Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1863-01-16
LAND, FRIDAY MORNING. JANUARY 1e, 1863.

goVernmenC at w aShlngton to abstain
from appropriating private property to
public use without purchasing at fair
price, applause because it was forbidden
by the law of nations The general prin-
ciple to which this law limits the military
power is clearly stated by Chancellor
Kent, who was one of the most distin-
guished jurists of this country, and, upon
this subject, certainly the highest au-
therity. lie says:
6 The general usage now is, not to touch
private property upon land Without milking
compensation, unless in special cases dictated
by the necessary operations Of the war; or
when captured in places carried by storm and
which repealed all overtures for capitulaton.
Contributions are sometimes levied upon CON
quered country in lieu Of confiscation of pro-
pertv, and as some indemnity for the expenses
of maintaining order and affording protection.
II the eonqueror goes beyond these limits wan
tonly, or when it is not clearly Indispensable to
The just purposes of The acdr, and seizes private
property of pacific persons for the sake of gain,
and destroys private dwellings, or public edi-
fees dedicated to civil purposes only or makes
war upon monuments Of art and models of
taste, he violates the modern usages of war,
and is sure to meet with indignant resentment,
and to be held up to the general scorn and de-
testation of the world"
Whether or not, therefore, this pro-
clamation is in fact measure which
will best subdue the enemy" the Com
mander-in-Chief has no power to issue it.
| am treating it now simply as taking
OF the enemys property, and, regarded
in that view only, twill cause the name
of America "to be held up to the ge-
neral scorn and detestation Of the World !"
|, therefore, as an American citizen, pro-
test against measure of warfare which
will sully and defame that high title in
the estimation of the world. Applause. I
But thought this question long since
settled by the rules and principles esta-
blished in the experience of my own coun-
try; | thought that the terms of peace
which followed two wars had forever been
condemned as unauthorized, in a war be-
tween civilized nations, any attempts to
free the slaves of the enemy and incite
them to servile Instruction. Such at
tempts were made by Great Britain in
the war of the Revolution and in the war
of 1872, and she has fully Unidentified
the United States for all slaves taken or
released by her during each of these wars.
The indemnity paid amounted to nearly
two millions Of dollars, and was demand
ed, upon the ground stated, by John
Quincy Adams, in 1915, then Minister
to the Court of St. James, in his diplo-
matte negotiation upon that subject with
Lord Liverpool. He says:
1t was true procamations melting slaves
to desert from their masters had been issued
by British officers. WE CONSIDERED THEM AS
DEyIATIoNs FROM THE UsAGEs OF WAR. We be-
lieved that the British governmentitselfwould
when the hostile passions arising from state
of war should subside, consider them in the
same light"
This requires no further comment, and.
as have on previous occasions fully con-
sidered the subject in this view, | will
pursue it no further.
But is this proclamation within the
limits the President has himself pre-
scribed to the power he claims Is it a
measure " which may best subdue the
enemy Pr Who is the enemy to be sub
dued A voice in the crowd-M abo-
Htioafst. They are the enemy to come,
who is the enemy now? The rebel
lion. How and to what is it to be sub
dued 1t is to be subdued by the over
throw of the Confederate government,
which is usurpation established over
eleven of the States Of this Union, whose
citizens, freed from this unlawful power
are to be brought back to their allegiance
to the Federal government Of tue United
States, and the Federal Union re-csta-
blished as it was The States as such are
not the enemy, nor are the whole people
OF the South the enemy. Geographical
divisions Of territory cannot commit trea
son, nor an entire people be arraigned be-
cause they could not prevent the rebel
lious usurpation of the ambitious and the
disloyal among them. To aid those that
were loyal in oyerthrowing the schemes
and the Vaccinations Of those ambitious
and disloyal men, and the political au
thority in which those schemes and ma
chinations had developed, was tho pur
pose and object Of the Federal govern |
ment in advancing its armies upon the
land in which that political authority was
established.
The measure proposed by the Execu-
tive to accomplish this result is a mea-
sure to overthrow the institutions Of the
States whose loyal citizens are unable to
protect themselves against the usurpation
imposed upon them, to confscate indis.
criminately the property of the loyal and
disloyal, and visit the home Of the op-
pressor and hh victim with the merciless
butchsries, and fendish massaerees, and
all the countless horrors Of a seryile war.
Can such measure subdue the enemy?
Men Of Illinois, on the first Of Janua.
ry, if the President, accomplishing the
act which is to give effective operation to
this decree, designates the States to which
i shall apply, there is not n man within
hose States who will not fly to arms
will give up their children to the
battle, and the cold blood Of worn out
nc fred by this most accufsod m oapurc