Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1865-07-11
For The Statesman.l
UyI,o NVushfmUa0m Executions.

OF all the dramatic scenes, usurpations,
oppressions and despotic violations OF law,
which have characterized the last fouryears
of discord and strife, none have so shocked
and paralyzed the public mind as the re-
cent executions of the conspirators at
Washington. No other act has been mark
ed with so much significance, indicating
the total destruction Of the Republic and
of popular liberty. In former cases, ex-
cuses (however insufficient were found In
the necessities supposed to grow out of the
perils of the great struggle in which we
were engaged. These excuses sprung from
the unhealthy passions and fears OF even
patriotic and we'll meaning men. They
felt disposed to tolerate and wink at the,
assaults upon the Constitution and their
own liberties, in the artlor of q patriotic de-
sire to suppress the rebellion. But now,
when the storm is over, when its elements
have melted iutO profound peace, and eve
rybody throughout the whole country is
bowling in submission to the laws and to
rightful authority, the people are amazed
and appalled, at this scene. - bc0ioo.
1t was expected that when the military
commission had elected all the evidence,
that could be obtained, bearing upon the
atrocious assassination, the culprits would
be handed over to, the civil authorities to be
dealtMith according to the forms of law.
Their conviction and execution under legal
process would have received the sanction
and approval of every honest heart. But
under the circumstances surrounding these
executions, 1t is alarming that there should
exist in our country power which can.
thus trample on all the safeguards OF public
liberty, thus manifesting to the whole peo-
pie that all the rights for the protection Of
their, lives and property are stricken down,
and that these sacred tenures are held in the,
irresponsible hand and at the capricious
will of accidental power-that all the secu-
rifles of individual safety, resulting from a
struggle of six hundred years In the cause
of popular liberty, have been .nnihilated.
Everybody must understand that, even If
the guilty may be accused, tried and eXecu-
ted, not only without the forms of law and
the authority OF the Constitution, but in
defiance of both, the most innocent man
breathes and lives merely by the gracious
forbearance of che power that may do these
unlawful deeds. The law, the accuser, the
judge and the executioner are all united in
the same person; and this is unlimited DEs-
POTIsM. ;, I'm IA
I will not stop to inquire by what in
fiuenoes surrounding the President, or
what appliances, during period of physi-
cal indisposition, have been brought to
bear, to prevent his interposition to stay
this outrage, SO abhorrent, as is believed, to
all his feelings and principles. s.i... b.
The most alarming feature of our present
condition is the fact that the Republican
press and partisans, with few exceptions,
not only acquiesce and quietly surrender
their own liberties to these usurpations,
but openly justify them. In view of this
fact, the Democrats are powerless in any
influence exerted to reinstate the Constitu-
tions in behalf of constitutional liberty, are
attributed to partisan opposition, and tend
to make the objects they espouse obnoxious
to the partisans of the Republican party,
many of whom, through the violence Of
their partisan passions, have thus come 10
regard the Constitution and laws, which
alone can protect their own liberties, with
Indifference and contempt. We might well
despair of the Republic! 1t can only be
saved by the virtue and forbearance of
those who are or shall be appointed
to offices controlling the organized power
of the Government. Ii these things are
justified and acquiesced in, they become
precedents for all future public officers, and
It will be a matter of indifference to the
people what party may be in the ascend
ant-whether Marius, or Sylla, Pompey or
Cesar, shall be elevated; in either event
they will have an absolute master, and
they, themselves, will be slaves. Mere
force being thus applied to destroy the
laws, will, as it has always done in the his
tory of the world, beget organized force in
resistance, and thus the inauguration of
civil wars, anarchy and military despotism.
Instead of peaceful elections in obedience
to law, we shall have prOnunciamentos
aud civil wars in the selections, not of pub
lie officers governed by law, but public ty-
rants, whose will alone Is the supreme rule.
Let men reason as they may about these
military trials and executions, the patent,
legal truth stares US in the face, that they
do not rise above the character of assassi-
nations. 1t is Lynch law and Lynch yio-
leDce, which has sometimes disgraced our
country in the persons of citizens of less
distinction but not less respectability than
the members of the Washington Commis-
sion. The official character of those who
do these things, does not vary the eharac-
ter of their acts, except as it transfers the
illegal violence of the mob to the hands of
those whose sworn official duty is to pro-
teet the Constitution and the laws, and who
thus, strike them down in the persons of
their victims. .-f,- -s .4.....H Sod
1t is the very essence and spirit of our
Republican form of government, that there
is no official power beyond the Constitution
and the laws made in pursuance thereof.
These are letters of attorney and mandates
to the officials, which bind them equally
with the humblest citizen. All acts of
theirs, beyond such authority, are as ille-
gal and criminal as if done by unofficial
violence. 1t may be that the victims in
either case, are criminals deserving pun
ishment; but its illegal infiiction is a
blow, which, while it strikes the offender,
strikes also the most sacred rights of the
innocent and overturns the whole fabric of
free government. i5d .sIiieqsa sqC
1t has been the pride and highest honor
of the great men of our country, from the
days Of Washington to the date of the late
Rebellion, that whatever may have been
their official position, they always scrupu-
lously respected and obeyed the laws-al-
ways holding themselves equally amenable
thereto, with every member of society.
When will this vital principle be restored to
this afflicted landp 'H 'aIs x.