New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-09-03

through it-and we do not suppose any one
will contend that, since that time there has
been tendency to a stricter construction.
Tout an controire It would have been hard
indeed for the radicals of the last Congress to
propose any measure whatever without find
ing for it, or pretending to find for it,
some sort Of vague constitutional
warrant. In this state of incertitude about
what the Constitution means, or rather when
we consider the directly opposite construc-
tons which are given to the instrument, it
would have been much more pleasing and
satisfactory if Gen. Custer had told us pre-
cisely what he means by constitutional liberty
and, in case it be the right sort of constitu-
tional liberty, whether the security of the
people in the enjoyment of it is to rest upon
any more certain foundation than the mere
beating of the radicals at the next election,
without any guarantee that they may not turn
round at a subsequent election and beat as.
But the third and last section of the gen
erals platform rights-presents
something more tangible. It is not SO vague
as the others, can be more easily defined, and
is capable of being more clearly compre-
hended by the masses of the people, Start
with the doctrine that the fewer laws there
are the better, Except for the prevention of
crime,) and every one can see and know at
once what his rights are. His rights then
will comprehend all the rights of man except
those which are subversive of the peace of
society. Under this perhaps, citizen might
be bold enough to claim that he had a right
to enjoy the fruits of his labor, without hav-
ing it taxed away from him to support manu-
featuring lords, OF to maintain in office tens
of thousands Of corrupt and useless officials.
He might claim Alright to have himself repre-
sented in the councils of the Legislative body
which taxed him. He might claim an exemp-
ton from swearing oaths before exercising
the right of suffrage He might claim right |
to worship his Creator which it seems he
cannot do IN Missouri and elsewhere except
upon conditions He might claim the right
to devote to the uses of his own family the
money he has made by his own labor, with
out being compelled to pay tax for the sup
port of other people. He might claim a /
right to go to the aid of a struggling
people, without being hampered by neutrality
laws. He might claim the right of exemption
from the domiciliary visits of tax gatherers,
prying into his family and business affairs
and gazetting them to the world. He might
claim to have his private correspondence kept
inviolate, as has not been the case, in many
of late years. He might claim that
public sentiment ought properly to condemn
under all circumstances, the wanton destruc-
ton of private property, of churches, of libra
ries; and that other people should not be
because he is honest. He might
protest against those innumerable devices for
robbing him which power and greed are so
fruitful in suggesting and practcing. In
short, individual rights could of itself be
made platform on which all honest men
might stand, and would be glad to stand.
But as all men are not honest, the terrors of
The law must be invoked sometimes for the
punishment of malefactors and beyond this,
The less law we have the better. ''The world
s governed too much, said wise philoso-
oher, and he was right. If Gen. Custer will
lefine individual rights to be, as they pro
oerly are, the right of every man to life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness, unrc-
trained by any law, except when he commits
wrong upon society, he may organize
'arty which may redeem the country from
which is, indeed, the synonym of
raud. We pledge ourselves in advance to be
n humble follower in the ranks.