
Blackstone III our boy hood still speaks the truth
inter anna silent tegss.
No additional reasOas need be urged to chow
that Congress mas full authority under the val
| making po"~r 40 h-v the slaves Of rebel eue
mes for, If the title OF property can be thu.
| transferred, the right to unite the iiganent o
local law By which the slave is bound to his own
er 10 equally obvious. No argument can b.
| urged against the one right that does not Ii,
against the other. 60 further: insist that
since, in the seeding States, all local constitu
tiOns all laws, all government known TO the Con
| stitutiOn OF the United States have de faefo
| been abdcated and abandoned so that the Fed
eral Government cannot take notice Of them
that hgament, SO far as We are concerned, is al
ready dissolved. 1t was cut by the same sword
that severed the Union and if the slave, b,
force or fraud, escapes from his master, he i.
free; for the local Law having ceased he resume.
his natural right of freedom, of which he CANNOT
afterwards be deprived by the Government o.
the United States
One word as to the justice and expediency o.
the proposed con6scation. And here am com
PEELED to say that desire to make discrimina
tons among the rebels. l cannot reconcile my
self to the thUught Of stripping every man who
has borne arms against the Government of his
property. am not unnindful that multitude.
| have been, almost uncOnsciously to themselves
drawn into the rebellion; some under the wide
spread terror that has lowered over their land
terror never yet surpassed in intensity, in vin
dictive passion, in reckless injustice, and actua
violence in the history Of any community, moi
excepting the prescriptions OF Scylla, or The
reign Of terror under Robespierre and st. Just
Multitudes, deluded by the false clanors Of de
signing demsgogues have taken up arms under
the idea that the Federal Government was abou
| to take away their slaves, and that they were
fighting for their property.
There car be no doubt whatever that this Gun
ningly devised delusion, addressing itself az i
did to sectional prejudice and tanning sectiona
passion into fame, has done more to drive the
masses of the southern people to arms than any
other cause. 1t was the supreme artiice of in
ventive and adroit demagOguery. 1t was the
dreadful agency which General jackson, nearl,
| thirty years ago, foresaw and predicted would b.
| seized upon by Calhoun and his followers to dis
| solve the Union. IL was with that terrible in
strument of falsehood and deception that the
Wises, the MasOns, the TOombses, the Jefferson
Davises, the Yanceys. the Slidels, have for Ions
years wrought upon the popular mind Of tn,
South. Shareholders, especially in the cotton
States, credited their tales, and thought them
selves menaced with the universal emancipation
Of the slave States by Congress, although no ACT
Of that body was ever passed, and no bill, OF
even resolution, had ever SO much a. been intro
duced into either House for that purpose; anG
although no such measure was ever recommen
ded ty any State Legislature or any popular con
vention. Surely no people was ever so grossly
trepanned by noisy leaders; never was impos
ture % stupendous practiced or sssayed upor
any community. And so far was it carried thai
the non-saveholding whites we're seduced by it.
mutiform insinuatious into the belief that one
object Of the North vas. by freeing the blacks
TO make them the equals and competitors with
themselves in the various fields OF labor and in
dustry, and BY legislative pressure to bring about
an amalgsmation of the two races Sir, ever
Satan, Disgusting his horrid form, and
s'Squat like toad fast by the ear Of Eve,"
pracsiced no more deliberate deceit upon the
sleeping mother Of the race They alarmed the
| fears Of the timid and un,hinkiug; they aroused
the vigilance wnlcn ever presiuee property;
they stirred up the gall and bitterness Of the big
| ct and fanatic, Who deduces the right Of slavery
from the Gospel itself; they ibAaned the sec
| tioual pride OF those who. mistakenly, claimed
personal and heroic qualities superior to nor
them men addressing the rich planter they
scofed At labor as fit oaly fr slaves; they
spoke of the rapid increase Of population in the
tree States as an alarming portent. and sorro~ed
deeDly over the prospect Of being compelled 10
submit to the will OF q msjority. Finding that
by their ovn incautious haste in forcing the nor
thern Democracy to adopt obnoxious messuree