The south-western. [volume] (Shreveport, La.) 1852-1870, 1867-07-24
Heed Wise Counsel.


says:
The npious and parricdal spirit which has usurped
the congressional WILL and energsed all the reyou.
onary legislation of the day. is 50 rapidly breaking
down in the mind Of youth all reverence for age that
the wisdom which was once thought spurious until il
trembied on the lips Of veterans and fathers of the
State will be- these demorasers seek to have
it treated disgraced by the credentials of expert
cnce, or as if tainted by venerable source
The time has come when NO honest man should hal,
between two opinions Between civil law and mill
tary power there is no middle ground. There never
has been middle ground. From the nature of the
two, there never can be middle ground. One mus
govern, and the other be governed; and that is
the same thing as saying, that if the law is net
supreme it cannot govern, for power submits not to
power, but to supremacy alone Ye, therefore, who
boast OF liberty must uphold law, though it be
bad in the instance, lest it lose supremacy, and with
that all means for good il any instance, If you toll
crate the idea that armed power shall in to
tenn here and there rule Of law, when it gets in it
will contemn it plcases; for it is TRUTH if there is
any point at which the law is subordinate there is
point at which it is supreme The liberty That knows
what man to thank is slavery. If it is gift, it is
bribc and the giyer will have his own e. what he
expected to get for giving it. or he will take it away
again. The liberty to owe no gratitude to public ser
wants is the only American liberty. Who is for mil
tary government, with all its alluring raingory; and
who is for civil government, with all its defects? Le
every man speak ?" we have frequently said Of late
But whether speak or not let every man speedily
y
words OF an aged statesman, who, not long since,
tired from the tolls and the honors of an exalted trust
to prepare himself for the othe world. The follow
ing from the exclusively public character Of its topics
and the intrinsic usefulness of such testimony such
time, venture to extract from private letter to
a friend entirely disconnected with politics:
Speaking of the reconstruction act, the first one,
he says:
have never yet seen a man WHO believed that act
constitutional. We know that President johnson
does not SO believe it-as witness his veto message
and therefore, my establishment and fear are extreme
when see the administration apparently preparing to
enforce the arbitrary act upon the people by show
of argument and the fact of martial power in open Vi
Oation of the Constitution to the destruction of ind
vidua liberty, in defiance of several Of the planest
and most cherished provisions of the Constitution
and Of those ground principles of free government
which constitute the foundation Of our system and
without which popular liberty cannot exist; and our
constant boast about free and liberal institutions will
become shameful falsehood and disgusting mock
cry.
It makes me sad, for, in looking to the result see
nothing but evil. If the people submit tamey to the
lrbitrary power assumed by in Office, then they
ink, as they deserve, into imbecility and contempt,
IS willing slaves. And If they resist in all the forms
which ingenuity invent and courage can execute,
bap Wn hall cuaa ,nfho
ion and bloodshed and manufacturing as anarchy
generally does in despotsm.
The Government cannot continue its existence by |
ricks and conriyances, by illegal contrivances to re-
ress even acknowledged wrongs. When it abandons
he law which created and maintains it. it casts away
10Th sword and shield, and becomes an easy prey to
ny bold assailant An actof Congress in conflict with
he Constitution is not law at all the President is not
equired to execute it, and nobody is bound to obey
t; and any attempt to execute it by force, made by
ny one, high or low, officer private, is simply law
ess violence, which every man may lawfully resist at
is discretion.
This particular act of Congress being in plain con-
ct with the Constitution cannot be executed without
peny disregarding md affrmatively annulling the
Constitution; and whoever attempts to impose the
oke upon the nation by the brute force of arms is
utility of legal crime, and, if law and justice were
till the rule of government, / doubt not that they
iould be brought to condigu punishment.
Congress lin the preamble to the bilD give suf
cient reason for their tyrannica enactment that in
heir judgment, their despotsm is necessary and thus
hey affirm that necessity and not the Constitution is
he measure of their powers-themselves being the
ole judges of that necessity. This doctrine which
nay lead to terrible retrbution against those who
orge it, 1t is now necessary to the power and greed
a reckless faction, that certain of the cold Thr-
zen which founded the nation should be degraded
nd oppressed, domincercd over, confscated and
numbered. 1t is their turn to suffer and submit
ut single turn in the wheel Of fortune may reverse
lie scene Another faction, as reckless and cruel, as
reedy and corrupt as the present one, may, by fraud
force, achieve the power to play the tyrant Then
oe to the present oppressors Being Of the old thir-
zen will be no protection. Massachusetts and Penn
'lvania will have the poisoned clalice commended
their own lips, and be forced to drink it to the
regs-to suffer all wrongs which have been inflicted
pom Virginia and Georgia. and there will be none to
ty them! But all of US will have to mourn the de-
ruction of the Constitution and of the future posi-
ity Of liberty and law.
am very sorrowful-old, sick, and soon to die In
cad of setting in brightness the sun of my life
'es down behind thundercoud, which overspreads
i'd darkens the continent. S
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