The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1867-12-13

preSsiVe to be borne without just COM
plant, and may finally reduce the
Treasury of the nation to a condition
of bankruptcy. We mnst not delude
ourselves. 1t will require a strong
standing army and probably more
than two hundred millions of dollars
per annum to maintain the supremacy
of negro governments after they are
established. The sum thus thrown
away would, if properly used, form a
sinking fund large enough to pay the
whole national debt in less than fifteen
years. 1t is vain to hope that negroes
will maintain their aScendancy them
selves. Without military power they
are wholly incapable of holding in sub
lection the white people of the South.
/ submit to the Judgment Of Congress
whether the public credit may not be
injuriously affected by a system Of
measures like this. With our debt and
the vast private interests which are
complicated with it, we cannot be too
cautious of a policy which might by
possibility impair the confidence Of
| the world in our Government. That
confidence can only be retained by care
fully inculcating the principles Of jus
tice and honor on the popular mind
and by the most scrupulous fidelity to
all our engagements of every sort.
Any serious breach of the organic law,
persisted in for a considerable time,
cannot but create fears for the stability
of our institutions. Habitual violation
of prescribed rules, which we bind our
selves to observe, must demOraliZe the
people; our only standard of civil duty
being set at naught, the sheet-anChOr
of our political morality is lost, and
| the public conscience swings from its
mo0ringS and yields to every impulse
Of passion and int rest. If we repudi-
ate the Constitution, we will not be eX-
pected to care much for mere pecuni
airy obligations. The violation of such
a pledge as we made on the 22d day of
July, 1861, will assuredly diminish the
market value o our other promises.
| Besides, if we now acknowledge that
the national debt was created not to
hold the States in the Union, as the
taxpayers were led to suppose, but to
eXpel them from it, and hand them OV-
er to be governed by negroes, the NOR
al duty to pay it may seem much less
clear. | say it may seem so, for L do
not admit that this or any other argu-
ment in favor of Reputation can be en-
tertained as sound. But its influence
on some classes OF mindS may we'll be
apprehended. The financial honor Of
| a great commercial nation, largely in
debted, and with republican form Of
government, administered by agents
Of the popular choice, is a thing of such
delicate texture, and the destruction of
it would be followed by such unspeaka-
BILE calamity, that every true patriot
must desire to avoid whatever might
expose it to the slightest danger. The
great interests of the country require
immediate relIeffrom these eenactments.
business in the South is paralyZed by
d sense of general Insecurity, by ter
rOr of cOnfscation, and the dread of
negro supremacy. The Southern trade,
from which the North would have de-
rived so great profit under govern
ment of law, still languiSheS, and can
never be revived until it ceases to be
fettered by lhe arbitrary power which
makes all its operations unsafe. That
rich country-the richest in natural
resources the world ever saw, is worse
than lost if it be not soon placed under
the protection of free Constitution.
Instead of being as it ought to be, a
source Of wealth aud power, it will be-
come an intOlerable. burden upon the
rest of the nation. Another reason for
retracing our steps will doubtless be
seen by Congress in the late manifesto
tionS of public opinion upon this sub
ject. We live in country where the
popular will always enfOrces obedience
| to itself sooner or later. 1t is in vain
to think of opposing it with anything
short Of legal authority backed by OV-
erwhelming force. 1t cannot have es-
capped your attention that from the day
on which Congress fairly and formally
presented the proposition to govern
the Southern States by military force,
with view to the ultimate establish
ment Of negro supremacy, every eX-
preston OF the general sentiment has
been more or less adverse to it. The
affections of this generation cannot be
detached from the Institutions of their
ancestors; their determination to pre-
serve the inheritance of free Govern
ment in their own hands, and trans
NIT it undivided and unimpaired to
their own pOsterity, is too strong to be
successfully opposed. Every weaker
passion will disappear before that love
0fliberty and law for which the Ameri-
can people are distinguished above all
others i'll the world.
DtttY of tie President.
How far the duty of the President to
preserve, protect aud defend the Con-
stitutiOn requires him to go in Oppos-
ing an unconstitutional act of Congress,
is very serious and important ques-
ton on which | have deiiberated much
and felt extremely anxious to reach a
proper conclusion. Where an act has
been passed according to the forms OF
the Constitution by the supreme legis-
lative authority, and is regularly en-
rolled among the public statutes Of the
country, Executive resistance to it, e5-
pecially in times of high party excite
ment, would be likely to produce Vi0-
lent collision between the respective
adherentS OF the two branches of the
Government. This would be simply
civil war, and civil war must be reSOr-
ted to only as the last remedy for the
! worst OfevilS. Whatever might tend to
provoke it should be most carefully
avoided. A faithful ard conscientious
magistrate will cOncede very much to
honest error, and something even to
personal malice, before he will endang-
er the public peace; and he Will not
adopt fOrcible measures, or such as
might lead to force, as long as those
which are peaceable remain open to
him or to his constituents. 1t IS true
that cases may occur in which the Exc
cutive would be compelled to stand on
his own rights and maintain them re-
gardlesS OF all consequences, If Congress
should pass an act which is not only III
| n0tnabie conflict with the Constitution,