The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1864-06-01

of them than it was of any man of high or
low who suspected them.
And so the end has proved. The confess
ed and guilty forgers we're your own jealous
partisans. Joseph Howard, Jr., who has con-
fessed his crime was a Republican politician
and Loyal Lacquer of BROOKLYN. Consider
sir, at whose feet he was taught his political
education, and in whose cause he spent his
political breath. Mr.. Howard has been from
his very childhood an intimate friend of the
Republican clergyman, Henry Ward Beecher,
and q member of his church. He has listen
ed year in and year out to the droppings of
the Plymouth sanctuary. The stump speech
es which there follow prayer and precede the
benediction he for years reported in the jour
nal which is your devoted organ in this city.
For years he was the city editor of hat jour
nal, the New York Times. For a long time he
was the Washington correspondent of the
chief Abolition newspaper of the country, the
New York Tribune; he has been a frequent
contributor to the columns of the Independent;
he journeyed with you from Springfield to
Washin gton; he represents himself a favored
visitor at the White House since your resi-.
dence there.
By a eurions felicity the stylus with which
his amanuensis COPIED on tissue paper the
proclamation and signed your nam was alb
stracted from the editorial rooms of the Trt-
buns. The party principles upon which you
were pledged to administer the Government,
have been the daily meat and drink of this
forger. He has denounced as faithfully as
you the party by whose defeat you rose to
power. He has been the noisy champion of
an exclusive loyalty; he has preached in club
houses and at stteet corners those politics
which stigmatize constitutional opposition to
the Administration. disloyalty to the Govern
ment. The stock brokers, who were his con-
federates, will be found to be of the same
kidney. They all advocated a paper money
legal tender; they have all countenanced the
paper imitation; they have all been needless of
the misery to poor men which such mutations;
breed; they have all r~ejoiced at the specula-
ton thus fostered, and by speculation they
had hoped to thrive.
For twenty four hours something was par.
doned to your presumed natural trepidation
since our blamelessness having been alleged
to you by those here whom it was your duty
to believe, it seemed only prudent to await
your recovery.
For the next twenty-four hours, from mo-
ment to moment, it was expected that you
wonld hasten to confess and repair your mis-.
take. But the mistake thus prolonged grew
to the proportions of a crime; and till the dis
covery of the forger stripped its mask off and
disclosed the inspiring cause of the act, it
grew monstrous, hourly in mems eyes.
We were patient that the unreasonable in
fanny of the act might swell to its full proper
tons, and stand complete.
By the recall of your arbitrary order, you
have not made reparation for the wrong you
have done The injury and the insult yet re-
main. The violation of the Constitution
stands recorded, and unless adequately atoned,
becomes a fatal precedent. For the purpose
of gratifying an ignoble partisan resentment
49,. 49, -A-11- 1~-- IL q IL
you have violated personal liberty, subjected
property to unjust seizure, SYSTEMATICALLY pla-
ced force above law, setting a dangerous ex-
ample to those who love force more than they
respect law; aud thus, and by attem pting to
crush the organs of free discussion, have made
free elections i'm possible, and broken down all
the safeguards of representative government.
1t is you that in this transaction stand accu-
sed before the people. It is you who are con-
spicuously guilty. 1t is upon you that history,
when recording these events, will afix the
crime OF a disregard of your duty, oblivion of
your oath; and q pitiable subserviency to par
" prejudice and to personal ambition, when
the country demanded in the Presidential
Office, elevated character, devotion to duty,
and se~lt-abnegation.
But you are not to be left to the judgment
of history alone. Thank God, by the provi-
sions Of our Constitution, not yet wholly abrc'
gated, the people are soon to pass upon yo1r
claims to reelection, and the right of impeach-
ment yet remains to their representatives.
The people and their representatives have the
right to speak when the pen is struck from
the hands of a freeman by the bayonet; when
the Bastile, once broken down on the other
side Of the Atlantic by the reverberation Of
our Revolution, is reconstructed here.
In stormy times like these, amid dangers
with which an unsurpassed rebellion envi-
rons us, his would have been a rash hand
which had hastily set in motion for another
purpose than the suppression of rebellion, the
machinery of justice; who had invoked
against the disloyalty of rulers the retribution
and rsdresses of the law. The danger of such
a conflict of laws is SO far passed, that not even
a President could now plead national safety as
an excuse for refusing to do justice or submit
to judgment.
Yet no citizen who regards his duties
should ever hesitate at the last to oppose law
less deeds with legal remedies. The law may
break down. 1t will then disclose to a watch
full people the point of greatest danger.
Courts may fail; judges may be inundated
by threats, or bribed by tie allurements of
power, and those who have sworn to execute
the laws may shrink from the fulflment of
their oaths. A craven Congress may sit silent
and idly watch the perishing liberties of the
people whom they represent, but this cannot
deter him who, in defending his rights, is de-
termined to do his whole duty, and to whom
it is competent at last to commit the iss ue TO
that Power, omnipotent and inscrutable, who
presides in events and sways the destinies of
nations and the hearts of men.
MANTON MARBLE.
NEW YORK, May %, 1864
az We learn that Gov. Medary was ar