The Daily empire. (Dayton, Ohio) 1865-1867, 1866-03-14
Damning Proofs.

and out of Congress at President JoHS-
soN's recent declaration that Messrs. SUM
NER STEVENS, PHILLIPS and their adherents
are "traitors." We have thought that we
could not do better thing in the present
crisis than 20 show from the record that
this declaration Of the Executive, so far
from being the false and wild one which it
is alleged to be by the faction on whose
leaders It has borne so hard, could not have
been qualified without sacrifice Of truth.
We shall show, moreover. that Mr.. JoHS-
sons speech Of the 22d of February, so far
as 1t relates to these men, is in perfect ac-
cordance with his public declarations made
before he received the Republican nomina-
tion for the Vice Presidency.
We shall begin with Mr.. STEVENS.
When the bill for the dismemberment of
Virginia was before the House of Repre-
sentatives the leader of the radicals held
this language;
l will not sultify myself by supposng
that we have any warrant In the Constltu-
tion for this proceeding.
This talk of restoring the Union AS IL was.
and under the Constitution as 1t IS Is one of
Iue hDSuTullles NnlCll nave TtItdltu
until | have become sick of IL. There are
many things which make such All event
impossible. The Union neUer shall, tcih my
consent, be restored under the Constitutions as
IL isl
We might crowd our columns IL we
chose, with the repeated declarations of
Mr.. SUMNER, that he owed no obedience to
the Constitution, but we content ourselves
-. Al. III.
serve as a specimen of the rest
Let me say that the Constitution of the
United States, as | understand 1t. exacts no
passive obedience. and no man. who is not
wholly lost to self-respect, and ready to
abandon the manhood which is shown in
the heaven-directed cOuntenance, will vol
UNFAIRLY aid in enforcing Judgment"
which In his conscience he solemnly be-
lieves to be against the fundamental law.
whether of the Constitution or of God
The whole dogma of passive obedience
must be rejected-in whatever guise it may
assume, and under whatever alias 1t may
skulk; whether in the tyrannical usurpa-
tions of King, Parliament or judicial tri-
bunal.n
On another occasion Mr. SUMNER. when
asked in so many words, on the floor of the
Senate, whether he would aid in executing
a law passed in clear compliance with the
bidding of the Constitution, replied. rs
Thy seruaat a dog, that he should DO this
hiagY'
Mr.. WENDELL PHILLIPS, the third "trai-
tor" named by Mr. JOHNSON, said in a
speech made shortly after the beginning
Of the war:
No man has a right to be surprised at
n Nt9 mt Nf II tu tYNef hat ss..
Abolilionists and Disunionists have at
tempted to bring about. There is merit in
the Republican party. lt Is the first sec
Ii0ndt party ever organized In this country.
1t does not know Its own face, but calls
itself national but 1t Is not Rdtiondl-it is
sectional. The Republican party is party
Of the North pledged against the South.
Again, at Cincinnati, Mr., PHILLIPS de-
clared, with candor or shamelessness, rs
you may please to call it
have labored nineteen years to take six
teen States out Of this Union.
When we were in the very midst of
the war, this same Mr.. PHILLIPS said ia
public speech:
Thank God, for Mcclellan, for Cameron
thank God for defeat. With man for Pres
ident, we should have put down the rebel
lion In ninety days, and left slavery tohere
il t0dS!
The labors OF these three Northern dis
unionists-SUMNER, STEVENS, and PHILLIPS
were not unappreeiated in the South, as
the following extract from an article in the
Mobile Register, printed during the war
attests:
We want separation. Give US men like
Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner.
ha III nd
and so do We! And We now advise these
gentlemen that, as they hate the Union
aud the accursed Constitution, let them
keep down the Democracy In the North
then they shall never be troubled by us
with such whining about the Constitution
and the Union as they are sending up.
II may be well to add in this place some
extracts from the speeches and writings OF
the prominent apologists and defenders Of
the traitors" explicitly named by the
President. Foremost among these is Mr.
BENJAMIN F. WADE who said in 1860, re-
Southern leaders;
am not one Of those who would ask
them 10 continue In such Union. 1t would
be doing violence to the platform oT the
party 20 tohich I belong, We have adopted
the old Declaration of independence as the
basis of our political movements which de- |
clares that any people when their govern |
ment ceases to protect their rights-when |
il is 50 subverted from the true purposes of
government as to oppose them. have the |
right to recur to fundamental principles, |
and II need be, 70 destroy the gOveTRSnsnt ua-
der lohich they liUe, and to erect on its ruins
another more conducive 10 their welfare, |
hold that they have this right. loiH not |
bLame any people for exercising IL, whenever |
they think the contingency has come.
d. a., 80, not toroihIv hold ,nan In tI,te |