East Saginaw courier. (East Saginaw, Mich.) 1859-18??, 1864-07-20

strict accordance with constitutional,
principles. We have resorted TO tho
subterfuges Of latudinarinn construo
ton. instead Of adheIing 10 the TN
doubted letter and spirit Of the fun
damental laws; and hence we are in
state of confusion. Look, for exam
pie at tho injury that has been dono
in this country within the last three
years to the freedom of the press, and
the rights of personal liberty by tho
doctrine that men may be made ac-
conntable for what are called treason
able sentiments. Newspapers have !.
been suppressed, and men have been
incarcerated, or banished for the ex-
preston of political opinions, in disre-
gard Of the fact that we live under q
Constitution which strictly defines the
offence of treason, and which unques-
tionably excludes from the category
all merely moral aid and comfort Of O
public enemy. However reprehensi-
BILE it may be to write or speak us If
one wished success, to the enemies of
zones country; it is nothing but re-
lapse into the worst ages Of construc-
tive treason, to pretend that mere
writing or speaking on subjects that
are political can be made cognizable
by the public authority and visited
with the penalties attached to that
crime. Long before the constitution
Of the United States was made, such
constructive treasons were exploded
by our ancestors and when that in
strument was mado they were care
fully excluded from our political ex-
istence. They are, indubitably, in
capable Of being reconciled with tho
freedom of speech and Of the press
for no human intellect can draw tho
line anywhere save where the Consti-
tuition places it, namely, at the limit
of physical aid and comfort to an en-
emy, and yet leave untrammeled that
right of free scussion without hich
such institutions as ours cannot ex-
list. Let me be explicitly understood.
What l complain of is, not that
men have been restrained or punished
for doing or publishing what has en-
abled others to Illustrate military op-
erations, but that for discussions or
utterances clearly within every legal
aud moral right of the citizen, and in
no degree injurious to military opera
tions, the liberty Of the press has been
violated, and men have been thrown
into prison. This, you kno'o, has been
done hagrantly and repeatedly, and
so pernicious has been the effect of
our passionate violence, that private
malice has again and again asked and
induced the puclic authorities to act
where the cause and the theatre were
alike contemptibly trivial Such are
the inevitable consequences Of de-
parture from the sacred principles Of
free constitution. The practice, too Of
dealing by military power with men
who have been untaithiul In public
trusts, but who are i'll no sense amen
able to military law, is another proof
OF the disregard OF constitutional prin-
ciples which has now become chronic
and bids fair to be perpetual.
l have thus laid before you, in On
imperfect manner, few of the rea.
sons which, to my mind, afford
grounds for serious concern about the
duration of our system of coustitp-
tional liberty. know and appred-
ate all the existing obstacles TO tho
production of any considerable effect
upon the minds of others. 1t has
been my fortune heretofore to encoun,
ter the ridicule that attended those
who were derided US " Union savers"
1t is my fortune now to be classed
with those whose anxiety for the safety
OF our free institutions, if admitted 10
be sincere, is regarded as superfuous,
or, being fiippantly treated as n pre-
tence, is pronounced, in the fashion
able can't of the times, as ''disloyalty."
These things do not move me. But
confess that l am moved when I
contemplate the extent to which ed
ucated minds have yielded to the idea
that our free institutions must give
way to the establishment of some
other system, and that oil things con.
sidered, the change through which we
are believed to be passing is not to bs
regretted. There is q great deal
more OF this feeling abroad than APP
pears on the surface. Along with it,
side by side with it, and sometimes ia
direct alliance with it, there is ope.at-
ing fatal canker that eats out the
lite of public virtue--a coarse, rank
greed for wealth, luxury and power,
that sets them above oil systems of lib
erty, and tr.tles about public principles
as though they were things TO DO
hawked about the stock cxchanee.--.
Aud last, but not least in mischosious
effect, is the apathy that Iooks Oh ail
violations OF u great Constitution, one
OF the consuInate masterpieces Of tho
human intellect, one of the last cila-
dels OF human hopes, as We should sce
the mimic iortitication which a school-
boy has erected in. the SHOWS og WIN
ter, melt undcr the blaze OF yorlal
sun.
What is the remedyp What shall
save US from the fatc that has over
taken other republics I know Of
nothing that can save us but 70 in.
trust the administrator of our affairs.
through the ballot box, to r,ep who
cun govern without violating tho Con-
st.tution,
If we have not lost tho rover of
returning totho paths of the Constiiu-
ton, We may yet escape those reiils.
But We cannot escape them i wo con-
tinue 10 deiide and decry the liniita-
tions which the Constitution has ma
posed upon the nutionol powers We
may convert this Union into ccn-
solitlated democracy, whose uncon--
trollable force shall override all State