Columbia democrat and star of the north. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1867, 1866-04-25


| but their jurisdiction is gone. Why? Be
: cause, say our opponents, war exists, and the
silent, legal, technical operation of that fact
Is to deprive all American citizens of their
right to a fair trial
That class of jurists and statesmen who
hold that the trial by jury is lost to the citi-
zen during the existence of war, carry out
their doctrine theoretically and practically to
its ultimate consequences. The right of trial
by jury being gone, all other rights are gone
with it therefore man may be arrested
without an accusation and kept in prison du-
ring the pleasure of his captors his papers
may be searched without n warrant his
property may be confiscated behind his back,
andhe has no earthly means of redress Nay,
an attempt to get just remedy is construed
as new crime He dare not even complain,
for the right of free speech is gone with the
rest of his rights. If you sanction that doc
trine, what is to be the consequence do
not speak of what is past and gone but in
ease of a future war what results will follow
from your decision endorsing the Attorney
Generals views? They are very obvious.
At the instant when the war begins, our
whole system of legal government will tum-
bic into ruin, and if we are not all robbed,
and Kidnapped, and hanged and drawn,
and quartered, we will owe our immunity, not
to the Constitution and laws, but to the mere
mercy or policy of those persons who may
then happen to control the organized physi
cal force of the county
This certainly puts us in most precarious
condition we must have war about half the
time, do what we may to avoid it. The
| President or Congress can wantonly provoke
a war whenever it suits the purpose Of eth
| er to do so and they can keep it going as
| long as they please, even after the actual
/ conflict of arms is over. When peace woos
/ them they can ignore her existence and
| thus they can make the war chronic con-
dition of the country, and the slavery of the
people perpetual. Nay, we are at the mer-
| cy of any foreign potentate who may envy
us the possession of those liberties which
we boast of so much he can shatter our
Constitution without striking single blow or
/ bringing gun to bear upon US. A simple
declaration of hostilities is more terrible to
us than an army with banners.
To me, this seems the widest delusion
that ever took possession of human brain.
IF there be one principle of political ethics
more universally acknowledged than another,
it is that war, and especially civil war, can
be justified only when it is undertaken to
vindicate and uphold the legal and constitu-
| tional rights of the people; not to trample
them down. He who carries on a system of
wholesale slaughter for any other purpose,
must stand without excuse before God or
man. In time of war, more than at any
other time, public liberty is in the hands of
the public officers And she is there in dou-
bic trust; first, as they are citizens and there
fore bound to defend her, by the common
obligation Of all citizens; and next, as they
are her special guardians
.'Who should against her murderers shut the door
Not bear the Knife themselves"
The opposing argument, when turned into /
plain English, means this, and this only; |
that when the Constitution is attacked upon |
one side, its official guardians may assail it /
upon the other; when rebellion strikes it in
the face, they may take advantage of the /
blindness produced by the blow, to sneak be-
hind it and stab it in the back
The Convention when it framed the Con
stitution, and the people when they adopted
it, could have had no thought ike that If
they had supposed that it would operate only
while perfect peace continued, they certainly
would have given us some other rule to GO
by in time of war; they would not have
left US to wander about in bowling wilder
ness of anarchy, without lamp to our feet,
or a guide to our path. Another thing
proves their actual intent still more strik-
ingly. They required that every man in any
kind of public employment, state or national,
civil or military, should swear, without re-
serve or qualification, that he would sup
port the Constitution. Surely our ancestors
had too much regard for the moral and re-
igious welfare of their posterity, to impose
upon them an oath like that, if they in
tended and expected it to be broken half the
time. The oath of an officer to support the
Constitution is as simple as that of a wit
ness to.tell the truth in a court Of justice.
What would you think of witness who
should attempt to justify perjury upon the
ground that he had testified when civil war
was raging, and he thought that by swear
ing to a lie he might promote some public
or private object connected with the strife?
No, no, the great men who made this
country what it is-the heroes who won her
and the, who statesmen
settled her institutions-had no such
notions in their minds Washington deserv-
ed the lofty praise bestowed upon him by
the president of Congress when he resigned
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