Democrat and sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1853-1866, 1863-11-11
sacredness of Personal Rights.


GRANTING OF MAGMA CHARTA AT RUNNY-
MEDE.
In the course of very able and effec-
tive speech at the Cooper Institute, New
York, on Saturday night, the Hon. S. S.
Cox, the gallant and fearless Representa-
tive of the Ohio Democracy, drew two |
pictures worthy of the most artistic pencil. /!
and which, together, will ever possess a
lively interest wherever liberty is cherished
one of the granting of Magma Charta at
Runnymede, and the other of its conse-
Grafton at Westminster Abbey with the
authority of the Catholic Church. The
effect which they produced upon the i'm
mense audience, says the World, was
striking After reciting some of the more
notorious instances of the violations of
personal rights and liberties of which the
Administration has been guilty, MIR. Cox
said:
''The traveller who visits that island
meadow in the river Thames, near Wind
sor, now used as a race course, and still
known rs Runnymede, does not go there
! to see the horses run, but because that
meadow marks an era in the progress OF
| human freedom There. six hundred and
forty-four years ago, on the morning of
| the 18th of August, the iron-clad barons
! met King John and wrested from him the
same rights which have been violated by
/ Abraham Lincoln, and ostracised by the
! indemnity bill of rhe last Congress.
! TCheers These rights were written in
! the .atin of that day. .Hui,us hbe,. homo
| capiatu' it began. Dead language, but
vital with liberty, which Chatham said
was with all the classics.
"s No free man shall be arrested or inn
prisoned or deprived of his own free
! household, or of his liberties, or of his
own free customs, or outlawed, or BAN
ished, or injured in any manner, nor will
| we pass sentence upon him. nor send trial
upon him, unless by the legal judgment Of
Ais peers or By tie lato Of the land
! GCheers.
This was the germ of our civil free
dom, which the pigmies of to-day are en-
deavoring to uproot, now that 1t has
grown from the acorn TO the oak AS
another Judge Thomas, of Massachus-
etts,) has so finely expressed IT, from the
gray of that morning streamed the rays,
which, uplifting with the hours, coursing
with the years, and keeping pace with the
centuries have encircled the whole earth
with the glorious light of English liberty
the liberty for which our fathers planted
these conmonwealths in the wilderness
for which they went through tine baptism
of blood and fire in the Revolution; which
thev imbedded and hoped to make mmor-
tai in the Constitution without which the
Constitution would not be worth the parch-
ment on which it was written Cheers.
AS if to make this great charter sacred
forever in the Anglo-Saxon memory. to
connect it with the holiest emotions OF re-
liclon. and to sanction it by the hopes and
the terrors of the unseen world, the
Catholic hierarchy of that day-long be-
fore Protestanism arose-before the Re-
Observation-Disclosures we had the trancedental
light of our Puritan preachers Qaughter),
this Catholic hierarchy, then the friend OF
the oppressed and the people, were con-
voked A few days after the unwilling
. king signed the charter. / would like to
make picture to your eye of that great
, convcoation. They met in Westminister
Abbey. the mausoleum of the dead roy
atty and genius of Britain. Here was
I the king upon his throne, sceptered and
crowned, impurpled in his robes of office
: near him were the lords temporal in theiI
scarlet gowns on his right were the gen,
. tlemen of England representing the Com
e mons-the people of the realm--ane
I within the altar were the Lords spiritual
clad in all the pomp of their pontliieia
! apparel In the midst stood Stepher
, Langdon, the primate of England, Arch
bishop of Canterbury. The great organ
rolls its music amidst the Gothic arches
q the air, sutfused with dim religious ligh
!. from the stained windows, trembes with
/. the thrill symphony divine, and tin
r choir sing 7e Dem Mueiamus-praise t'
: God for the great charter of human free
: dom. Censors swing and the incens
: rises, an offering to the God of justice
And in that impressive presence the arch
bishop arises, and, gathering upon IN
brow and in his voice the terrors OF tn
J. invisible and eternal world, he sequester
IS and excludes, and from the body of ou
l. Lord Jesus Christ, from the company G
If the saints in Heaven and the good o.
d earth, he forever excommunicates and ac
# curses every one who should dare violat
!. that great charter of Anglo-Saxon free
" dom (Cheers) Think you, men G
@ New York, these cries are not living yet
K A Massachusetts Senator has said tha
YOUR honored Governor Is now BEN