The Oregon union. (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1863, 1863-02-28
Radical legislation.

legislation is preparing for the future, not
the least formidable will be found to result
from the operation of unjust and proscrip-
tive confscation laws. Our Constitution
embodies, on this subject, the true spirit
of enlightened humanity, and asserts the
correct principles Of public law and natu-
raj justice which limit and justify the
right of coniscation. Every departure
from these principles every violation of
them by usurpation Of power under whats
ever pretextAevery act of submission on
the part of the governed, to such viola-
tions, viii net ealYadd to the difficulty of
terminating our disgraceful war, but will
leave upon our society, when the war shall
have ceased, the implacable resentments
and passions which years of peace will
neither subdue nor eradicate. No governs
ment can hope to perpetuate its organiza-
ton whose laws are at variance with the
instincts of natural justice, and violative
of the enlightened spirit which is suppos-
ed to pervade the humane and Christian
civilization of the present century. Our
confscation laws have been enacted in
furtherance of sectional and malignant
policy which has earned for its supporters
the merited title of Radicals" In seek
ing, at all risks, the triumph Of this poll
cy, these radical politicians have forced
the country into a terrible civil war, and
would fasten on posterity, by means of
their pernicious Legislation, a legacy that
will open up source of litigation without
measure-of ruin without hope. There
is no mistaking the original source of this
sort of legislation. It springs directly
out of that puritanical spirit which filed
the statute books Of our, So called, pilgrim
fathers, with disgraccful and intolerant
laws. If this spirit has been less mani
tested in late years than it was when these
PIoUs pilgrims burned witches and impris-
oned uxorious husbands for kissing their
wives on Sunday, the difference is less the
result of change Of character, than alter
alton of circumstances. AS opportunity
offered, these sanctimonious gentry sheW
themselves as covetous of gain as they
were bloody in persecution. They were
willing to barter immunity from their in
tolerant code, for the wealth they could
secure by prostituting calculating intel
lect to a thrift which hallowed means, pro-
vided the ends revealed golden fruition.
In this race of sordid passions, hypocricy
was elevated into virtue, and can't be-
came the never failing cloak of dishonesty.
1t is this puritanical spirit, grown arrogant
by the wealth it has achieved by its hye
pocricy, that now confronts the country
with its can't about slavery, and proposes
legislation in consonance with its early
teaching and practice. While this fanat>
ikc Il yof;
on the country, we may measure its prob~
able effects, from the analogies which his
tory presents. The Jacobins of the French
Revolution, confscated property belonging
to the Church, to the amount of nine
hundred and fifty millions of dollars
and yet in the distribution and manage
ment of this vast estate, the expenses,
during the first year, exceeded by ten
millions of dollars, the revenue derived
| from it; and in few years augmented
the national debt thirty-fve millions. In
accounting for this result, Alison remarks
that, Gin the confusion conseq ent on so
great an act of spohation, no account of
the ecclesiastical domains could be obtain.
ed and the leaders who had sanctioned
so prodigious robbery, found it impossible
after its commission, to restrain the pecu-
lations Of their inferior agents." The
same author, in another connection, OBJ
serves that by the confscation of the
property of the Church, the Constituent
Assembly gave fatal precedent of injus-
tice, too closely followed in after times
exasperated a large and influential class
and rendered public manners dissolute. D
Up to May, 1898, and in period not ez-
ceeding four years, the property confsca-
ted from the clergy and nobility, was val
ued at thirteen hundred and forty millions
of dollars-and as the enormous emissions
of assignats, were based upon this prop
erty, the value of the currency deprecia-
ted in proportion as the property was
squandered. Nor did the evils stop with
the present bankruptcy of the govern
ment--the prostration of private credit
and the Generalization of the people. The
effects are still visible in France, and vii
! be traced in her social history in long
future. Weagain quote from Alison, who
says: HThe confscation Of land has beer
to France what similar measure has beer
before to Ireland-a source of weakness:
and discord which will never end"
The remarks Of this author, on the sub
ject of confscation in Ireland, are Sc lib
eral, judicious and opposite, that we ven
ture to give them at some length to oul
readers. They will repay perusal, and il
woke serious reflections on the probable
judgment of posterity upon the facts W.
are creating for historical criticism.
"The first evil which has attached tt
Ireland was the original and subsequen
confscation of SO large portion of tn,
landed property, and its acquisition b,
persons of a different country, habits anc
religionsfrom the great body of the in
habitants. In the successive insured
tions which that country has witnessed
since the English standards first approach
ed her shores, nearly all its landed prop
erty has been coniscated and lavished
either on the English nobility. or compa
MES, or individuals of English extraction
Above eight millions of acres were bestoW