Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1867-12-14

ernments after they are established. |
The sum thus thrown away would, if |
properly used. form a sinking fund |
large enough to pay the whole national |
debt in less than fifteen years. 1t is |
vain TO hope that the negroes will main
tain their ascendency themselves with
out the military power. They are
wholly incapable of holding in subjec
ton the white people of the south.
submit to the Judgment of congress
whether the public credit may not be
injuriously affected by system of
measures like this.
With our debt, and vast private in
terests which are complicated with it,
we cannot be TOO cautious of a policy ,
which might by possibility impair the
confidence of the world IN our govern
ment. That confidence can only be
retained by carefully intoxicating the
principles of Justice aud honor on the
popular mind, and by the most scrnpu-
Ions fidelity to all our engagements of
every sort. Any serious breach of or
ganic law, persisted in for a considera-
BILE time, caunOt but create fears for the
stability of our Institutions, Habitual
violation of prescribed rules which we
bind ourselves to observe must demon
aliZe the people. Our only standard of
civil duty being set al naught, the
sheet anchor of our political morality
is lost, and the public conscience
swings from ITS moorings, aud yields 10
every impulse of passion and interest.
1t We Tepudiate the constitution We will
not be expected to care much for mere
pecuniary obligations. The violation
of sHeh pledge az We made on 22d
of July, 1861, will assuredlY diminish
the market value of our other promis-
o.. Besides, If we now acknowledge
that the national debt was created not
to hold states III the union, as tax pay
ers were led TO suppose, but to expel
them from it, aud hand them over to
be governed by negroes. the moral duty
to pay 1t may seem much less clear.
say it may seem SO, for 4 do not admit
that this, or any other argument in ia
vor of reputation, can be entertained
as sound; but its influence on some
classes of minds may well be appre-
hended. The financial honor of great
commercial nation, largely indebted,
and with republican form of govern
ment administered by agents of popu
ular choice, is thing of such delicate
texture, and the destruction OF ii wOuld
be followed by such an unspeakable ca
lamity. that every true patriot must de
sire to avoid whatever might expose it
to the slightest danger The great in
terests of the country require imme-
diate relief from these enactments.
Business in the south is paralyzed by
sense of general insecurity; by the ter
ror of confscstton, and the dread of
negro supremacy. The southern trade,
from which the north would have de
rived 80 great profit under govern
ment of law, still languishes, and can
never be revived until it ceases to be
fettered by the arbitrary power which
makes all its operations unsafe. That
rich Countrywide richest ia natural
resources the world ever saws worse
than lost it it be not soon placed under
the protection of a free constitution.
Instead of being, as it ought to be,
source of wealth and power, ii will be
come an iRtOlerant burden upon the
rest of the nation.
THE RECENT ELECTIONS.
Another reason for retracing our
steps will doubtless be seen by con
gress in the late manifestations of pub
lie opinion upon this subject We live
in country where the popular Will
always enforces obedience to itself
sooner or later. 1t is vain to think OF
opposing it with anything short of legal
authority. backed by overwhelming
force. 1t cannot have escaped your at
tention that from the day on which
congress fairly and formally presented
the proposition to govern the southern
states by military force, with view to
the ultimate establishment of negro
supremacy, every expression of the |
general sentiment has been more or
less averse to 1T. The affections OF this |
generation cannot be detached from |
the institutions of their ancestors. -
TheG determination to preserve the
inheritance OF free government in their
own hands. aud transmit it undivided
and unimpalred to their own posterlty,
is too strong to be successfully oppos
ed. Every weaker passion will disap
pear before the love of liberty and law,
for which the American people are dis
tinguished above all others in the world.
A RESORT To FORCE BY THE EXECUTIVE.
How far the duty of the President to
preserve, protect, and defend the Con
stitution requires him to go in oppos-
ing an unconstitutional act of Congress,
is very serious and important ques-
ton, in which / have deliberated much |
and felt extremely anxious to reach a
proper conclusion. Where an act has
been passed according to the forms of
the Constitution, by the supreme legis- |
lative authority of the country, the ex
ecutive resistance to it, especially in |
times of high party excitement, would |
he likely to produce q violent collision |
between the respective adherents of the |
two branches of the Government. This |
would be civil war, and civil war must |
be resorted to only as the last remedy |
for the worst of evils. Whatever |
might tend to provoke it |
should be most carefully avoided. |
A faithful and conscientious magis- |
trate will concede very much to honest |
error, and something even to perverse |
malice before he will endanger the pub
lie peace, and he will not adopt forcible
means, or such as might lead to force,
as long as channels which are peaceable |
remain open to him, or to his constitu- |
ents. 1t is true that cases may occur in
which the executivewould be compelled |
to stand on its rights and maintain
them regardless of consequences. If
Congress should pass an act which is
not only in palpable conflict with the
Constitution, but will certainly, if car
ried ont, produce immediate and irrep-
arabic injury to the organic structure
of the government, aud If there be
neither Judicial remedy for the wrongs