The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1867-05-04
prsLoYALLANeUAGE.


The telegraph informs us that Judge
Deadly, on the 25th ult, in the suit of
John Mccall VS.. General Mcdowell and
Capt. Douglass, decided against the de-
PENDANTS. 1t seems that when President
Lincoln was killed Mccall expressed Ian
guage which Mcdowell, in the plentitude
ofhis wisdom and power, deemed ''6endish
and disloyal." So he arrested Mccall and
imprisoned him in Fort Alcatraz. Deady's
decision gives Mccall damages in the sum
of $685.; he also decides hat the arrest
of Mccall was unauthorized, and not nee
essary for the public safety.
Justice is slow but sure. Time, and
the judicial tribunals of the land, are grad
ually righting the countless wrongs inAict-
ed upon Democrats during the war. We
think it was very bad taste in Mccall
to use the language attributed to him
We were not a political friend of LineOln.
We denounced, most unequivOcally and
bitterly. some of the measures he inaugu-
rated but the use ofthe assassin's dagger
was a coWardly way of Kidding the nation
of his rule. The assassination of any
man, but particularly hat of a ruler, is
deeply to be deplored at all times; hence
We say that expressions of the kind used
by Mccall, were in very bad tastes Many
Radicals thought tina; if man uttered
0 q word Of rejoicing on the death of Lin
coin, he ought to be burned or hung with
out judge or jury. But the truth is that
he who did so violated no law. Suppose
a citizen Of Albany, beloved by all, should
be shot down by some assassin,-if some
man sroIId HJoIee Usss MS death, he
would violate no law; yet every good citi-
zen would say that he displayed very bad
taste in the matter. It was just so in the
case of Lincoln. In the eyes of the law
he was no more-t than any other man. The
law protected him as much as any other
man, but no more. We have not vet
reached the s%erviIity and man-worsLip
which holds that the person of the soyer-
eigni Is sacred and We trust we never will.
On two several occasions personal attacks
were made on General jackson, while
he was President; and there were those
who expressed regret that his assaiIants
did not succeed in killing him; and when
he finally died there were those who re-
joiced, and declared that the world wa
rid of a tyrant. Yet no one talked-no
one dreamed of arresting them or mob
bing them, or imprisoning them for such
ill-timed remarks. The press was free
and untrammeled;5our rulers holding
that error was po#erless SO long as it was
vigorously combatted.
T is'quite probable that other suits for
damages, on similar grounds, will be insti-
,tuted against sundry other military satraps
throughoutthe country. Hundreds of Dem.
ocrats during the war were mobbed, thous-
ands were imprisoned, n~umberless presses
from Maine to Minnesota, and from hin.
.nesota to California and Oregon, were
,tupbled into the streets-aIl under the
cover of "loyaltY" and devotion to the
"Union." But they were each and all
plain and paIpable violations of law, their
victims having been guilty of no offence
whatever, except expressing opinions
AZ to policy and principle, different frem
those entertained by the dominant party.
2The mills of the gods grind slow
~ but surely"