American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1864-02-17

| ment tnat is supreme may De excefclseu
when necessary, unless it is expressly for
bidden. Thus the right of eminent do
main, as it is called by the publicists, or
that which authorizes the seizure or de-
struction of private property for public
uses, and the kindred power of taxation
which seizes it without other equivalent
than the protection which Government af-
fords, are not the subjects of special grant
but only of special limitation. Establish
a Government that is independent and
sovereign, and they belong to it of course,
because they are essential attributes, in
seperable from the very being. If Gov
ernment can, however, take private prop
erty, which is the product of labor, with
out compensation, for public use, it is
but step further, and an easy one, to
take the producer himself, as it does when
it compels him to work on the highway,
on the grounds of public necessity.
1t is not disputed, os l understand, by
anybody here, that the Government is en-
titled to the military services of all its cit
izens when they are needed for its defense,
The objection is only that compulsory
levy is dnti-repuJlican. IF this be true,
then the idea of such a thing as a repub-
lcan government is the widest of chime
ras Admitting the duty, the right to en-
force it is a corollary, a necessary conse-
quence, in this case as all others. The
notion of any government presupposes su-
premacy, subordination, and constraint.-
No government ever did or ever can rest
upon the mere voluntary principle. All
the duties of the citizen, except those
merely moral ones that are said to be of
imperfect obligation-all that are political
at least-rest upon the idea of coercion.
That is the principle of every law. That
is the import of the whole judicial ma
chinery with which we are surrounded
The posse comitatus itself is nothing more
nor less than compulsory levy, an army
improvised to execute the laws. When
the time arrives-which will not be until
the millennium foreshadowed by the proph-
ct, and several years after the modern De-
mocracy shall have died out like the ex-
tinct monsters of the earlier geological
cpochs-when men shall perform their
duties voluntarily, there will be no further
occasion for either government or laws
| The notion that the mob of New York,
and the unnatural sympathizers with the
rebellion everywhere, shall not be compeH-
ed to defend the government that protects
them in all their rights and endows them
with the unwonted privilege of governing
other people, is but the extension of the
argument of the late Attorney General of
the United States, and now reporter of its
Supreme Court, that there could be no
coercion of States, and that this great
Government was without even power of
self-defense, was entirely hel pless against
the parricide, and must uncover its bosom,
or wrap its robes around it and submit to
death without struggle whenever the
murderous blow was aimed by the hands
of its own children. That was according
to programme. Both have the same pur-
pose and meaning. That would have
|1rowned the work of the traitors with i'm
5snediate success. This is slower poison,
(which would leave the defense of the ma
ton to the loyal Ups9pist in the field, and
transfer the direction of the government
to the hands of the auxiliaries of the re-
bellion, who choose " to kiss my lady peace
at home )" who know that they can serve
the cause they love with more effect and
greater safety here by affecting loyalty,
misrepresenting the designs of the govern
ment, discouraging volunteering, and dc.
nouncing compulsory levies of men, than
by taking their places openly in the armies
of the confederacy. do not know man
Of them who is not now an "uncondition
al Unionist," prooided he can have the
Union as it was" which he knows to be
impossible, whether we succeed or fail, OIL
treat, as he desires us to do, and hopes t.
bring about by cherishing the disease, pre-
serving the cause Of the disunion, anC
declining to employ the most necessary
effective weapon which Providence ha'
placed in our hands for compelling thu
eventual restoration of the Union itself
Thank God the instincts of the people
the loyal army at home, have revolted a
the special plea of the attorney, and ever
converted him at the late elections int,
the noisiest of patriots and the professeC
advocate of the vigorous prosecution o
the war; that is to say, on peace princi
pies, and provided you viii refuse to alloa
the willing negro or compel the reluctan
and recalcitrant Democrat to fight. TIL
fear is, in view of the well-known Arm
Il -