Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1864-04-28

same object, evinces design to reduce them IN
der absolute despotsm it is their rlght' II Is me
duty to throw off such government and to proVld
new guards for their future security.
And then, having laid down these condl
! tons upon which alone resort to Rebellion
can be justified, they proceed to HE 1hat Ter
rible indictment against the government D
their king. 1t is too familiar 10 the oenat
: TO Justify me in reading even extracts iron
i h~t there is scarcely an act Of arbitrar,
power known to the history OF government
that is not charged in that document upol
George Ill
In the light Of these examples let the gull
of this rebellion, with which we have to dea
to-day, be tried Were the men who made
this rebellion oppressed by the Government
of the United States? Nobody asserts that
The men who made this rebellion administer
ed the Government themselves. Senators went
out of this Chamber to fight the authorities
of the United States ministers went of you,
| Cabinet: officers in your Army and Navy
deserted their colors and betrayed their com,
mand: clerks went of your bureaus your
own agents, your own employees, paid by
you to protect your interests, abandoned their
trusts and took up arms under the authority
of a government alien to you and alien to
them, until they made it to overthrow your
authority. There was not single act upon
your statute-book of which they complained
not single judgment in any one of your
courts of which they complained Every
department of the Government had acqui-
esced in every demand they had made
There was then no impression on the peo-
pie who made this revolt There was moth
ing to complain of in what the Government
had done. Did they make this rebellion to
correct the form of Government? Sir, you
heard and | heard late Senator from Ken
lucky, who is now III arms against the author
itv OF his own State and Of his own country,
declare here on this floor that this was the
best form of Government which the wisdom
of man ever devised. Nay, sir, you heard
another Senator representing the State of
Texas, who went out of this Chamber and
out of the employ of the people of the Uni
ted States to make war upon them, declare
F'So devoted friend of the Union am I that
| when Gas L know it must be, because see dis
position to save to prevent IT'D the eight cotton
| States have withdrawn from this Union, as they
will in the next two months do, and meet in con-
Vention to adopt federal form of government for
themselves, and to establish foreign department,
| l for shall advocate the adoption, without
crossing dotting i, of the old glori
Gus Constitution that was ratified by the old thr-
teen States '-COngreSsionat Globe, second session
So, then, it was not the purpose of this re-
| belliOn to redress any wrong which it's au-
thors had sustained under the government,
nor to correct the form of the government
itself. They approved of the form of the
| government, and they themselves guided it's
| administration. Against what, then, did
| they rebel? A President had been elected.
| That was the act of the people, Of that they
complained. With the election of the pres
ent incumbent they were not satisfied The
election of Mr.. Lincoln was known to be OBJ
| noXiOus to them as the election of Mr. Breck-
| lnrldge was known to be obnoxious to those
who voted for Mr.. Lincoln. The men who
| preferred Mr.. Breckenridge had the same
| right to vote for him and enjoyed that right
| as fully as others, who opposed Mr.. Breckin-
ridge, had the right and enjoyed the right to
vote for Mr.. Lincoln.
But is the election of President of the
| United States, cause, justification, or an
| excuse, even, for rebellion, for all the evils
| and all the woes of revolution? Sir, if the
man elected President in 1860 had been as
| ambitious as Jefferson Davis, if he had been
| as false as Franklin Pierce, if he had been as
| faithless as Floyd, if he had been as vain
| glorious as Toombs if he had been as spirit
| less as Buchanan, if he had been stained with
| every crime and with every excess, still his
| election would have been no cause for rebel
| lion; and why? For the simple reason that
| the term Of a President is very brief. and the
measure of his authority is very restricted
| He is harmless if he is ever SO vile. His abil-
| ity to work mischief is extremely limited :;
| and the term in which he can do anything
| good or bad, is limited to four years. l put
| it to the Senate, or to any one who is dispos-
ed to palliate this rebellion, if they believe
| that our forefathers would have declared for
| secession from the British empire if they by
| four years could have terminated the reign of
| George III? Do you think revolution would
ever have been resorteG to to depose James
| III, If by four years or ten years endurance
his reign could have been terminated by an
election of the people?
| THE PRESIDENT AND HIS POWERS.
| was surprised to hear Senator, who
usually speaks with great deal of accuracy,
| speaking on this point some days since, use
| this language in reference to the President:
| 'E I very readily imagine a condition of things
in any country on the face of the earth when Gov
ernment the President, or, if you please, the rul
| ing power the Executive had become so obnoxious
| to the people and pursuing a course so dia-
metrically opposed to its interests, that it might
be necessary in the Senate of the United States
in the House of Represen tatiyes, in either or
both, to say distinctly from the place which oc-
cupy, from this place, call on the people of the
United States, to resist this outrageous exercise of
power. %
l undertake to say, no such necessity and
| no such occasion will ever occur in the histo-
ry of this Government under its present Con-
| stitutiOn. The President, as | have said be-
| fore, is one of the most harmless agencies
| ever employed In the affairs of Government
| No matter what may be his personal charac-
| ter, he is as harmless as the marshal of dis
| trict or the sheriff of county He is but a
mere agent of the people to obey their law
| to execute their express commands embodied
| in positive enactments and when he goes
one inch outside Of the express authority of
| law, he has not the slightest protection anv
more than the constable oF a town. If he
withholds debt from you or assaults you, he
| is amenable to the same corrections that you
| are if you withhold a debt from another or as
| sault another. If he commits any crime or
| misdemeanor he may be removed from Office
at any time. He is at all times at aCork SIMPLY
for tie people acho employ him, and he is utterly
po'Cerless except as he is executing their expressed
| a0iN. But while he is executing the will of
the people Of the United States, while he
| represents these twenty-six million people,
then he is a power-a power which, until
within few years, there was no power on
| earth that dared to gainsay; and if we are
/ true to our form of Government, he will in a
/ very short space of time again become pow
er that no potentate on earth will dare to
withstand. When acting in obedience to the
| people of course they cannot desire to resist
him at all. When acting in defiance of them
there can be no more necessity for their re-
| sisting with force than there is for the stock
holders of a railroad or of bank to employ
force against their superintendent or cashier