Des Arc weekly citizen., 1867-07-27
ARKANS SAS, JULY 27, 1867.


 been passed by Congress. Naturalists tell us of a vcnemous reptile which sometimes becomes so furiously en- ragged it sticks it's fangs in its own Tesh and dies of it's own poison. And it does seem fitting that these mad violators of the Constitution they were sworn to support, these wild ex- te'rminators of States, these adroit but furious murderers of law and liberty, should first, by their own act, have de- stroyed them in their preparation, and desire to destroy others.
 do not shrink from, but sto most heartily rejoice at the inevitable con clusion to which the argument, nerved by the sirews of logic and warned by the pufest love of country, must lead :: and if American patriotism shall not finally and forever die, but shall wake from the trance into which ambition and lust have thrown it, then will lines dark lines-yea, lines as black as unstarred night, be drawn, and with a power nervous with indignation, around all the records and the bastard official existence of these fragmentary conclaves of republicanism, .' libelers y and all will be declared to constitute nc part of authorized American law, or of legitimate American will.
 Time was! An, yes, the time was, when to say to an American citizen q proposed measure was not authorized by the constitution was enough. It was rejected. And has the final power, or that power which, in republics, is worse, and mightier, and more to be avoided than waT-whieh IS the father of wars--which begot our war and which seems determined with an adul- terous mania to multiply its hell-vis- aged brood-the corruption of party manipulators, wrought so great q change? And has the time already come when Americans--even South ern Americans-caR entertain, as q question, whether they will accept. and, BY THAT ACCEPTANCE MAKE VALID, a proposition which is not authorized by the Constitution; which destroys the Constitution; which mocks the very principles which made, which gave soul to the Constitution and which trampleS thus on the Constitu- ton in order to destroy existing State governments founded in the consent of the people, and 10 form others not founded in the consent of the people and which, in forming these new gov ernmehts, disfranchises existing elee- tors distinguished for intelligence, and enfranchises new electors notorious for ignorance and while new govern ments so formed are not 10 stit either new or old, learned or ignorant, black or white electors who are to live under them, but must suit men who never lived in these States, and who forget their own oaths and the interests of their own people to indulge the hatred by which they oppress the people os these Southern States.
 And we have some of these same party manipulators who were born un- der our skies, who have been trusted by our people, who boast of their hon. ors, who now advise and try, coax and labor to persuade, and by turns threat cn. deceive, and slahder to compel us to accept this iniquityi
 Oh, depths of inf,nny, Open, open far deeper depths for the dwelling of these cunning monster, of treachery, that they shame not with their pres ence the lowest of the damned spirits which now inhabit your labyr'inths,