Worcester daily spy., 1863-07-16

"e cohscrlpt1on now in progress tbro,ol,
out the loyal states will sho,v f., ,,,u.,.'
'ne world whether the people of this countrr,
are capable Of lf-government or rot Tf :.
@ oI our army pa6hte 'i4ife. r,..,,,,to
and the nationality restored. If on tIlr otner
hand the draft be resisted and the govern
ment fails to fill the ranks of the army on
which it depends for support, the whole fab
| riC of our institutions will tall in ruins, and
new government must be instituted. Repub-
lieanism will have proved failure, democra-
cy an illusion, and despUlSln more or less
severe must supersede both. The right to
vote and constitute government implies the
duty to fight, if need be, to sustain that gov
ernment, and unless that duty is practically
and fully acknowledged by the people, self
| government must cease. 1t has no fuunda.
ton, no support. The government does not
| ask the aid of the citizen as favor, but de-
mands it as Il duty.
Such being the fact evident to all rejecting
minds, it is quite obvious that we have arriv-
ed at that point when the great test is pre-
sented which will decide clearly and forever
whether the governmental institutions, of
which we have long and loudly boasted as
''the best on earth" have any stability or not.
Copperheadism, or opposition TO the gov
ernment to the conscription, and such other
measures as are Indispensable to its presef-
vatiOn, strikes, not at any party. or set Of
men, in power or out but at the existence of
free institutions. When people having the
unrestricted right of suffrage, raise their
hands in resistance to the legal acts of their
government, they rebel against the very prin-
cipe on which it is founded.
When Louis Blanc, member of the French
assembly, went into the streets of Paris and
joined the mob in their attempts to overthrow
the existing government, he made himself a
traitor not only to the government, but to the
principles of universal suffrage by which he
was himself elected. He rebelled against the
ballot, and practically declared it a failure.
The despotism of Louis Napoleon was sooner
or later necessary consequence. II men
cannot govern themselves, if they will not
trustthemselves to the votes and decisions of
the majority, expressed under the forms of
law, then the strong arm of arbitrary power
becomes indispensable.
1t is for this reason that we must regard the
present moment as the crisis of our republic.
If the citizen will respond to its call, all will
be WE'LL if otherwise, it goes to destruction
at once.
Now, sensible men will see this, patriotic
men will feel the truth Of this; ana therefore
all such will be harmonious and united in Civ
ing efficiency to the effort now making to sus-
tain the government; and as a majority of the
people are both sensible and patriotic, that is,
understand their true interests, and are ready
to sustain them at all hazards, we are not to
doubt that the draft now in progress will be
successfully made, our armies be fully re-
cruited, and the country saved from the great
peril impending over it
None but the ignorant or malicious the
stupid or depraved can for a moment give
any countenance to resistance of the con.
scription, come in what form or from what
quarter it may. C1vIs.