The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1866-09-20
The Impending Coup d,Etat.

He closed o recent speech to his con-
stituents in the following language:
az do not wish to be an alarmist,
nor to put myself in the category of
political prophets, but everything inn
presses me with the belief that the
President seriously contemplates that
gross act of usurpation indicated by
Blair's speech at Reading, before him
by Garrett Davis in the Senate, and re-
echoed by the rebel and Copperhead
press throughout the land. He Is only
waiting for public opinion to harden
as Mr.. Seward puts it. 1t
is said that Mr.. Seward repeatedly de-
clared that the adjourned Congress
should not meet again. History furn-
ishes parallels which it is sometimes
worth our while to consider. ConSid-
ering the more than imperial power
possessed by the President of the Uni
ted States, and the manner in which
the present incumbent has welded it,
his evident disregard of the constitu-
ton and all forms of law, and his re-
lance upon public opinion, unanimous
in the South, and which he hopes to
make formidable in the North con-
sidering, moreover, that men in high
positions do not usually use meaning
less words, and that the wish to be
Dictator may have been father to the
thought he uttered, we shall not go
very far out of the way to show him a
kings example. .H
"In July, 1889, after Necker's dis
mission as Minister of Finance, Louis
XVI attempted to awe and dissolve
the national representatives, whose
place of meeting at Versailles was sur
rounded by tremendous park of ar
tillery and thirty thousand soldiers,
the greatest part of them foreign regi-
ments. The Marquis de Breze, Grand
Master of Ceremonies, was sent as the
Kings commissioner to the hall where
met the members of the Tiers Etdt, to
order them to separate until his Majes-
ty's pleasure should be signified to
them. To which insolent order from
the valet of despotism the great Mira
beau made this ever-memorable ans
wer: ."Go and tell your master that
we are here by the power of the peo-
pie, and that we shall retire but by the
power of the bayonet." Tremendous
applause.
"Thunder-struck were the Court
when its valet returned with this he
roic answer, and when a few moments
after they learned that the members of
the Commons had retired to the Jeu
de Pomne, q tennis court, under the
Presidency of the venerable astronomer
Bailly, and there had taken that fam
GUS tennis court oath, not to separate
even if compelled by an armed soldiery,
King, Queen and Court were alike
seized with panic.
at was at the same session that
Bailly, with Spartan energy, answered
the valet of despotism, surrounded by
soldiers-'The nation assembled has no
orders to receive from anybody what
ever Enthusiastic applause.
"Nobody can claim that the Presi-
dent has any right to interfere with
Congress. [Applause.] BY the Con-
stitution it is the judge of the qualifl-
cations of its own members by the
Constitution it is the law-making pow
er of the land, and the President is the
executive officer, whose duties require
him to carry out the laws passed by
Congress. He has attempted to coerce
the representatives of the people into
submission to his will he has treated
them with contempt and hurled invec-
tives at them, and endeavored to
arouse the worst passions of the multi
tude against them. In these efforts he
has the earnest cooperation of every
traitor in the South, every rebel SYM
pathlzer in the North, and the united
rebel press of both sections. He has
already defied the Constitution in ap-
pointing officers required to be appoint
ed by and with the advice and con-
sent of the Senate, after their rejection
by that body. We have, therefore,
reason to fear, that when the means
for cOercing Congress shall fail him
within Constitutional limits, he has no
such tenderness of conscience as will
prevent him from using extra Consti-
tutional measures. Should he attempt
it, we will endeavor to find further
parallel in Louis XVI.
"SOldiers of the Republic-you men
who bore the brunt of the great battle
for the cause of your country and free
dom-you have been betrayed. The
blood you have split is reckoned by the
Administration to be as worthless as
muddy water. The uniform you wore
has been degraded, and Confederate
gray has supplanted it in the estima-
tion of those you elevated to power. =
The minions of JEFF. Davis and Lee are
rushing into places of power and trust,
while a counter revolution is being or.
ganized to bring shame and reproach
upon you. mH
"Remeinber who trailed our starry
banner in the dust-who trampled il
under foot. Remember who starved
your comrades to death in Libby and
the pens of Andersonville. Remem
ber the long and weary marches-tht
endurance and fatigue-the bloody
battle and the last victory. Remem
Der the JOY of the people when, Will
victorious tanners, torn and begrimeC
with mud as your glorious uniform
was, we beheld you marching back {,
| your homes again Is all thia fo