The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1863-05-09

.EEEsK[lsLYx rlHAWK;EYE.
whirlwind. They are letting loose mad
dog spirit that, if once beyond their con-
trol, WI! number them among its first VIC
and discretion be consulted while vet there
! Is time. The masses In the Wes-in Chi
cage, surely-are jealously loyal, and woe
to the man who provokes ''the wrath to
cOme!'
CONCERNING RIGHTS AND IMMUNrTIEs IN
THE OF WAR,-Love of country, in the
hlshest sense, implies something morethan
| veneratiOn for its Constitution, it's laws,
| or its institutions. II means that exalted
affection for ones native land, which, rath-
er than see it imperiled, will concede some
thing Of guaranteed rights and State or To-
cal privileges, if thereby the safety of that
country may be assured. II constitutions
| fail TO give adequate power to rescue the
country from its imminent peril, q true
lover of his country will not only pardon
but approve the temporary resort to higher
powers, by those who are solemnly charged
by the people with the preservation of thu;
country, James Buchanan had so pre-
found q regard for the Constitution that,
falling to find in it explicit authority to use
coercive measures to check the rebellion,
he declined to do anything except higgle
about constitutional rights. The Govern
ment of the United States was never in
greater danger of utter and irredeemable
ruin than at the very moment when consti-
tutional scruples prevented it's Chief Magis-
trate from putting forth any effort to pre-
vent the dissolution of the fabric. This
profound veneration for the Constitution
as they construe it-still afflicts large
Nod v<~Ef tn< Co. 1Nnks
evidence of the highest patriotism and love
of country. While the whole South teens
with ferocious and armed rebels, who stop
short Of no atrocity-Rnd do not falter, in
the accomplishment of their designs, tho
they resort to practices in violation of all
the usages of war, as recognized and en-
forced by Christian uations, this class of
constitutionalists would have the Admins
tration consult the oracles of courts and
procure decisions on the constitutional ma
ture Of its course, before proceeding to act
upon it. If there is no constitutional au-
thority to crush the rebellion by force Of
arms, we must let it go on. If there is no
constitutional authority to suspend the
writ of hadeas corpus, in time Of war, the
Administration must not invade that char
tered right, though the loyal States swarm
with traitors, and the consequence Of their
unlicensed freedom be the disorganization
of our armies, the giving of the fullest in
formation to the enemy, and the consequent
failure of every plan put on foot to defeat
them in the field. - ESQ
The property of slave-owners in rebel
lion must not be confiscated, especially the
ebony species, lest we infringe some con-
stitutional right, which the citizen held be-
fore committing the act of treazOn. The
status ante quo 6ell4ns must be preserved,
or we infringe upon vested rights, and the
Administration is transformed into gi-
gantic despotism, in place of being the
representative head of q free Government.
Unrestricted liberty to talk and act as they
please, to encourage or not the rebellion, as
their sympathies or judgment may dictate,
impunity for whatever was admissible in
times of peace, however ruinous in time of
war-these are the privileges which are
claimed, and the grant of which is demand
ed as sine qua non Of support to the Ad-
ministration.
From this class of men we hear of moth
ing but the usurpation of constitutional
rights, the outrages upon personal liberty,
restrictions Of the liberty Of the press, the
dominance Of military law over civil au-
thority, and the invasion of State and local
laws. To exaggerate these, to set the Adj
tism unparalleled by Austria or Russia, to
magnify whatever errors may have been
committed, and to charge it with objects,
in prosecution Of the war, at variance with
those which it declared when hostilities
were first inaugurated, and in every possi-
BILE way to malign motives, misinterpret
acts, distort facts, make individuals odious,
paralyze action, distract the people, spread
disafection, demoralize the armies, dis
courage enlistments, encourage resistance
to the operation Of necessary measures
these are the purposes and the mission Of
the class of men who set themselves up as
the opponents of constitutional morality
and the expounders Of constitutional priv
ile Els !. done at a time when eleven State,
are in open rebellion, when almost THERE en-
tire white male population is in arms,
and their avOwed purpose is to irremedia-
bly, irrupt the Union and establish for
eign power under the flag and within the
limits OF the United States. They are not
only prosecuting what they call a defensive
seeking to wrest from the Government
such of the border slave States as refuse to
follow their lead, and which by the vote of
the people repeatedly declared their inten-
| ton to remain part of that Union estab-
lished in iS9. Not only these States, but
the very Capital itself, the seat of Govern
ment, they declare to be essential to their
Territorial existence, the conquest and an
nexation of which they assert must be
made before they will accept terms of
peace.
We fail to see any love Of country in that
patriotism which plants itself on the Con-
stitution, and rather than any Of its rights
and immunities are touched, prefers that
the Government shall be destroyed. We
do not concede that such infringement Of
organic rights has been made, but even
were such the case, if the necessity for such
temporary resort to extra-cOnstitutiOna
powers is apparent, and the good Of the
whole people thereby subserved, and the
perpetuation of their Government thereby
secured, we do not hesitate to say that the
end would justify the means. In times Of
peace, and under purely civic regime, we
consent to part with many natural rights,
which are higher and older than chartered
rights, for the good of the whole. In time
of war, when every precaution is necessary
to secure the success of a cause through the
triumph of arms, the citizen must expect
to find his liberties in a measure circum-
scribed. He can no longer pass and repass
from State to State as before the war; he can
not merchandise with all the people, and at
any port where it would be his individual
interest to do it; and if in these things he is
abridged of his liberties, because he would