The Plymouth weekly Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1860-1869, 1863-09-10
PLYMOUTH, INDIANA THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER TO- 1868
SubversiOn Of the Constitution by
Proclamation.

Proclamation.
THE proclamation is law, and is valid
or it is not valid If it is not valid it needs
no reraction. If it is valid, it cannot be
retracted anv more than the dead can be
brought to life"
Mr. Lincoln's reasoning in this is nei-
ther ingenious nor ingenious. If the proc
amation is law, it is Il new principle in our
government that law may not be retracted
or repealed. Our Legislatures, State and
National, are employed, large portion Of
their sessions, in undoing their own mis-
chief and that of their predecessors. There
are no laws which may not be retracted,
except those of the nature of contracts,
when obligations fulfilled by one party
compel their observance by another. The
Constitution itself provides within itself
the method by which it may be 'retracted.
But we have here an assumption that the
President who is a creature of the Consti-
tuition. may, by proclamation, fasten upon
the people an irrevocable law which sub
verts the Constitution.
If the proclamation cannot be retracted,
then every provision in the Constitution
pertaining to slavery is abrogatel. 1t chan
gcs the basis of representation in Coz. greSS
as prescribed by the Constitution. 1t de
Il, Il. ,,It r. l,t, a,
upon subjects never surrendered by them
to the control Of the Federal government,
and is an abrogation of the provision that
the powers not delegated to the United
States by the Constitution, nor prohibited
by it to the people, are reserved to the
States respectively, or to the people It's
a repudiation of the provision that no per-
son shall be deprived of lie, liberty, or
property without the process of law, and
makes this reputation applicable in time
of peace after the Union shall have been
restored, and when the machinery Of our
courts shall be in harmonious operation
and capable of yindicating the supremacy
Of law II this is not subycrsion of the
Constitution, then here is no such thing
as sahycrsion
The subycrsion is radical, and reaches,
directly and indirectly. to the foundations
Of the government. 1t changes in form
and substance. In form. by the assump-
ton OF such a power, which, whether cx-
crciscd or not. converts the Republic to an
Empire at the pleasure OF the Executive,
and, by changing the basis of representa-
ton, giving to the slavcholding States an
undue prcpondcrance and in substance,
by its annulmert Of the most important
and vital provisions of the Constitution,
thereby affecting all It's provisions.
If it cannot be retractcd any more than
the dead can be brought to life (by human
agcncy) then the soul of the Constitution
has been -asSassinated-by him
who solcmnly swore to preserve, protect,
and defend il"
The constitutions is being OF The mind,
not OF clay Essentially immortal, y it
cannot be assassinatcd, any more than Ma
rat could assassinatc liberty by committing
crimes in her name. The dead can be
raised lie who created can resurrect-
The people who created the Constitution,
with principles as immortal as their own
natures, have charged themselves with its
resurrection to fullncss Of life after its
deathly-but not dead-sleep shall have
passed with the administration who have
strangled it to torpor
Released from the grasp of its intended
assassins by its own inherent vitality, it
will be clothed upon" with majesty and
power, and its spirit, silent, but omnipo-
tent, will command Il reverence similar to
that with, which the Athenesns regarded
Paul when they behcld in him "a man in
to whom the spirit of god had rushed" !"
-Chicogo Times