The Placer herald. [volume] (Auburn, Placer County, Calif.) 1855-1991, 1863-02-21
What is due to the Admin istration.

coin. They will remember that we have
sought excuses for his acts that admitted of
excuses and even when they were not clear
y constitutional, we omitted to make ohiec-
tions. When they permitted a doubt, he
received the benefit of that doubt, and was
sustained. We have not split hairs with
him on constitutional questions. We tried
to sustain him, and thought, through sustain
ing him we should sustain the Constitution
and the Union. We have erred; erred in
giving credit to his public pro,esta,ions of a
desire for his peace; erred in believing that
he wished to sustain the Constitution as it is
and the Union as it was, and erred in deem
ing him capable Of grasping the necessities
Of his position, and guiding himself clear of
the dangers incident to those necessities
We are not bound to believe him. We
were not bound to sustain his administration,
and yet sustained his administration. Hence
forth we shall do neither. He seems deter
mined to press his emancipation procIama
ton to its inevitable resulls-a servile war
war of the blacks against the whies-an
unconstitutional war. We sustain the Con.
stituton and oppose the proclamation.
This government is n government Of con-
stitntonal law. Its officers are made bv
law. controlled by law, displaced by law and
are judged by law; law gives to them their
title and the tenure of their Office; repeal the
law and there will be no officers If the
ministerial officers Of government violate the
laws they are amenable to those laws. Their
duty is to enforce them, not to make them;
to carry them into operation according to
| a 9 Of ho
ing to their own construction. They are
but the conduits through which the law
passes from the legislature to The people,
from the peo lie to the courts, and thence,
returning from the courts to the people,
They are the legal veins of the body polite,
by which the law is transfused throughout
the entire political body; and they must con
fine themse YES alone to that operalion-
They cannot become, legally. the s!uces of
violence, and instead Of maintaining order
produce disorder.
There are no citizens so humble but are
protected by the constitution; and none so
high but are subject to It's provisions. Obe
dlenre to its enac,mens is the price of it's
prot ecton, and ODE Hence is best shown by
sustaining all of its provisions. 1t is not a
matter Of choice what portion must be sus
tanned; all must be sustaine! as each part is
the equal of the other, and to violate one
portion is violation Of the Constitution!
The administration, it is said, must he snsl
tane'l: 1t is true; but not to violate the
Constitution and to the ADMINISTRATION that
suslains the Constitution; but there is no ob
legation upon the citizen to sustain this, or
| IN nil L., Il ,.,tr
its determination to proceed with measures
which are not constitutional. Ii becomes
the duty of the citizen, in such cases, to in.
>ist, through their representatives in Con
oress, upon an exact compliance with the
Constitution and the laws of the alminis,ra
ton, in case Of a continuance of the wrongful
acts to Withhold from the administration, and
means OF carrying unconstitutional measures
into effect. This is the check most etfectual
upon administrations to refuse to lay tax,
or impost, or exercise duty until the wrong.
fu| act be abandoned; and this is the present
duty of our present Senators and Congress,
men until the war is brought back from a
war of abolition to a war for the Constitution
and the Union. Amador Dispatch.
DIDN'r TAKE HIM.-On the 5th inst, a
Lieutenant with squad of twelve men vis-
ted Jerseyville for the purpose of arresting
the editor of the JerseyvlIe Union by order
of the Post Commandant at Alton On en-.
tering the editors sanctum, the Lieutenant
said:
Sir, you are my prisoner
E'lilor-"Have you a warrant for my ar.
rest, Lieutenant"
Lieutenant-"l forgot to bring them. sir,
but am directed By Col Hildebrand, who
has orders from Gen. Curtis, to arrest you,
and | must do it,"
Editor-"lf you have warrant from
even justice. sir, | will quietly submit, but
If, as you say you have no papers, will re,
sist this illegal arrest to the last"
About this time the friends of the editor
entered and informed Lieut.. Jones that no
arrests could be mall in that place, "wi,hout
papers," AS the news spread, the people
became excited, and the Union says:
Every road and lane resounded with the
tramp of the yeomanry of Jersey, from the
old veteran Of eighty years to the lad of
dozen summers9 They came from every
hamlet; every hill and dale was alive with
preparations, and by scores and hundreds
they manifested the strongest determination
to maintain the authority of the Constitu,
ton, which declares that no person shall be
arrested without due process of law! One
old man emphatically declared that he had
lived for severity years in the enjoyment of
free speech, and he would sooner die than
lose it."
The Lieutenant and his squad returned to
Alton without their victim. The time for
illegal arrests has gone by. The people
submitted for a long time, for the sake OF
avoiding strife in the North but the feeling
is becoming strong and general that it is not
patriotism, hut rather .cowardice to longer
acquesce in snrh us"rpation.
Bloomington, Ill.,, Statesman.