The weekly north Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1857-1867, 1864-05-25
Wendell Phillips ON tho Administra-
tratioM and tho War.
A CHANGE OF FRONT.

| From the New York World
Even standing as we do this hour with
the news-f it can be credited, Of the
greatest victory Of the past three years
it is still to be borne in mind that we have
already incurred debt, that we have al.
ready sacrificed human life, that we have
already blunted the old vigilance for indi
vidual liberty to an extent that bids us, as
American citizens, to beware of any second
struggle Of this character. 1t is very
problematical whether another such trial
could be borne, and free institutions sur
vive it, on this belt of the continent. With
the debt which has been incurred, and with
the expense Of standing army which will
be inevitable under any plan of reconstruc-
| ton, a mortgage rests on the labor of the
next half century. Every living right
hand is mcrtgaged and every one to be born
for the next twenty years. Hitherto the
charm of American labor has been the sur
plus of its means. One-third of the
American artizan's wages were left to use
for books, lectures, travel, the education of
suits Of this war last, so long as one third,
if not one. half of the average income of the
capital of the country must be asked to
defray these expenses, so long the laboring
man Of the Northern States is robbed Of
that surplus, which was the nucleus Of in
tellectual and moral progress.
Over this picture looms the cloud Of
government habtuated to the exercise Of
despotic power. Well did Seward say to
Lord Lyons, ~ but ring bell on this side,
and unchallenged put in prison New
Englander. ring one on that, and equally,
consign citizen of Ohio to dungeon
No such despotsm this side the wall of
China! Necessarily, inevitably, not to be
found fault with in this death. grapplc with
the rebellion, but all the more earnestly is
it for US to remember that such powers and
such example, if perchance entrusted to
less worthy hands, may result in the speedy
ACKNOWLEDGMENT Of the republic and the
quick advance Of despotism.
The popular cry is, "Stand by the ad
ministration." l recognize it; it has
broad, deep, patriotic meaning. But re-
member, we are Americans and not Euro
peans. We live under the Constitution of
the United States, and not under French or
English rule, and our fathers have laid it
down as the safest and wisest principle of
government that every four years the citi-
A-Sa Su'oAtou NAS EoSSiuuhOht oSloIC
him and try it and record his verdict. We
are not only at liberty as American citizens
we are bound to say to the pilot of the
last four years either you are or you are
not my pilot the coming four. Whoever
raises the cry "Stand by the administra-
tion,' and does not take into account the
conditional limitation that an American
citizen is bound to stand by the admins.
tration so far and so long as the constitu-
ton allows him, and no longer, forfeits his
franchise under the free institutions of the
fathers, and binds his lips like vassal of
the car to life long allegiance.
If were a negro slave, should pray
God that the war might last twenty years,
for it is taking the events out Of society
and crumbling up the whole civil and social
life into its original elements; and when
that work is done, the negro always comes
out free. Witness South America and
Mexico.