The southern aegis, and Harford County intelligencer., 1863-07-24

A' PAieu W Shc uhdulLuouo uOmluutlou as
candidate for Governor of Ohio, which you
gave me. while l was yet in the Confeder-
ate States, 1t was not misplaced it shall
never be abused But this is the last of
all considerations in times like these. I
ask no personal sympathy for the personal
wrong. No; it is the cause of coustitu
tional liberty and private right cruelty out
ragged beyond example, ina free country,
by the President and his servants, which
gives public signifcancy to the action Of
your convention. Yours was, indeed, an
act of justice to a citizen who, for his de-
votien TO the rights of the States and the
liberties of the people, had been marked
to destruction. by the hand of arbitrary
power But it was much more. It was
an example of courage worthy of the he
roic ages of the world and it was spec-
tacle and rebuke to the usurpingI ty-
rants n who, having broken up the Union,
would now strike down the Constitution,
subyert your present Government, and es-
tablish formal and proclaimed despotism
IN its stead. You are the restorers and
detendersof constitutional liberty, and by
that proud title history will salute you.
congratulate you sHpon your nomina-
tlons. They whom yon have placed upon
the ticket with me are gentlemen of char
acter, ability, integrity and tried fidelity
to the Constitution, the Union, aud to
Liberty. Their moral and political cour-
age-a quality always rare, and now the
most valuable of public virtues, is beyond
question. Every way, all these were non-
nations tit to be made. And even ieal-
ousy, am sure, will now be hushed, if I
especially rejoice with you in the nomina.
tion of Mr. Pugh as your candidate for
Lieutenant Governor and President of the
Senate. A scholar and gentleman, a
soldier in foreign war, and always a pa.
trlot; eminent as q lawyer, and distin-
gulshed as an orator and statesman, [
hall his acceptance as an omen of the re-
turn of the better and more virtuous davs
of the Republic.
l endorse your noble platform-elegapt
in style, admirable in sentiment. You
present the true issue and commit your
selves to. the great mission just now of
the Democratic party-to restore and
make sure, first, the rights and liberties
declared yours by your Constitutions. 1t
is vain to invite the States and people of
the South to return to Union without
Constitution, and dishonored and polluted
by repeated and most aggravated exsctious
OF tyrannic power. 1t is base in your
selves and treasonable to your posterity to
surrender these liberties and rights to the
creatures whom your own breath created
and can destroy.
Shall there be free speech, free press,
pea,ceable assemblages of the people and
and free ballot any longer in Ohio p
Shall the people hereafter, as hitherto,
have the right to discuss and condemn
the principles and policy of the party
the ministry-the men who, for the time.
conduct the Government-to demand Of
their public servants reckoning of their
stewardship, and to place other men and
another party in power at their supreme
will and pleasure Shall Order Thirty
Eight or the Constitution be the supreme
law Of the land? And shall the citizen
any more be arrested by an armed SOL.
dlery at midnight, dragged from wife and
child and home, to a military prison
thence to mock military trial; thence
condemned and then banished as a felon
Tor the exercise Of his rights ....
This is the issue, and nobly YOU have
met it. 1t is the very question of free,
popular government itself. 1t is the
whole question upon the one side, liber-
y on the other, despotism. The Presi-
dent, as the recognized head of his party,
accepts the issue. Whatever he wills.
that Is law. Constitutions, State and
Federal, are nothing; acts of legislation
nothing; the judiciary less than nothing.
In time OF war, there. is but one will su-
preme-his will; but one law-military
necessity, and he the sole judge.
Military orders supercede the Constitu.
tlon,and military comnissions ,usurp the
place OF the ordinary courts of Justice in
the land. Nor are these mere idle claims
For two years and more, by arms, thew
have been enforced, It was the mission
OF the weak but presumptuous Burnside
"a name infamous forever ir the ears of
all lovers of constitutional liberty--to try
the experiment in Ohio-aided bya fudge
whom ! name not, because he bas brought
country. a@', ''''. -
ln your hands now, men of Ohio, is the
nnai nal laa issue Of the experiment The party
OF the administration have accepted tt
by Piedglng support Of the President they