The Ohio Democrat. [volume] (Canal Dover, Ohio) 1840-1900, 1863-04-17

for our rulers claim for them 40 entirely
Irresponsible power. We are required,
for example, to believe that what are
called arbitrary arrests" are necessary,
butno one explains to us the grounds of
that necessity. No account is rendered.
We are to assume the existence of causes
Of Justification, but no one tells us what
those causes are. They may remain
forever locked in the 5osoms of those
who do the acts Of which We complain.
Why should American citizens, filing
high places of public trust, act upon
such principle as this 7 Can anything
be more degrading, more injurious to
THE public conscience Of people than
to form habit Of implicit belief in the
existence of necessities which nobody
explains, and of which nobody is re-
quired to give an account2 You may
hear hundred men in day speaking
of some particular case Of this kind, pro-
fess its necessity; and not one man in
the whole hundred can tell you what the
necessity was. Laughter and applause. ]
FALSE THEORIES OF LOYALTY.
My friends, these false theories of 10y
alty-for false must declare them-are
infusing into our national character ia.
tai poison. They are leading those who
cherish them TO iwpattSS ssssGGttious "a anda in
tereSted motives to all pure and manly
efforts in defense Of the principles Of
civil liberty. They who indulge in this
dangerous work of deriding the defend
ers of Constitutional rights can have
but very inadequate conception Of the
convulsions that must precede the final
loss of those rights. They take but a
superficial view Of the depth Of those
feelings which lead men in all free coun-
tries to resist every form of mere arbi-
trary power. They make no account Of
the. principles implanted in our breasts,
and cherished into dictates of nature by
generations Of training in the practice
of liberty; those principles on which
depends the primary Office of an oppo.
sition Id o free Government, and by
means of which all Constitutional rulers
are restrained from abuses of power
Impatient of these restraints such per-
sons rush to methods which can not be
employed without undermining the foun.
dations Of liberty; and for supposed
temporary advantage barter away the
strength and the support, the vigor and
the health Of the body polite. This has
been in all ages the downward course of
nations, who have substituted for free
institutions aud systems of fundamental
law blind and unqueStionipg faith in
public necessities, and have then wei.
comedsome despotic power. Thus did
the Roman Empire succeed the republic,
and thus we may be preparing ourselves
for a like destiny. Let us be warned in
time. Cheers.
| have endeavored to state with due
precision and fairness one very impor.
tant part Of the conditions of true 10y
atty. But l should leave this subject in
an imperfect state if l omitted, on the
other hand, to give equal prominence to
certain principles of our political system
which limit the mode in which States
and individuals are to exercise their
Constitutional rights of opposition to
the measures of the Federal Government.
l have briefly adverted to this already;
but more extended statement of the
principles is necessary.
IN CIVIL WAR POLITICAL CONSIDERATIONS
MUST QUALIFY MILITARY ACTION
will assume, then, that measure
having all the forms Of law, is believed
upon good grounds to be violation Of
the Constitutional rights Of States and
individuals. What is the rule Of action
under such circumstances? There is no
difficulty whatever in finding an answer.
By the establishment of judicial syS.
TEN within the Federal Constitution,
having ultimate cognizance Of all cases
arising under the Constitution, ONE
mode is provided be which both States
and individuals can ascertain whether
their reserved rights are invaded by the
Federal authorities. This remedy is at
all times open; and their is no valid rea-
son why State should forcibly assert
its Constitution rights any more than
that an individual should do the same
thing. While State remains a mem.
Der of the Union it is bound to. vihdicate
its Constitutional rights and powers in
that mode which is consistent with the
preservation Of that Union and it can
at any time, under any supposed viola
tion Of its rights or the rights of its peo-
pie, make care for judicial termination.
ForcibIe resistance is open revolution ;
and nothing but an intolerable opposi-
tion, cutting off all Judicial remedy, can
make revolution necessity and duty.
EGreat applause.
Again: there is another equally good
reason, which shows that no popular tu-
mults and no forcble resistance are eth
er legally or morally justifable while the
ballot.box remains untouched. If the
people af State have reason to believe
that measures of the Federal Govern
ment are subversive Of the Constitution,
it rs their right and their dnty to cor
rect the evil by change Of their rulers.
CCheers. In cases Of supposed extern
sive violations Of the Constitution, to
which the attention Of the whole,country
is called, the remedy of elections is or
dinarily sufficient to reverse erroneous
constructions Of that instrument, as we'll
as errors of policy. The popular tribu-
nal may not be qnite SO precise In Its
action as the iudicial. bnt there can be