Dayton daily empire. [volume] (Dayton [Ohio]) 1850-1865, 1864-01-11
RepubIICanIsnl Considered as "a
system Of Government

MetDuuINFhnNN" SVHhAuNACu ~ ~
system Of Government
After three ye ars Of Black Republican
rule. we are prepared to consider and treat
as a systsn, its ideas and modes Of Gov
ernment For what it promised, the an
tiquary may look at the Chicago platform
But the practical man, living, enduring
suffering, in the midst of its performances,
will. in estimating its character, look at
what it has done, and is doing, and from
its actual measures and inculcations, form
his conclusions as to its real character,
Republicanism, as ssystem, is con
dition of warfare, among kindred peo-
pie. with common history, traditions
and glory; and with future hopes, inter
ests, and destiny in common. The more
vigorous the war, the more bloody. the
more unrelenting, the nearer it conforms
to the Republican system. Peace it de
nounces as the most abhorrent of all ideas.
The settlement Of difficulties by discus
sion, negotiation, or arbitration, is utterly
repugnant to it, and not to be adopted in
any emergency. The sword is its only
arbiter. Mangled corpses. dismembered
limbs, burning cities, desolated hamets,
its only arguments.
In the Republican system, there is no
place allotted for State Governments Leg
islatures are tolerated, so long as they con-
form to the edicts of the Administration
at Washington. and when they disobey,
they are imprisoned or dispersed by the
military. Elections for Governor are
allowed; but under penalty Of "civil war
in the event that an adherent of the sys-
tenn we are considering is not chosen.
The ancient and inestimable right oi
trial by jury Except in minor matters
such as were once assigned to the pi,
pOudre courts by the laws of England) i,
wholly discarded by the Republican sys
tenn. 1t dispenses with the use Of affidavit
and warrant Even the charge of crime
in any definite form, is not essential to it,
peculiar administration of Justice. Neithe
its written, nor unwrtten law, does i
Isert or allow tho principle that a man.
ouse is his castle. 1t details a squad o
en- with bayonets, chops down door
ith axes, seizes the citizen in his bed
ags him before amilitary tribunal, and
the most summary manner conceiva
e, itimposes whatever penalty it chooses
That "cruel and unusual punishments
lall not be inflicted" though part Of
e once venerated Constitution which oui
theirs gave us-is maxim which has nc
ACE in the new code.
Exile, OF banishment, were words un
aoWn to the American law, in the day
Democratic rule. Solitary confnemen
,.as obliterated from every statute defninl
and furnishing crime. But these cruel AM
unusual punishments are the every day re
sort eff those who administer the Republi
can system. They are its chief props
removed, there would be danger of tn
immediate fall of the structure which the,
support.
Oonscription-unknown to the laws o
the land, from which (while law was para
mount) ours were derived--is an essentis
part Of tho prevailing system. Every able
bodied man, between the ages of eighteeI
and forty-6ye, is owned by the Govern
ment, and if he does not forsake home
wife, children, friends. business. the in
stant he ia summoned, he is liable to b
shot as deserter.
An essential part of she Repubica
system, Is the accumulation of monstrou
debt, with its consequent taxation, yea
after year, for all time. Taxes upo
everything we eat, or drink, or wea
Taxes which, as sure as GoD lives, wi
make homeless and destitute, one-ha
the property holders of the North befor