The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1864-08-13
The War Power of the Govern
ne0t,


military power may be used there to put
down hostility 10 the Government in all
its forms Of levying war or aiding and
comforting The enemy, the same acts may
b done with tmpunify In other parts Of
" We laid down that tho var extend.
wherever there II m enemy, and that acts
which are acts Of war in one part of the
country. are the same wherever they may
BE- committed, and may lawfully be put
down and punished by the same military
force. In other words. that the acts and the
intent, and not the locality, constitute the
o6enso; and that the Government has the
same econstitutional power inoos part Of The
nation Asinanother. What constitution
n powers OF the Government are in carry
ing o. the war, we laid down with plain
ness in the first Of the war, and have occa-
sionally repeated since then. We have had
ne occaslon 70 changs our positien: On
by the subsequent decision of the Supreme
Court, and By the progrsss Of ideas. We
merely re-a@rm i now because of the
constant stream Of false assertions Of con-
stitutional doctrines, which is kept up in
the opposition press and By its conven-.
tion OF the right Of preservation.
That this nation was formed, leaving to
every StAtethe right Of secession, 10 q doc
trine too absurd to merit serious argument.
What Democrat ever believed this doctrine
until he found it . means of aiding the re-
bellion? What Democrat. North or South,
ever supposed that when We purchased
Louisiana and Florida-declaring in the
case Of Louisiana that it was necessary to
our national integrity and was our right
that We paid our money merely to endow
these territories with the right to put
themselves on the market again. and sell
out to tho highest bidder. or sek up inde-
nv1A Ennnsura
What Democrat syer thought that. when
we annexed Tsxas and paid her debt. and
save her honus Of ten millions besides,
Tor an unfounded clain ON New Mexico,
which W haG both eooqusred md pur-
chased from Mexico, and involved our
selves in war besides, on account Of that
annexati0n,s that we have done al this
merely. TO sndow Texas with the sovereign
right 70 swipdle us and seek another bar
e1tn elsewheseY s,s s., ~
Did any Democrat believe that We made
wir upon Mexico 70 feed our greed for an
nexation, and ffst CONG uered and then
purchased territory from her, only to. set
It mp on is own hook, and give it the con-
stitional right to secede from rs, and re-
annex itself to Mexico. or TO seek foreign
alliances OK protection Or that when the
Democratic Admission proposed to pay
Spain four hundred millions for Cuba, it
was to give Cuba the right to choose her
alliances from the world at large, and to
put herself in the market to the highest
bidder on her own account?
Tosuppose that the Democratic Party be-
heved this, is to allow that they were the
most unanimous fools the world over saw
Or the Imagination ever conceived And
where was the doctrine of the right of
Secession, when the Ostend Manifesto was
issued, proclaiming to the world the de-
iberate opinion q the Democratic Admin
istration through ali its Ministers in Eu-
rope, that the supreme right OF national
integrity and defence would justly this
nation in seizing any adjacent territory
which i; regarded necessary TO that end,
provided ii could not ne procured on rea-s
sonable terms BY negotiation? Did we as
tory OF foreign powers. ii we thought It
necessary to perfect a boundary l;na for
a nation subject to the local righ. OF disso-
luton?
The seizure of caba would have in
volved war with Spain, and probably
with the other European powers, for the
assertion OF this right was declaration OF.
var agaiuGt all their West India possess
sions. Did the Democratic party mean 70
plunge the country into . war with the
world. to fght for an island which, when
We had msintained il against all Europe,
We would have simply conferred on It the
right to secede, and 90 n peace back 70
Np81u, OK 10 any Ot0e3 pOWC1s ~ WVANS
can describe, or imagination conceive, the
magnitude Of the folly which the Demos
cratic party charges upon itself when it as
serts the right Of secession. The existence
of such . nation Of fools IS they would
make Of themselves Is incredible. No one
believes the doctrine. 1t has been openly
secuted in the Coofederacy. It is only as
serted in aid Of the rebels by those who de-
sire their success, and who desire to help
it % far - they can without exposing their
own persons in the war, and who Try by
the pretense Of constitutional doctrine to
avoid the infAmy Of treason.
No party has carried the assertion Of the
supremacy of the National Government 50
far as the Democratic. No party has soab-
soluteiy asserted the supremacy of the
United States Judiciary over all State avs
and Constitution. To such an extent was
this carried that the writ IF h abeaS rrrDug