The mountain Democrat. [volume] (Placerville, El Dorado County, Calif.) 1863-1943, 1865-04-08
THE MOUNTAIN DEMOCRAT.
policy OF the Administration.

We give below the conclusion of an
able and eloquent speech of Hon. Alex
Long, Of Ohio, on the policy of the Ad
ministration, delivered in the Lower
House Of Congress, on the 7th Of Febru
ary last:
At the last session, Mr.. Chairman, ] hat
the misfortune to fall under the censurt
Of THE House, aud under the most terrible
maledictiORs outside OH. For expressing
my belief, sad and unpalatable as it was
to me, that the Constitution and the Tn
ion would not, in all human probability
either of them, survive this mad and
ruinous war. What has since happened
has not been of q character to cause me
to take more cheering view Of the future.
Who will say that We are now living I'M
der . Government with a written Consti.
tuition? What provision of it is there
that has not been disrcgarded and set
aside3 OF what avail has been your Bill
of Rights, and which was made condi.
ton Of accession to the Union by the
States for the last three years? Where
laws Ot6ohtS W obuNNbCV uIG lluS SCI At
defiance and utterly disregarded, they
are seldom or never afterward respected.
Hear for a moment the utterances of the
leading editors and orators OF the Admin.
istration party in regard to our once ven.
Grated Constitution. See the contempt
and bitterness with which the most in.
fuential organs of public opinion now
speak OF it.
AS for the people or rather large por-
ton Of them, it is remarkable how com.
placently they have acquicsced in the
overthrow Of Government that was be.
lieved to be popular. Engaged in the
pursuit Of wealth and material pleasures,
they have apparently taken but little in
terest 10 the question, content even TO ac-
cept despOtIsm that did not prohibit
their sacrifices at the footstool OF mammon.
Their only idea has been to preserve the
territory, the land Of the Republic intact;
and If that was effected, the form and ma.
ture Of the Government over it was sec
ondary consideration. There is and has
been . strange theory ahoat that it was
better to have an extended territory Of
vast dimensions. if ii was a despoIi>m,
than a smaller country if IT was Rcpub,
lie. They did not think Of spending a
dollar or sacrificing a man to mairtan
free institutions, but they proposed to
spend the last dollar, AMI sacrifice the
last man, in order 10 prevent our map
from being curtalled or diminished.
This passion for extended territory is
one Of the most vulgar, isnobic, and IN.
worthy that ever afflicted a rr4ion. -
Countries that arc influenced by true
spirit and an elevated policy look more to
the improvement Of the territory they
have, and which willingly submit 10 their
jurisdiction, than to its expansion, more
TO the liberty and well being Of the people
who inhabit it than to foreign conquest
and dominion. This idea Of expansion,
acquisition, and dominion has been s'u-
diously inculcated by peculiar anh most
bombastic literature our Fourth If july
orations. For a long series oi years
the sum and substance al these ora.
tons has been euio:y upon our iumcn+c
territory, aud all sorts ii cxtrayYga;,t tig
ures Of speech were used 10 iu!i ate that
it extended from the Lakes t. The Gail,
and from ocean to ocean. Thus was tnv
pride OF national domination in>lered that
has since broken out in this fearful and
horrible war Had yrv been said IN our
speeches, Our oration> and our new ;npciS
about ha6eas corpus, the rh> Of trial by
jury, and other guarantees Of persona,
liberty, Of representative and
the rights, sovereignty, AID 'rrndence
Of the States as the only security fur per
sonal liberty; had the people been cdu-
Gated in these great principles, purchased
by the blood Of our fathers, the present.
huniIiating and deplorable disaster would
not have overtakcn US.
Another Of the worst signs oG the times
is the national admiration OF mir AIRY
glory and grandeur, to be- won by any
means and at all sacrifices, the very idea
that has caused the destruction Of repub.
lies. France would probably have pre-
served her free constitution longer had
she not,in repelirg the attacks Of Europe
upon it, been led astTay by the dazzling
but CORY and empty phantom Of military
success. 1t was followed over millions Of
corpSes and over generations Of French.
men, until from very exhaustion the coun.
try fell back into the lethargy of dcspo,
tism. Republics in all ages have been
subverted under the war power. The
ermine OF the judge and the person Of the
legislator are helpless against the bayo
nets OF the successful soldier who is suS-
tanned by the miserable popular deu,ion
Of military glory-some Alexander, some
Julius Caesar, and some Napoleon, has
always stamped out with his iron heel
the breath of popular liberty. There is
still another melancholy deIusion worthy
Of a passing notice it is that men We're
made for government and not government
for men. Anacharsis Clootz, a fanatical
Prussian baron, during the French Rev
olution, appeared before the National As
sembly ct the head Of an embassy, aud
declared that an establishment of the
French Republic would be cAeaply pur
chased by the sacrifice of the whole hu
man race.
Rev. DR.. Breckenridge, the President of
the Convention that renominated Mr..
Lincoln, declared in a political speech in
the city in which reside, his willingness
to see this magnificent country all drpop-
ulated back to the original settlements of
jamestown and Plymouth rather thar
have two confederated republics where
there is now but one. This is supreme
lunacy, and only worthy of lunatic asy-
ium. Governments are instituted to pro
mote the happiness Of men, and they
should be subverted when they fail in
that end. With large class Of our peo-
pie the word government implies some
huge idol to which the lives and fortunes
of the people are to be sacrificed, and for
which. work as il is of humln hands, riv.
ers of blood are to flow. We who are un-
able to ngfes upon q proper form of gov
eminent for ourselves, presumptuously