The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1865-10-07
AN ASTOUNDING UsuRPArION.
We find the following in a late New
York Tribune:


Last week Lieut.. Gen. Grant issued n gen
cral order to the various department com
mauders, authorizing thcm to break up al
the faro banks ia the United States! Muior-
Gen. Palmer, acting under this authority,
appointed Saturday night for IL grand raid on
all the faro hanksin Kentucky. Every bank
in Louisville was closed up and their stocks
coniiscated. Most of the men engaged in
them got wind of the movement and left the
citv. One ut Frankfort wa seized, and the
keeper and dealer arrested. All others in
State have been shut up.
The Tribune comments upon this start
ling order as follows:
d" Faro banks" are doubtless pcstilcnt. and
gamblers n bad lot altogether. We heartily
wish every kind of gambling were legally
suppressed, and every backlog sentenced to
work in the deepest mines of Nevada or Col
orado for terms of two To ten years each, ac-
c%urling to their grades of rascality-tlleir
-greenness or hariihood in their vocation of
heccing the simple. But gamblers IRE men
and citizens; they have, till legally convict
ed, the rights Of men and citizens they can
he rightiully arraigned and punished for
their iniquities only in accordance with law.
In districts where hostilities are still preya-
lent or apprehendel-in districts still ncees
sarilv under Military rule and regimen
such an order as is above asserted may be
liustifiablc: but an order from Gen. Grant to
!. break up all The tdro-bankS Ia The United
States would be rather too steep. lemight
Us well order every sedueer and libertine ar
rested and given their choice to serve five
years as privates in our Regular Army or be
immured Indefinitely in u military prison at
the Tortugas.
1t is well that there is one paper in the
Abolition party which will thus boldly
and rightfully c%riticise the monstrous
usurpation of the Lieutenant General.
Had it been Il Democratic organ which
thus expressed itself, as the Tribune has,
all the bowling loyal sheets in the land
would have most scorchinely denounced it,
upheld Gen. Grant in his conduct, and
declared that he had a clear and perfect
right to close the faro banks. 1t is not
the faro banks or gamblers that good men
would defend in severely eondemning the
Lieutenant Generals order. but the prin-
ciple contained in that order. and it is the
utter abuse of power involved in its issu-
auee, which ought to be denounced and
condemned. IfGen. Grant. by virtue oi
his commission, could abolish and destroy
all the faro banks in the several States, 81
could he abolish and destroy all money
banks. all business whatever. all institu
tons. manufactures, shops, trades, dc
: 1t is not the character of the calling o.
the thing which isjaTolved, but the dis
position of Gen. Grant towards it. Ant
if the Lieutenant General can exercise
this absolute authority. it follows that tn,
President. as COMMANDMENT Chief Of tn,
army and navy. can wen exceed, if posi-
bic, that officer in his arbitrary stretch Q
power. Admit the right or authority o
,lGen. Grant to abolish and destroy far
banks. and the power of the President Il
do whatever he wills in any State. witt
any business, trade or institution, or Will
persons themselves, necessarily follows
Is this republican? Is it right. reasona
BILE. or-safe to the people, to admit sucl
an absolute sweep of power in the Execu
t tive, or any other officer? Say that it is
r and the power must inevitably carry Will
it the authority of the President to throw
down churches; prohibit the worship o
God in any, or only agreeably to a pre-
scribed form to pre1ent marriages. or Il
regulate them; to decree what occupa
tons shall be permitted, or to refuse per
mission to any and all to prescribe tn,
fashion of dress, the style of living, tn,
manner of conduct of the people; and, il
short, to order-and to enforce that orde
THAT every dweller in the whole Uniol
must conform to the precise rules set u
!, before him by the Executive. Yet, mon
strous and absurd as all this would seem
: in being practically carried out, the prin
+ ciple which underlies it all is endorse,
/ and advocated by the great majority Q
the Abolitionists throughout the country
They have not only approved every ac
: and abuse of equally arbitrary characte
with this order in question of Gen. Grant
; but they insist that the same iron rul
over those who differ with the Admins
!, ~tration must be continued. There ca
: certainly be nothing more precious to tn
citizen than his liberty, life and honor
= The Abolitionists defend Secretary Stan
\ ton and all tho other tyrants who act i
association with or under him, in his an
q their arbitrary acts
e Men who approve such usurpations i
Government officers, do no less than asscl
the authority of Gen. Grant or the Exec
: utive to commit the outrages under absc
lutte orders which we have mentioned
And no Abolitionist can deny that hi
n party have approved, and do advocate, th
commission of just such outrages an
dAOClttSS dS VIC nave diISup6U
WoN A FIGHT.-The war is over, b,
n Major General Prentiss of Illinois has wo
Y a fght-aided by his SON. The two caugF
' a young man who kept forbidden compan
) with the Generals daughter, in the streets
Quincy, and thrashed him. The c%onquerin
) man of war was made to pay a fine of fy
dollars for his victory.
u U~p.pnou. p,- wosb