Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1867-09-20
TIE CONSTITUTION

" WhacUer you hear q pIal' pratiJ'g about
The Constitution, spot him; he Is a Traitor.
So spako Andrew johnson some five years
ago. No doubt this was putting it little
strong. And yet underlying this exagera-
ted form of expression, there was a great
truth. Men talked about the Constitution
who had never read it. and sought to make
the cry Of the Constitution an AID to rebel
lion. Judges sought to make the letter Of
the Constitution kill the spirit Of it; aud
that government which by the Constitution
was intended to be perpetual, was to die in
It's infancy Itwas to be powerless to pro
tect itself from destruction.
For the Constitution every man ought to
bear the greatest veneration. 1t is the sol
emn league and covenant of the American
people, and as such the great fundamental
law of the land 1t was made not by the
States, but by the People. 1t required not
the afirmance and could not be negatived
by the State governments. When adopted
it was of complete obligation, and bound
the State so7ereigutios These principles
were established and recognized by the
courts fifty years ago.
According to the Constitution itself, it
was ordained in order to form more per
feet Union, establish justice, insure domes-
tie tranquility, promote the general welfare,
and secure the blessings of liberty to our
selves and posteritY;" yet instead Of a per-
feet union, it was to justify disunion; iu-
stead Of establishing justice, it was to per
petuate for all time, and extend into all the
States and territories, the horrible injustice
of slavery; instead of insuring domestic
tranquility and promoting the general wei
fare, it was TO be powerless to do either,
if any set Of scoundrols who had got posses
sion Of State government chose to pre-
vent it.
And yet the Constitution is not the Gov
ornrfout. 1t is a lava rule ofnction--for
the Government, and ike all laws, in con
STRUNG it, Its spirit and meaning are to be
locked at, and he who sticks in the letter
sticks in the bark. No doubt the Govern
ment was spoken into being by the Consti-
tuition, but once Ia existence, If Il 1oqs q
Government at all, it stood upon a level
with the other Governments of the earth,
clothed with all the powers of independent
sovereignty; and among these was the pow
er to put down with a strong hand all forces
and armies found warning against its life
The great law of self f-preservation, impIant-
ed in the human heart by the Almighty
long before he inscribed the ten command
ments on the tables of stone, applies alike
to nations and to individuals. The right
and power to draft, and suspend the writ of
hdboas corpus, and make paper money,
were all necessary incidents to the right of
self fPTotcction. Without them the Consti-
tuition aud Union would have perished
And in the judicial canvass now before
the people of Pennsylvania comes up again
this same question. The opposition have
nominated candidate who regards not the
spirit of the Constituton-the spirit which
was to give US a GOVERNMENT and a UNION
fer all time; candidate who sticks in the
letter, and would fain have made that Letter
serve the cause of DiS,aaioa aud Secession;
and Union men are called upon to fight at
the ballot the same foe whom our armies
lately fought in the fed
Republicans, are you ready for the con
test? Go up to the battle and quit your
selves like men. The eyes of the friends of
freedom and liberty and Republieanism
throughout the world are upon you. Let
no base appeals to your preiudiees against
an ignorant and degraded race-lot no cry
Of ''nigger suffrage and "nigger equality
deceive you. There is no such issue before
you IN this canvass When that issue ar
rives it will be time enough to meet it.
You are now to decide whether loyal. pa
triotic Judge, who administers the law and
the Constitution in the spirit Of our fathers
is to sit upon the Supreme Bench, or
whether you viii place there man who
has all his life lsng been a follower of the
traitor Calhoun a Judge who travelled out