The mountain Democrat., 1863-06-13

though he does not care to give promi.
nenCe to it yet. 1t authorized the send
ing a special Minister-a confidential one
if need be-to negotiate a settlement with
the enemy. Now it may bel only
throw this out as hint-a possible so.
luton Of the New York mystery-thaI
out Of the secret service fund, which Sec
/ retary Seward now administers, instead OF
employing, as he did last year in Europe,
a team of Bishops--one American and
one lriSh--he contemplateS sending a
team of lawyers Irish and one Amer
ican--my two acquaintances, Mr. Brady
and Mr.. Van Buren-to Richmond to
! negotiate settlement Of the war and the
recovery Of the wayward sisters"
cannot imagine more impressive tableau
than the reception, by the stern states
man who administers the executive power
of the Southern Confedcracy, of the two
jovial and versatile practitioners Of law
from the City of New York. Really,
were not such tergiversation as is new
exhibited in New York, a sad spectacle,
one might well afford to smile at the i'm
! portance which has been attached to it,
But, every now and then, hear some
loose reader of history say, Washington
was once made Dictator, and why not
Lincoln? y Now, passing by the gro
tesqueness-nay, the enormity of this col
! location, ! simply desire to state as mat
ter of history that in the true, or even as
the popular, sense of the word, Washing
ton was never made Dictator, and never
had, or pretended to exercise such power
as is now vested in Mr.. ) braham Lincoln.
The Resolution of the Continental Con-
gress of 9th December, 1776-passed at
a moment of danger and panic, too-con-
ferred only military powers-enlarged the
scope Of what he had already-gave him
power to seize forage and supplies and
make military arrests, and in that case,
provided that where such arrests were
made, he was to return to the States Of
which the prisoners arrested were citizens
their names and the nature of their Of
fences, together with the witnesses to
prove them. How unlike this power so
, cautiously conferred on Washington at
period Of extreme peril is to that which
has been given to the irresponsible civil
ian at Washington and his still less re-
, sPonsib!e advisers, do not stop to in
quire.
And now, fellow citizens, I have done
| have spoken words Of counsel and of
warning which beg of you to mediate
on when you lay your heads on your pill
low tonight. They are uttered by one
who has as deep stake in good order and
public tranquility as you have, who is a
Northern man, born and bred, who for the
larger part of his life held the most latitu-
dirarian doctrines rs to Federal authority,
but who now seeing what bitter fruits the
rank growth of Federal power generates,
what frightful results Federal exorbtance
produces, comes back to the source Of
power, his State, and for his personal
rights as citizen and freeman claims pro.
lection there. look round me, and ask
you to look round with me, and sec every
personal right we have-to liberty, to pro-
perty, to safety, to hcalth--guarded by
State authority and vindicated in State
courts. daly estimated what once were
the privileges which the Ancient Union
gave me with its patents aud copyrights,
II | were an inventor or an author, and in
all my relations to the world abroad, but
t..cv are as nothing compared with what
my State gave me and guaranteed me; and
when | find, as do now, under the legis,
Iation of the late Congress, and the usur-
patton Of the Executive. that new relations
of Government have been crcated--and
that the FcIcral authority is to tax me and
enroll me--turn the militaman into a con.
script--the local volunteer into Il regular
soldier for three years or the war;" is to
enter my house and do what it pleaSes
with my family, and that instead Of Sher.
ifs, and Constables, and BalilfS, and Su.
pervisors to whose gentle discipline am
accustomed, ! am TO be followed, and
hustled, and watched, and arrested, by
Judge Advocates, and Provost MarshaIs,
and Federal detectives, and Post office
spies, responsible not to local supervision,
but to that mysterious and distant entity,
a Cabinet at Washington, may be par
doned if pause and ask you to pause on
the edge of thiS--this great centralized
Whirlpool that is to engult and crush to
pieces all that is left of each of that gal
hnt tiotilla--the old Thirteen-with its
State flag flying and its State emblem dis
played, and which was lrcighted with all
that was precious in local traditions, State
pride ana municipal privileges
1t is in the States that the last battle of
constitutional liberty is to be fought In
the North. The legislation of the late
Congress is that of an Imperial Parlia-
ment over an unrepreSented population.
Its direct tendency is to oblitcratc local
privileges, and to revive, in a form more
offensive than ever before was dreamed of,
the false dogma, that Federal legislation
can, by virtue Of implied power, reach IN.
divldual citizens. So it is avowcd to be,
and being so aimed and avowed, | de-
nounce it in hostility to the Constitution
which guards the States quite as jcaously
as 1t eve. was meant to guard the Union.
say its aim is avowcd. On the 4th of
March the Chairman Of the Military Com
mittee in the House of Representatives, a
New York Aboltionists, who has been
appointed Judge by Mr.. Lincoln since
Congress adjourned, used this language in
reference to the Conscription Bill, which,
he said, had been prepared by the best
and most enlightened intellects of the
ARMY:
Tits the first time in the history of the Re-
public that the power to raise and support
armies has been in the proper sense exercised
by Congress. 1t does not ask the cooperation
of the States. The idea of calling upon the
States to furnish troops has its origin in the
accurSed doctrine Of State rights and State
sovereignty"
"The accursed doctrine of State rights"
think of these words, citizens of this
sovereign State. Think of the curse which,
from his little Mount Elba in Congress,
this creature of moment dares to hurl at
rights which the Constitution guaraa-
tees, and which Pennsylvania had, and