The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-08-04
Greuiug Telrgraph
SATURDAY, AUGUST A, 1866.
The Right Of Free Assemblage.


IT is curious 10 observe how easily, when par
tisan ends are 10 be subserved, the simplest and
plainest principles of a republican form Of gov.
ernment are forgotten or ignored. Thus We
find our Democratic editors, almost without ex-
ception, iustirying the breaking up OF the late
Union Convention in New Orleans, on the
ground that it was an '1llegal assemblage.'
But, let us inquire of these gentlemen, what is
an illegal assemblage? Is an assemblage that
passes obnoxious resolutions, or that tolerates
unpleasant speeches, or that holds unpopular
sentiments to be regarded as 'illegal?n If so.
we fancy that our Democratic brethren will
hold very few legal meetings at the North this
fall.
But we shall be ans wered that the New Orleans
Convention was an illegal assemblage, because
its existence, as a legal and valid convention,
had ceased-oecause it assumed to act in false
capacity. But this is a disputed point. The
Convention and its friends hold that it ,oaS
legal and valid body. The Governor of the State
held 1t to be so. In such case who shall decide?
Shall the mob? Shall the Judge of Court
before the case has arisen, or come before him
Shall the President? But grant, for the sake of
the argument, that the Convention had not only
ceased to exist vaidly as a Convention but had
SS'A'''N''"N
an illegal assemblageg By no means. No peace.
able assemblage in this country ever was, or
ever can be an illegal assembage, SO long as it
confines itself to discussion, or to acts paper.
There must be ove,t acts, transgressing some
ones rights, before the law is violated. A
hundred men might assemble in our
city to-day; might claim to be a con-
stitutional convention; might pass laws and
hx, ,,rrhf na1
of their number Governor of the State, or
President of the United States, if they pleased;
might resolve in favor of changing this Gov.
ernment into a monarchy, or OF attaching the
United States to the domains of the Gar; and
in no respect whatever would they be an illegal
Sssemblage. But if they attempted to carry
these resolutions, enactments, ordinances, or
what not into force-should their seltstyled
Governor attempt to turn the real Governor out
of his ofice-should they attempt to arrest u
citizen on the streets, or to levy and collect a
tax, or to do any other thing involving trespasS
on the rights of others, then such action on the
part of the person or persons doing it would
be illegal. We have had Fenian organization
in this country now for a year, holding Con.
crosses" and other assemblies, transacting bus.
ness ostensibly for an Irish republic; but
nobody called 1t Illegal, or attempted to inter
fere with it, until 1t perp .trated oUet acts
against the law. No peaceable assemblage
in this country is an illegal assem-.
blage. If it claim a character to which
it is not entitled, that fact can only
be determined by some competent authority,
in connection with some overt act. Had the
Louisiana Convention been an Invalid and illegal
one that was a question to be determned by
the appropriate authority. The very fact that
illegal and violent measures we're taken to break
it up, affords a strong presumption that it roaS a
valid body, and that its action was feared by its
foes. That, however, is point that we do not
care to discuss IN this article. We simply desire
to call the attention OF our political opponents
to the dangerous precedent they are setting,
when they endorse the break ing-up of a peace
full assemblage Oh the ground that 1t is an illegal
one. We need not point out to them where such
a doctrine would be likely to lead to, nor who
would probably the soonest have occasion to
pray for deliverance from it.