Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1864-07-22
Sound Doctrine.

| Sound Doctrine.
The fact is, in our country, psrsoaoI nosrty ha
| sight of in our laws and institutions, and th'
! fact is we are thrown back one hundred year.
In eyilization law and everything else, ,,1 nnf
somebody don't arrest our downward progress
| We. the military, must do It,. and we have
and communities have u right to guard against
| real and even supposed danger. The whole
people Of Kentucky must not be kept in state
of suspense, and real danger, lest a few inno-
| cent men should be wrongfully accused.
So said Gen. Sherman, in his letter OF
instructions to Gen. Burbridge. 1t is
true. We have given but little thought
to the question of public or national
safety, so secure have we been in the
enjoyment of all those rights incident to
personal liberty. Until civil war stared
us full in the face in the spring of 1861,
our people believed our nation secure
from dangers within and Without
Bitter and acrimonious as was political
controversy, wide rs was the gulf be-
tween the North and South, the people
were slow to believe that any combina-
ton existed which would seriously dis
turb our national repose. None had
been deprived of liberty and therefore
al were content. The provision of our
National Constitution prohibiting sus-
pension Of the writ Of habeas corpus,
except when in cases of rebellion or in
vasion, the public safety may require,
was practically unknown and unthOught
of. The great bulwark Of American
liberty was the writ of h06eos cOrOtls.-
1t was the strong tower of defense to
every one who claimed American citi-
zenship. But great and strong a. it was,
our Fathers declared it subordinate to
the safety of the public. ''To form a
more perfect union, establish justice,
insure domestic tranquility, provide for
the common defence, promote the gem
eral welfare and secure the blessings of
liberty to themselves and to their pos
terity," our Fathers ordained and estab-
lished our Constitution. That instru-
ment sought the general good and was
made for the public welfare. When any
or all of these are endangered, the lib
erty Of the individual may be sacrificed.
Living, as We are, in time of rebellion
which threatens to destroy the more
perfect union of these States, which de-
stroys domestic tranquility, weakens
our defensive power, endangers the well
fare of our people, and seeks to take
from us the blessings of liberty, no one
man can stand up and say my individu-
al rights are paramount to all other con-
sideratlons and must therefore be pre-
served and protected. The public safety
requires of every man that he sacrifice
whatever may be necessary to insure
the general safety. We are apt to forget
that without public safety personal lib
erty is nothing. No mans rights are
secure unless secured by that strength
which is the result of union.
We now experience some of the follies
of our political youth. We did not
dream of public danger, SO fascinated
were we with our poetical fancies of per-
sOnal liberty, and as Gen. Sherman SAYS,
we have been thrown back one hundred
years in civilization and are on the
highway to anarchy and the devil, un-
less somebody arrests our progress. In a
crisis like this thsre will be diversity of
opinion, a clamoring for assumed rights,
cry for larger liberty, and thousand
and one other things that are provided
for in no Constitution or Statute. We
are thus exposed to all the evils Of an
archy. Our only safety through such a
storm rests with the military arm of
government. The public safety il to be
secured only by military force. Peace
can be restored only by the sword. AS
III times of our peace and prosperity the
writ of habeas corpus is the shield of
personal liberty, so now the public safe
ty must depend upon the sword. We
want no military dictatorship, we desire
no military despotism, but if the pre-
amble to our Constitution can be the
more faithfully observed, we would
rejoice to see every State under martial
law. Let the public welfare be the OBJ
ject sought for. Far better that some
innocent men should suffer temporary
restraint and hardship than that the
whole people should go to anarchy and
the devil.
. .