Democrat and sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1853-1866, 1863-06-10
The New York World Addresses
the President on Mr.. Vallan-
digham's Arrest.
To the President Of the United States

To the President Of the United States
SIR R:-When, something less than a
year ago, public journal in this city
made through its editorial columns, per-
sonal address to you under the proper sig
nature of its editor, and you honored it
by a respectful, argumentative reply, the
dignity that hedges around the First Ma
gistrate of the country were SO far relaxed,
by your gratuitous condescension, as to
relieve a similar address by another public
Journal from the imputation of presump-
tuous impertinence which might otherwise
attach TO it. Our purpose ip taking re-
course to this unusual form of comment
on public transaction is not to make an
insolent claim to address you on an as
sumed level of equality, unmindful of the
respect due to your high office, but sim
ply to avail ourselves of sort of conven-
tional support III the difficult observance
of the decorum which BELTS discussion
of the public acts of the President of the
United States. The form of a direct ad-
dress brings US, as it were, into the exc
cutive presence, and puts us, by not
very difficult effort of the imagination.
under the restraints which good breeding
would impose on q citizen demonstrating
with you to your face against proceedings
OF which it is difficult for FREEMAN to
speak with becoming command of tenn
per. 4
Your revision of the proceedings of the
military commission by which Mr. Val
landleham was tried and sentenced has
resulted In an act which amounts to an
expression of your full approval of the
whole course of these proceedings from
their inception in setting disguised officers
as spies on his track through the draG-
ging hlm from his bed in the night time.
The trial without Indictment or iurv, and
the protest against the issue of a writ of
ha6edS corpus, down to the declaration of
heavy Penalty for an act which is not
only no Violation of any existing law, but
Is a right sacredly guaranteed by the Con-
stltunon, which, at your inauguratfhn.
win becoming appearance of scnsibility
10 IFS obligations. you took solemn oath
to preserve, protect and deftnd. The fact
that you have changed the sentence,
changes no esser tial aspect in the case
1t is merely the difference between con-
tnement and Transportation To draw
an Illustration from English history, it IS
substitution of Botony Bay for the Tower
The essential fact remains UNCHANGED.
that a citizen is punished to5 tie c1rrrise Of
17gRt : that the law has been violated
not by him who suffers the penalty. but
by him who declares it. Ynn- apnroval
of the proceedings implied IN your fixin
the penalty, absolves all the lesser anents
and brings home the whole responsibility
to you. Their acts thus become yo1,.
acts; their spies yOu' spies; their soldiers.
skulklng IN darkness TO perpctrate deed
which sliuns the light of dav. You, instru-
ments: their military commission. y2,,,.
Star Chamber; G neral Bundles silly
protest, your exposition OF the nulity.
under your administration, of the most
sacred guarantees of the Constitution
BY making the sentence and its execution
your sole act, you indorse, and give the
sanction OF your high office to all the ex
traordinary proceedings which terminated
IN Mr.. Vallandigham's conviction,
You have read, Mr. Lincoln, in the
quiet shades of Springfield, where Won
passed so large portion of your life in
Inc unostenfatious practice of the private
virtues which gained you the estcem of
your nci-hbors, and in the honest perform
ance OF useful duties which gave them =
favorable opinion of your .,bilitios-in
that tranquil retreat, sir, with The horror
natural to an ingenious mind, YOU have
read of the Roman Emperor who placed
his edicts so high in the air that thew
could not be deciphered by the keenest
eye, and yet severely punished anv breach
OF them. Why, was it sir, that by
sure moral instinct, producing an instant
conviction that which no resources of
logic could either shake or confrm-wbv
was 1t that your sense of justice revolted.
with the whole strength of your honest
nature, against so execrable an instance of
tyranny? Pray, sir, do not be startled
but, with the steadiness of perception of
which we know you to be capable. ana
iyze the Judgment you spontaneously pro-
nounced against the Roman tyranf. and
define TO yourself acaat it is in this act of
his that made it so abhorrent 70 vow
moral sense. When the Roman ruler
fixed his code on the height of a column
there was still possibility that, by extra
ordinary pains, men might come TO kno,y
what 1t contained. But how are men IN
this tree country, and under your we'll
meaning administration, TO know What
actions are consistent with their personal
safety, when the laws which thew arc
punished for violating are no LONGER W..
ten IN the statute books, but lie buried in
the lnscrutable discretion or unaccounta-
bic caprice of your military agents? II
is OF the essence, not of liberty. but of