Columbia Democrat and Bloomsburg general advertiser. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1850-1866, 1863-10-03
VOLUME 27.


power. If you think that your local
courts might still give you protection, re-
member the case of Judge Carmichael,
who laid down the law as he conscien.
tiously believed it 10 bc--as it certainly
was and as he knew the peace of society
required that it should bc-and, because
the law did not please the Abolitionists,
was dragged from the bench by band Of
ruffians, knocked down with the butt ends
of their pistols, and carried awny to prison,
where he was kept for eleven mortal
months
Such has been the history of these en-
croachments in all past time. They begin
with petty violations Of justice, and swell
with frightful rapidity into the most stu.
pendous crimes. Their first victim is a
solitary, helpless and perhaps unpopular
individual, but they end by forcing the
yoke on the necks Of millions.
The people Of Holland live in a country
where the land is several feet below the
level of the sea. They protect themselves
against constant inundation by large
earthwork, which they call a dyke, ex-
tending all along the coast. What they
are most troubled with is a large species
of rat, which burrows under and makes
holes through their dyke Now, rat hole
is not very alarming thing it ITSELF but
the action of the water makes it large.
every moment Ifit be neglected for
single night, by the time the morning
dawns the rat hole has widened into huge
c,eUasSe, the ocean goes pouring through
it, and the whole land is laid under water.
SO it is with the Constitution, which is our
dyke. If the smallest breach is once made
in it, 'the cvcr-toiling wave of arbitrary
power" which is continually surgng up
against it, will constantly enlarge it until
all protection for our rights is washed
away. 1 tell you, gentlemen, if you de-
sire to save ope remnant Of your liberties,
you must watch the rat holes in your
Constitution.
But there is a necessity, some tells US,
for these violations Of law Ii is WONDER
full that any man possessed of reason
could be imposed on by an excuse Sc weak
SO shallow and so childish. This neces-
sity has often been urged as reason for
acts that everybody condemned it has
never in all the worlds history had tho
sanction of one true patriot or one great
statesman, but it has been branded asHthe
syrants plea" by the universal sense of
all mankind. BY all our ancestors in the
t old world, by all our Revolutionary heroes
by all who administered our Government
heretofore, the necessity was always
thought to be precisely the other way
, The supreme necessity which presided
over all others was obedience TO the law.
That is the very purpose and the only
, purpose for which magistrates are chosen.
) When a man, who is appointed and sworn
to guard the laws, and see ,hem faithfully
executed, tells you that he will necessarily
violate them himself and encourage others
10 do likewise, your plain and obvious an
swer must be that he is not fit for his bus-
y ness.
b All these heresies must be extirpated
before we can hope for peace, or protection
or Union, or prosperity. But the election
Of Woodward will be the forerunner of a
national triumph for the Democratic party.
When that happens, though we cannot
n certainly promise, we can reasonably hope
n for restoration of the Union. II our
. Abolition enemies leave the country in a
- sayablc state it will be saved, and this
S great nation will start on u new career
& whose glories will make the spcudors of
e the past look dim in comparison. At all
events we can bring back he reign OF order
and law, under which every citizen who ia
? conscious of his innocence may breathe the
1t deep breath and sleep the sound sleep of a
S freeman.