Mineral Point weekly tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1859-1868, 1864-01-20
Gov. Seymour ON National Affairs.
From the New York Times.7

GOV oeymours Message shows that his
sympathies are still with the rebellion. He
discusses national affairs at length and with
earnestness but all his zea., all his rhetoric
all his arguments, are aimed at the Govern
ment of the United States His whole soul
is enlisted IN the effort to degrade that Gov
eminent in the estimation of the world to
represent it as unpatriotic, ignorant, reckless.
selfish and tyrannical to alarm the country
by exaggerated pictures of the ruin it is
bringing upon 1t; to array public passion
against its action-and thus TO cripple and
paralyze its endeavors to suppress the rebel
lion, and conquer Just and permanent peace.
In this as in his previous message Gov Sew
mour has nothing whatever to say in con
demnation of the rebellion, nor does he take
into account in single instance those acts of
the rebel authorities which have compelled
our Government to perseyere n the eXertion
of force for the restoration of peace He
charges the Government with prolonging the
war for selfish, partisan and yindictive pur-
poses-and with refusing TO avail itself of an
alleged readiness, on the part of the rebels
TO lay down their arms and resume their al
legiance to the Constitution. 1t would be
difficult to believe Gov Seymour serious in
these allegations, if his whole official career
had not proved his readiness to act upon them.
Gov. Seymour arragns the authorities for
the most high-handed acts of usurpaton OF
which any Government can be guilty. He
enumerates the measures it has adopted IN
der the pressure of the terrible emergency
which the rebellion forced upon it. He con
cedes that they " have been sustained by the
army, and acquieseed in by the people"
''This revolution" he adds, IF permanently
accepted, must be recognized as an overthrow
of the established and cherished principles
of government" Why does Gov Seymour
studiously and steadily ignore what he knows
to be the fact, that all these measures have
been adopted ayowedly and only as excep-
tiOnal measures, justified solely by an over
whelming emergency for which nevertheless
the Constitution made distinct provision?
| Does he believe-or does he hope to make
| anybody else beheve-that our Government
/ has ever dreamed for single instant of max
| ing these measures permanent, of per-
manently suspending the privilege of habeaS
| corpus, or introducing into the regular and
/ ordinary administration of affairs the system
| of arbitrary arrests of imposing test oaths or
any OF the other extraordinary acts to which
/ the necessities of the nation have compelled
| it for the moment TO resort? Unless his
| Judgment has been strangely warped bv the
pressure upon him of responsibilities to
which he is sadly unequal, it is simply impos-
sible that he should entertain any such ideas.
/ He knows that all these things have been
/ done in the interest Of the nation and for its
| salvation from those who sought its destruc-
/ ton. And if he does not know, every sensi-
/ BILE person does know, that the moment peace
| is restored and the supremacy of the Consti-
| tuition re-established, the personal rights of
| individuals and the local rights of com1nuni-
| ties will again be sacredly and rigidly main
tanned.
Gov Seymour looks to a different process
| for attaining this result. He says:
g If these measures of military, political
| and financial consolidation breGk dolDl, their
| failure will show the wisdom of the constitu-
ton in withholding from the General Govern
mcnt powers it cannot exercise wisely and
we'll and il acH establish tie rights Of .StqttS
upon a bass f,ns and a7dSplted, and :, I'll make
the General Government strong by combining
it to its proper jurisdiction. In the end We
shall return to the principles from which We
have been drifting
Gov. Seymour seeks to establish the
| rights of the States by ." JreakHg do1r,, the
measures of the Government. 1t is their
! Z" future which Is to restore the country to
the enjoyment of constitutional liberty. This
is an ineligible and, for Gov. Seymour
frank, ayowal of his wish and purpose TO
break down the government in the meas
ures it adopts for suppressing the rebellion.
| But suppose he succeeds what Is to become
of the Union II he breaks down the GOV
| eminent, what effect viii that have on the
| rebel Coufederacy? Either Gov. Seymour is
quite Indifferent to this aspect of the case, or
else he is under some strange hallucination as
! to the effect of his cherished project IL
| seems quite evident to common sense that if
the rebellion is to be crushed at all it must
be done by the General Government and
that the effort of the Government to crush it
is to be aided by supporting its measures
rather than by breaking them down.
Gov. Seymour utters great many true and
! sensible sentiments on the general subject of
| government, and on the temper and spirit
| which should preside over all attempts to
construct the Union. We agree with him in
deprecating the performance of personal or
party passion, and in the absolute necessity
for Il wise, temperate and magnanimous states
mauship for the successful close of this great
contest. But we see neither wisdom nor JUS
tice,-neither principle nor pohey,--in the
application which he would make of these
maxms to the present condition of our public
affairs We see no warrant for his implied
assumption that the war is over, and that no
further exercise of force, or of moral and
material pressure is necessary for quelling the
rebellion. We do not believe in the wisdom
of breaking down the Government Just as it
is beginning to succeed in breaking down the
instruction. Nor have we the slightest faith
in the sentimentalism by which Gov. Sey
mour would WOO men who are putting forth
every possible effort TO sever the Union and
overthrow the Constitution. The time may
come when this treatment viii be appropriate,
but it has not come yet, noI will il be fastened
by such action as Gov. Seymour advises