Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1867-11-28

ton beside which Poland and Hungary are
radiant homes Of happy freemen-it lays
| there victim to needless, vengeful, and
remorseless tyranny, beside which the worse
| tyrannies Of the old world are liberal and
respectable forms Of government. Instead
of ten States existing in their original beau
ty and strength, as our fathers made them,
We have Incorporated into the same work
| of the American Republic five military dis
tricts, entirely unknown to the Constitu-
ton, and utterly inconsistent with the first
and plainest principle on which our Gov
eminent was founded Not a vestige OF
civil liberty remains beneath the shadow
of this stupendous usurpation. The great
! muninients of freedom those high and
adamantine walls of personal security for
whose erection generations have toiled with
bloody sweat have all persisted under the
destructive and reasonable assaults of Con-
gress. The right TO the writ of habeas
corprs-thgt resplenoeat right Of freemen,
by which the hand Of unlawful power can
alone be observation-disclosures lies dea1, pow
erless and despised on the very. battle plains
where its enjoyment was secured by the
surrender of CORVALLIS to Washington.v
Trial by jury is a lnockery, delusion,
and a snare at Eutaw Springs, the Cow
pens, and Guilford Courthouse Over
the sunken graves of the Revolntiona STAN
| ding army at the behests Of Congress con-
trolls elections and dictates the use of the
elective franchise at the mouth of the can
non and with levelled muskets Aye, the
Southern sky OF the American heavens is
shrouded in black Once it was filled with
stars more radiant and more lovely than
| Arcturus, Orion, Or the Pleiades. Our
fathers Of immortal memory planted them
| there. They burned with the light of lib
erty regulated by law But they burn no
more. Rayless and quenched, they wan
der in a dark and trackless void. The
baleful wrath Of Radicalism coming up
thick and poisonous as the "dunnest smoke
of he'll, )" has cytinguished one-third OF the
constellation of American glory. Who
viii question the fidelity OF this picture?
WLo 60 bcld as to eeny that Congress has
overturned every Institution Ct free govern
ment in those regions now held BY military
power? And who dares to say that he
finds q warrant Coz th;s action IL the Con-
stitution which al oath requires him to
support? But the stale and miserable an
swer to this terrible accusation is, that the
people in tie Sonth have been in rebellion,
and deserve 70 better at the hands Of VIC
torlous power. Does this fact, even il it
were SO, justify revolution, usuEpation,
broken caths and deliberate treason or the
part Of Congress )? Admit that tie South
attempted 70 Tevolationize the Government
and destroy its institutions, does that. 1iti-
gate tne crime Of The North il completing
what the South labored FOX in vain No.
Nor can this destructive and despotie poll
cy be pursued with ilapGuity 10 the North
itself. While it is only yonr neighbor that
is prostate BY The wayside, bruised and
bleeding, the priest aud the g4eyito of Ra-
deal vengeance viii pass On needless of his
gro@ns. While the South alone suffers in
chains, the Worth may still sleep softly on
it's bed Of luxurious wealth. But the day
is close at hand when the blighting infu-
. ences Of 9 standing army and military pow
er il one section Of tie country viii spread
and be felt over all Indeed, the day is
now already upon US. The public mind
of the North is almost fatally accustomed
TO acts Of Federal usurpatior~ We have
stood by with folded arms III q species Of
a-sJonished apathy while pillar after pillar
Of cur institutions has been torn away. un-
til fear. at times, that II the sacred edi-
fec Itself should fall, We would be content
I 10 emerge from the rains with no present
intention Of rebuilding its glorious proper
tons
4 wandering committee of Congress is
now travelling at the public expense, over
the face of the country, commissioned to
inquire whether certain states, some of
wEom were born with the revolution, have
republican forms Of government The pub
lie mind scarcely heeds such monstrous
proceeding. This committee is as iawless
in its formation, and with nc more legal
power to enter upon such mission than
SO many Italian baDditti. and so I'll men
know; yet they arc at their work at the
home and grave Of Henry Clay, aid by
the tomb Of Pinckney, preparing to de-
stroy other ana more States, and subject
them to the increasing and insatiate de-
mands of military force. Where is this
spreading plague to stop? Where is your
quarantine against this scou,ge? What
castle is secure from assault viii Cali
fornia next be aseailed :? Is Pennsylvania
secure? More than year ago llr. Ste
vens declared that her form Of government
was not republican The recent election
there, doubtless, deepens the conviction.
What is to protect even the Empire State
if it is conceded that Congress ma = inquire
into your State government and enforce
its conclusions by the use of standing
army? Does the statesman see no danger
in all this Does the student of history
see none The testimony Of the ages is all
il vain if a military government can exist
in harmony with free institutions in the
bosom of republic The voices of warn
ing which emanate to US from the sepul-
chres of dead republics in far distant peri
DDS of space and time, all foretell with ia
tai prophecy the downfall of American
liberty every where, North as we'll as