North Branch democrat. [volume] (Tunkhannock, Pa.) 1854-1867, 1867-03-13

just, and humane to oppress and trampie
upon subjueated people. do not doubt
that army officers of the army are too mag
unanimous, just, aud h1mane to oppress
and trample upon sutjugated people. |
do not doubt that many officers are as well
entitled to this kind of confidence as any
other class OF men; but the history Of the
world has been written in vain if il does
not teach Us that unrcstrained authority
can never be safely trusted to human heads.
It Is almost sure to be more or less abused
nnder any circumstances, and it has al
ways resulted in gross tyranny, where the
rulers who exercise it are strangers to their
subjects, and come among them as the
representatives of a distant power, and
more especially when the power that sends
them is unfriendly. Governments closely
resembling that here proposed have been
fairly tried in Hungary and Poland, and
the suffering endured by those people
aroused the sympathies of the entire world
1t was tried in Ireland; and though first
tempered by principles Of English law, it
gave birth to cruelties 80 alrocious that
thev are never recounted without just in
dignation. The French Convention arm
ed its deputies with this power, and sent
them to the southern departments of the
republic. The massacres, murders, and
other atrocities which they committed show
what the passions of the ablest men in the
most civilized society will attempt to do
when wholly unrestrained by law. The
men of our race, in every age, have strug-
gled to tie up the hands of their govern
ments and keep them within the law, be-
cause their own experience Of all mankind
taught them that rulers could not be relied
on to concede those rights which they were
not legally bound to respect. The head of
great empire has sometimes governed it
with mild and patient sway; but the
Kindness Of an irresponsible deputy never
yields what the law does not extort from
| him. Between such q master and the peo-
pie subjugated to his domination there can
be nothing but enmity. He Furnishes them
if they resist his authority, and if they sub
NIT to it he hates them for their servility.
come now to question which is, if
possible, still more important Have we
the power to establish and carry into exc
cution a measure like this? answer, GER
tsIuly not If we derive our authority from
the Constitution and if we are bounu by
the limitations which it imposes. This
proposition is perfectly clear-that no
branch Of the federal government, execu-
tive, legislative, or Judicial, can have any
Just powers except those which it derives
through and exercises under the organic
law of the Union. Outside of the Consti-
tu,ion we have no legal authority more
than private citizens, and within it we have
only 50 much as that instrument gives US.
This broad principle limits all our func-
tions and applies to all subjects. 1t pro-
tccts not only the citizens of the United
States, who are within the Union, but it
shields every human being who comes or
is brought under onr jurisdiction. We have
TO right to do in one place more than in
another than which the Constitution says
we shall not do at all. If, therefore, the
Southern States were 10 truth out Of the
Union, we could not treat their people in a
way which the fundamental law forbids
!, Some people assume that the success of
our armies in crushing the opposition which
was made in some of the States to the ex
ecuton of the federal laws reduced those
States and all their people, "the innocent
as we'll as the guilty." to the condition of
vassalage, and gave Us a power over them
which the Constitution does not bestow or
define or limit. No iallacy can be more
transparent than this. Our victories sub
iected the insurgents to legal obedience, not
to the yoke Of an arbitrary despotism.-
When an absolute sovereign reduces his
rebeilious subjects he may deal with them
according to his pleasure, because he had
that power before; but when q limited
monarch puts down an insnrrection he must
still govern according to law, II an iusur
rection should take place in one of our
States against the authority OF the State
government, and end in the overthrow of
those who planned it, would that take away
the rights of all the people Of the counties
where it was favored by part or a ma
jority of the population! Could they for
such reason be wholly outlawed and de-
prived of their representation in the Legis-
laturs? have always contended that the
government of the United States was SOW
ereigu within its constitutional sphere that
it executed its laws like the States them
selves, by applying its coercive powers di-
rrctly to indciduals, and that it could put
down insurrection with the same effect as
State, aud no other. The opposite doc
trlne is the worst heresy of those who ad-
vocated secession, and cannot be agreed
without admitting that heresy to be right.
Invasion, lnsurrection, rebellion, and do
mestic violence were anticipated when the
government was framed, and the means of
repelling and suppressing them were wise
ly provided for in the Constitution: but it
was framed, and the means of repelling and
suppressing them were wisely provided for
10 the Constitution but it was not thought
necessary that the States in which they
might occur should be expelled from the
L