The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1864-06-08
From the Dayton Empire.1
Digging their Own Pits.

/ W
The conscription of the volunteer mill
tia for the period of one hundred day,
will be attended with serious consequence
all over the State. Montgomery county
men. The majority of whom must come
from the farming community.
1t is matter of surprise that such &
step should be taken just at this juncture
The great mass of the people of both par
ties have been busy all winter and spring
in filing three successive calls by the
President, amounting to 100000 men in
the aggregate; and by the lavish use ot
money have succeeded in meeting the ex
traordinary demand. What has become
of these 100000 men, and of the army
already in the field besid 8, that the west
ern states should be called upon to fur
nish one or two hundred thousand more!
There have been no battles of conse-
quence since they went into the army.
Where are they?
Numbers of the volunteer militia enter
ed the ranks with fair and honest motives
and many of them under false impress
sions. Such deserve the sympathy which
their condition excites 1t is no small
thing to be sold out like so many head OF
cattle from ore master to another. But
large proportion of What ne have alrea-
dy designated the "home guard" enlisted
from no other or better motives than par
tizan feeling. We remember well when
the companies were being organized. The
officers could not get commissions only
through the military committees of their
81
lege Of being even a private in one of
these favored institutions, required an
amount of loyalty which a democrat was
not supposed to possess. Indeed the
avowed object of the law under which
they were brought into being, was to
watch and suppress the insurreetion of
copperheads, to assist in enforcing the
draft &c. The idea of their being an
active. force for The suppression of the
southern rebellion was never limited at;
unless the rebellion should actually come
to our oTu doors as in the case of John
Morgan's foolish and ridiculous raid
That government should finally deceive
and beTray irs ows ChUiioo und picked
friends is not at all new or surprising. 1t
only illustrates our frequent prophecy
that when ap administration becomes des-
potic by the connivance of one class it
makes no discrimination between its
friends and its foes The home guard en-
listed for fun. Mr.. Brough will use it
"for keep"
The value of the ha5eas corpus, the
necessity of the supremacy of the civil
authority and the virtues of the ancient
doctrine of STATE SOVEREIGNTY are now
becoming painfully apparent to class
who have hitherto held them in light es-
TEEN. We have met plenty of gentlemen,
now about "to do the State some service"
involuntarily, who would be delighted to
erect again the State lines they have
been assisting to obliterate, and to re-
establish in their ancient power the courts
upon which they he'd tfHmPird in dert--
sion. They understand, as we'll as we
do, that the wholesale transfer of the
State Militia into the hands of the Uni
ted Sases authorities is an illegal and
unconstitutional act. They are well
aware that the legislature of Ohio has no
power, by simply changing the law, to
change the nature of their contract of en-
listment made under former law, not so
rigorous. But where is their remedy?
Echu answers-Where!
The authorizes have been upheld in
every violation of ou- rights until they
have become oblivious of the fact that we
possess any. They will transport the mi
iitia of Ohio to Virginia, Kentucky,
Tennessee, and probably, to Minnesota
also, to keep the Indians in check and re-
lease the veterans there doing duty.
Is there any court to issue the writ of
habeas corpus in order to test the right
to drag these gentlemen outside of this
State? Suppose that they try an appliea-
tion to that Iiis1rable dog called by the
name LeaTitt, the poor, contemplate
shadow that fills the place of man in
ths district court at Cincinnati. What
success do they hope from him? When
he refused to write to Mr.. Vallandigham
who was not in any military service what
ever, he more than decided every case
which the volunteers can present. He
then subjected the civil power to the mil
itary power He put the court under
the feet of The Butcher of Fredericks
burg. He put the citizen (and OF course
the soldier) under the absolute control OF
the military commanders. When all this
was done the silly majority of the north
more vigorously and Ju-
bilantly than the loyal leaguers and the
home guards that wear such demure and
woe-beeone faces now. Well may we ex
claim with Mark Anthony, when mourn
ing dead Caesar: es ~
.Then and you and all ofus fell down
Whilst bloody treason heurished over us
Oh! now you weep!" &
At the bottom of all our difficulties and
treubles lies the one great and sole cause
the further prosecution of this bloody
and fruitless war Peace is the sovereign
paracea. While this war continues, its
burdens must now daily increase in
fearful proportion. Our surplus popula-
ton is gone. The next draft will be felt
elsewhere than in our pockets. The next
tax will be somsthing to be felt. Our
grcenbacks cannot put off the evil day
much longer, and will intensity the trou-
BILE when it comes. During three years
of war we have been lodging, tsmpori-