East Saginaw courier. (East Saginaw, Mich.) 1859-18??, 1864-02-24
Old Precedents--- -Conscription.

any good that their experience, max
inns and rules Of conduct afford, dearly
do we have to pay for it in having to
endure their unjust and tyrannical
precedents, that are continually resort
ed to in the administration of our
laws and Government, although they
may violate every principle of justice,
reason and true Democracy. 800 na
1t becomes us to disregard many of
these old ideas of the past. We can
not follow or endure the precedents of
despotism without sooner or later find
ind ourselves under despotic instead
of free Government. The difference
between our own and monarchical
Governments is too great to admit Of
the same administration of affairs
There the people are subjects, or serfs;
here they are the sovereign power
There the people belong to the country;
here the country belongsto the people.
There the Government controls the in
habitants here the inhabitants con-
troll the Government. There the Off
cials are masters and owners of the es-
tablishment; here they are but the
agents, managers, clerks, foremen in
the great commonality, and are paid to
look after tho interests of the people,
who are the true owners of the con-
Germ.
In the Old World people are taught
to hold their lives and liberty in trust
for their rulers, and subject to their
call here, we hold them only as sub
iect only to the rules we ourselves
make. IIvw is il, then, nutwitlIstaud-
ing this great difference between our
Government and those of Europe gen
orally, we find men in all parts of the
country, men of high standing in soci-
ETY., who claim to be representatives,
and, at the same time, teachers of the
people, consenting to, and indeed adyo-
eating measures which destroy all dis
tinction between our own Government
and that of the rankest absolutism !
The countenance these men give to ar
rogant assumptions of power lead us
to believe that they are not true Re-
publicans, or else that, while their
hearts are right, their heads are mud
died by old precedents of despotic gov
ernments: They are not the proper
persons to either represent or teach a
free people. They unblushingly advo-
cate tho same measures here in the
North, that have been enforced by the
strong hand Of power at the South,
and which has always been the distin-
o.-;si.;@o ..-esi. vf " despotio govern
ment.
In the South, men born and educa-
ted as freemen, have been conscripted
and driven into the army, as bullocks
are driven into the slaughter pen-so
says Mr.. Lincoln-to perillife and lib
erty in a cause to which they were op-
posed or felt indifferent. No tyranny
could go much farther than inflict such
an outrage; no humility do much
moro than bear it. In other countries
with other governments, snch acts
might nots strange or wrong; and
thi victim of such an outrage might
go tomeet his fate sorrowfully enough,
perhaps. but upborne by the conviction
that he was performing his duty
But the intelligent free-born citizen of
the United States knows that it is not
his duty to submit to unjust usurpa-
ton of power over him, and therefore,
he will feel the more keenly the out
rage.
Such an unjust exercise of power
would not be borne by any free people
in this period of the world, but for
peruicious ideas of government which
they had imbibed from precedents, un-
der rulers who did not profess to de-
rive their authority from the just con
sent of the governed. 1t is difficult to
sec how a Government like ours could
ever be justified in enforcing a con-
scription. We could not confer such
authority on any set of men without
risking the continuation of a war
though fve-sixths Of the people were
opposed to it. We could not permit
the exercise of such power with the
acts deemed necessary to enforce il,
without being deprived of that liberty
and self-ownership, which is the best
if not the only security we have of re-
naming free people, and maintain
ing a free Government. Neither Pres
ident nor Congress could assume such
power without usurping the highest
privilege claimed 10y royalty and, in
effect, reducing tie people to the con-
dition of subjects. That would be a
revolution backward from q Republic
to Despotism.
There is no necessity for such
measures. The citizens of the United
States are too much inclined to war !;
they need restraint rather than com
pulsion. A cause which they think
worth fighting for will always bring
ont enough, and more than enough
volunteers, for the case in hand
That there is not that rush of volun-
teers for the service now that there
was ut the commencement of the war,
and for some time after, is to be at
tributdd solely to the fact that the OBJ
.ect of the war has been changed
A republican army organized on
something better than monarchical
ideas is what the country needs moro
than one raised by CONSUMPTION.
Those who have the control of the
Government have been the champions
par excellence of freedom, and have
professed to look upon involuntary
servitude as the greatest outrage that
could be inflicted upon any race,
viewing those who would be guilty of
the crime as deserving the execration
of the world. One would suppose
that such men, with such principles,
would shudder at conscript acts. ItI
would not look well while deploring
slavery in the cotton, rice and sugar
fields, to enforce a worse conscription