The Union and journal. [volume] (Biddeford, Me.) 1858-1882, 1862-02-07

give aid and comfort to the enemies Of his
country. bot the evil enchantress bad him 30
fully under her direction that he could not
refrain from going among the dishonored
graves OF the past and trying to revive tho
dry bones Of JEFF. Davis and Breckenridge
democracy. The influence Of the speech 30
far Us II goes, IL to shield the causes which
led the miscreants of treason TO enter on o
diabolical war against the Union, which IL
now shedding in such profusion the blood OF
loyal citizens. Its delusive reasonings and
eauiyocal loyalty originate from blind idola-
try of Slavery, the cause Of the Rebellion with
its long catalogue Of woes.
The doctrine advocated
by Mr.. Sweat fully covers the bred Scott
heresy, Lecomptonism, and leads necessarily
to the trcasonous results which We now SEQ
in the seceeding States. It says Congress,
the President, the Judiciary, the Armies, the
People. cannot destroy the Slavery Of rebels,
for that has rights outside and beyond tho
Constitution. A fouler, blacker heresy was
never propogated in Austria, Russia, or Tur-
key. BY assuming the sacredness Of the
slave property Of rebels in defiance of the
manifest necessity of war and the constituted
agents Of the Government, he argues that the
Constitution and the Union have no power
of selc-protection-that they must cover with
an impenatrablc shield what Is dealing fatal
blows against their own existence and spread
ing havoc and desOlation over the interest
they were instituted to protect and maintain.
That is insisting that the Constitution has
power to defend its enemies while they are
undermining and destroying it-that 1t has
power 10 commit suicide but no inherent
energies and rights of preservation. This Is
the doctrine so pcrsistcntly maintained for
years by that school Of men now in arms
against the Government. This doctrine is in
plain defiance Of the principle which has
received the undisputcd sanction OF ages
the principle which lies at the foundation
and Is interviewer with the very structure Of
civil Govcrnmcnt-that The SAFETY ofthe Cop
ernmcnt is The supreme inc. The distinction
which Mr.. Sweat makes between foreign
enemies in arms against the government and
rebel enemies in arms against the government
is absurd, impracticable, and dangerous.
In making slave property more sacred than
all other property and that Government for
its own safety from overthrow cannot contis-
cate it, Senator Sweat argues the worst type
Of Breckinridgeism, such as would be highly
satisfactory to the chiefs of the Southern
Confcderncy, and DO exceedingly delcctable
to the sensitive Constitutional stomachs Of
vallangdisham, Bright and Ben Wood. A
moro shameless peryersion OF the Constitution
of the United States could hardly DO con.
ccived. 1t makes no valid distinction be.
tween the rights and condition Of loyal men
and the men who have forfeited all right 10
life and property. The spirit Of the argument
is exactly like that pernicious and treasonous
heresy so often used before the attack on
Sumter, that the Federal Government had no
right to ooercc the rebels into submission to
the Constitution and the laws.