The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1865-07-14
U.cer,ninsy Of Loyalty and Law.

Uncertainty Of Loyalty and Law.
The telegraph mentioned the other day
the fact that Governor BRowNLow, OF
Tennessee, had issued proclamation de-
claring the franchise law" to be the su-
preme law of the State, and threatening
with arrest and summary punishment
whoever dared to speak against it. This
franchise law of Tennessee prohibits ne
crocs from voting, and is the law which
Senator WILSON, of Massachusetts, de-
clares must be rescinded before delegates
from Tennessee shall be admitted to
seats in Congress This is the law which
the whole host of New England radicals
denounce, and to uphold which is, in
their estimation, 10 he guilty Of treason
to the United States. M, what is worse, to
the almighty nesIo. So what is loyalty
in Massachusetts, is considered rebellion
in Tennessee, and the man who escapes
the maledictions of the profane Parson
in the latter State is exposed to tho
Phillipics of the saints in the former.
There is very serious misunderstanding
inc also as to what constitutes the right
of free speech nowadays. A few days
ago, Hon. EMERSON ETHERIDaE, an
original Union man of Tennessee, was
arrested for making seditious speeches
in the district in which he is candidate
for Congress We don't know what Mr..
ETHERIDGE said that was considered
reasonable, but, judging from his ante
cedents, we have no idea that he advo'
Gated the right of secession, as an aboli-
ton speaker did in Massachusetts, on the
fourth of July, or threatened to re-enact
the massacre of ST. Domingo as another
abolition orator did at birmingham on
1.-The Fourth"
1t would be of immense advantage to
the public if some reliable test Of loyal
ty and some fixed boundary of public
discussion might be adopted within
which limits the citizen might feel safe
It is related as proof of the tyranny Of
one of the old Roman Emperors that his
DEGREES were written in very small let
tiers and posted upon pillars so high that
they could not be read by the people and
then the unhappy subjects were punish
ed for their disobedience of orders Of
whose existence they were unaware -
Is the uncertainty of law in these days
much better than the enforced ignorance
FOR which the ancient Romans were COM
PEELED to suffer? Less than three months
ago, WENDELL PHILLIPS declared in q
public speech in the city of New York,
that he would rather cut off his right
hand than take an oath to support the
Constitution of the United States. The
man who would make such declaration
as that in this community would very
soon thereafter find himself taking check
cred views of life through the barred
windows of the military prison. And
yet the same general government is over
US all
A few months ago men were accused OF
treason because they failed to approve
every act of the administration now,
however, some of the very men who
were loudest in making that accusation
denounce, as enemies to the country,
those who do approve the Presidents
policy toward the Southern States
The principles that are deemed loyal to-
day, may be considered disloyal tO-mOr-
row; those political opinions which we
are free to express in West Virginia,
might be deemed beyond the limits of
free speech in Massachusetts OF Tennes-
see
We Americans are patient and sub
missive people. We will agree to almost
anything and say that it is right and that
we are perfectly content. We don't in
sist upon the observance of any formal
constitution or laws, but would most
humbly suggest to Mr.. STANTON that the
adoption of some uniform rule by which
the people of all the States might know
what to think, say and do without incur.
ring the penalties of "disloyalty," would
enable all the people to feel safer and
breathe more freely.
WHEN the arrests of persons accused
of completely in the assassination plot
were being msde, a report was circula.
ted that the majority of the accused per.