The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1865-09-08

Pilsoh'hehIj ITlai ny jury, JIG WITH vi ba-
beas corpus, the perfect immunity of all
persons not in the army or navy from any
species of punishment for crime or pre-
tended crime which is not the legal con-
sequence of legal conviction by any i'm
partial jury, the absolute subordinaton of
all military power to the civil authority,
and the privilege of white citizens to vote
at the State elections, according to the
laws of the State.
Fifth.-That we fully concur with
President johnson in the conviction ex-
pressed by him in 1861, and repeated sew
eral times since, that the Federal Govern
ment is sovereign within its proper
sphere that it acts not through or upon
the State, but directly upon individuals
that the State conld not absolve the
people from their federal obligations
that the State ordinances of secession were
utilities, and, therefore, when the at
tempted revolution came to an end by the
submission of the insurgents, the States
were as much part of the Union as
they had been before. Their people
were bound to the same duties and clothed
with the same rights, excepting of course,
such rights as individuals among them
had legally forfeited by their own acts in
the meantime, and We hereby declare that
so far as we can prevent it, the resump-
ton of their proper places in the Union by
those States some of whose citizens were
lately in rebellion, shall not be impeded
or delayed by the unlawful interference
OF that faction at the North which was al
ways hostile to the Union, which now pro-
nounces it legally dissolved, and which is
still Indignantly laboring to prevent its
restoration.
Sixth.-That the effort now making by
certain persons to use the power of the
General Government with view to force
negro suffrage on the States against the
will of the people and contrary to existing
laws, is not only high crime against the
Constitution, but deliberate and wicked
attempt to put the States of this Union
Gall of them more or less and some of them
entirely under the domination of negroes,
to Africaniae large portion of the coun-
try and degrade the white race, morally
and socially as well as politically, to the
low level Of the black. We will not
acknowledge the incapacity of our own
race to govern itself, nor surrender the
destnies Ct the country into the hands of
negroes, nor put themselves under their
guardianship, nor give up to them the po-
litical privileges which we inherited from
our fathers, and we exhort our brethren
in other States to take up the same attitude
and maintain it firmly.
Seventh.-That VIC will support Presi.
dent johnson in every just effort he may
make toplace all the States in their prop
er positions to give them fair represen-
tation in Congress to save them from the
curse of negro equality he shall have
our hearty approval when he inficts legal
punishment by means of legal tribunals
upon offenders against the U. States, and
we will be with him in every means which
looks to the maintenance of public credit.
But our full approval of his administra-
ton can be founded only in the belief
that he will execute the law the whole
law and nothing but the law in all parts
of the country that he will not allow the
military to interfere with State elections
that he will punish kidnapping and rob.
berry through the legal authorities, wheth-
er committed by Federal officers or pri-
vate citizens, and that he will suffer no
person to be murdered by military COM
mission, and upon these measures there
cap be no compromise; he that is not
Tor us is against us.
Eighth.-That in view of our enormous
national debt, the great weight of our
State taxes, and the local burdens i'm
posed upon us in divers ways, economy and
retrenchment becomes an important duty
of all our representatives, and to this end
the vast standing army now on foot ought
to be disbanded, the navy should be re-
duced, and the corrupt and extravagant
practices lately introduced into the Gov
eminent should be totally abolished.
Ninth.-That our revenue laws need
to be carefully revised in such manner
that while the public credit will be main
tanned and the national honor preserved,
taxation will be equal and just.
Tenth.-Tbat the gallant soldiers of the
Republic, who SO nobly riskcd their lives
in defense of the Union and the Constitu-
ton, merit and will receive the undying
gratitude of the American people. Liv-
ing, they shall live in our warmest affec-
tons, and dying, their memories will be
cherished for all time to come. To say,
as our political opponents do, that they
fought aud bled and died mainly for the
freedom of the negro, is gross insult on
their patriotism and an outrage which
will be indignantly resented by their sur
wing comrades through the ballot box.
Eleventh.-Tbat the noble manner in
which the democratic press of this com
monwealth have contendod in defense of
the liberties of the nation, amid trials and
difficulties almost unparalleled, is deserv-
ing of our grateful recognition, and should
cntitle it to the encouragement of every
Constitution loving citizen.
mn