Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1867-02-20

I |N||HNn ~
BastiIle. You cannot lawfully arrest and
imprison citizens, merely by way OF read
ING them s lesson, that they may profit
by it.
If there is a power possessed by Maj
Gen. TFONIAs, Commanding the De.
partment OF Tennessee, to seize and i'm.
prison persons charged with no offence
known tn the laws and triable by the
Courts. to set at defiance the writ Of Ha-
heas Corpus. and continue the imprison,
meut during his sovereign pleasure, then
we have over US an autocraey whose viii
is the law, and only differing from that
Of Russia and Turkey in this; that there
such powers are not entrusted to subal-
terms and uuderliugs, but are ~jealously
reserved to himself by the Sovereign.
If the President permits such lawless
powers to be exercised and all the guar.
antees Of the Constitution to be broken
At once, by any military officer Of any
grade, his Impeachment and conviction
N other charges Of usurpation Of power
will be tut too mild q punishment for
this. For it is not 50 much a few citizens
who are wronged. It is Liberty itsell
that is slrangled by the brute force OF
power; it is the oath of the President TO
support, protect aud defend the Consti-
tuition, that those under his orders make
him 10 violate it is a wrong aud acrime
whose consequences are not limited to
the present time, but must bear accursed
fruit for the future. It is High Treason
against human freedom that would, in
England, where there is Constitutional
liberty, be forthwith followed by a suit
for damages and a criminal prosecution.
Major-G General Thomas will some day
bitterly regret the publication of his
/ order, and that he assumed the whole
grave responsibility of an act which was
IN itself a whole epitome Of despotism.
/ There have been millions Of acts more
atrOcioUs, because saturated with cruelty;
but there never vas an act done, by
rA1IERLANE or BOMBA, that more per-
jectly condensed into itself all the essen
tial characteristics of an absolute desp0t-
ism. If any one suppcses that no JUNIUs
viii record these acts, for the judgment
| # pOsterity, he is mistaken. You may
! fetter the limbs or the tongue, but YOU
cannot fetter the pen. Not many years
! ago, in an old Italian prison, a crumb-
ling wall torn down for repairs revealed y
manuscript written by a monk, who, i'm
prisoned, so told the story of his living
death 90 future ages, and died content,
because he knew that when all heworld
had forgotten even his name, his written
words would be a Judgment Of infamy
against the Spiritual power.
General THOMAS did not cease TO be a
,itizen in becoming a soldier neither is
he invested with any lawful power TO
establish a despotism. There is a future
FOR him, Is well as for Us, thank God -
and there are pens that Will record what
5Oever is base OF brutal, or small and pitt
iul, that Power now perpetrstes, and seal
it up to damn adulterine repu~tationsin
future years, when Honor shall no more
wear the swiueherd's collar, and kneel
70 receive patiently the burthens piled
upon it by the base.
It was the shadow OF this dark and de-
aestab.e despotism, that like a premcni-
lion % prophecy, steeled every Southern
'oul 20 resist a hjdeous oppression whose
approach was instinctively felt, as by the
animals and birds the coming Of an
earthquake. We 10 vain e~ndeavored to
avert the advancing horror. Crushed,
overwhelmed, nothing is left for US but
he savage reyenges Of the Intellect
and those We shall assuredly take,
and publish our sentences, like the
aecumeuical DEGREES Of the Pope, ur5i ct
Jr5i, 10 every land, 20 stir the Just indig-
nation Of all unto whom the wanton
tyranny Of usurped power is detestable.
1t j. a great thing, now, to be a Major
General, commanding I've a conquered
and PROSTATE country. II is pleasant to
swell with the sense Of irresponsible
power, and issue imperial DEGREES. 1t
vas a great thing TO be Emperor in the
days Of DOMTrIAN. But it is the histo-
rian and the s~atirist, TACITUs and
JUvENAL, who have given TIBERIUs
and SEJANUS Immortality.
We find it difficult to pause in speaking
Of that which reveals the existence Of an
absolute despotism, in which there are nc.
Of property, liberty or life. The
same power that imprisons for that
which the law has not defined as an
may if it pleases hang and
oehead without trial and officers sworn
10 support the Constitution would be
swift to argue that the murder was as
awful an exercise Of power as the i'm
Drisonment. For Power will never want
or pimps in the persons Of Judge Advo-
satea and Attorney Generals, and the
.enoaup1 genus will always thrive in a
that is degeneratiug into an
There have been soldiers who would
nave resigned rather than do at the
command of their superiors, the act
which Major General THOMAS volpp- !
did, and which be now eagerly !
approves by an order that is certainly
lot such in its tone as soldiers in other I
have deemed it dignifed to /
use. We do not think that he is mr. y
.uing the course that will entitIe him 70 a
he respect OF those who, in his own J
country even, honor the profession Of \
rms. That is for him alone to consider {
What chiefly interests those who 0
owe liberty and detest tyranny is 10 !
NOW whether the Commander-in- a
'hIet Of the army, the President Of the v
.nI,ed States, adopts as his own the b
cts q language Of Generals Thomas. Z
.HEBIDAN and GRIFFIN. II he does. 81
he does lot put the seal of his censure ID
pom them all, zone will pity or respect a
i'm when Radicalism shall have saeri- =
Geo him on its bloody altar but he Il
III have fallen, and viii have deserved al
fall ike LUCIFER, Son Of the Morn
y, never TO rise again. II
assaehusetts-Its Dead and Living. it
Tie late attack on Daniel Webster. in n.
e North AD5cric0H RcCic0, BIZ Parton. -
e 9iographer of Beast Butler, draws Is
IN the Louisville Journal the follow ID
< sharp notice st
" When Webster was alive, the North i
aeric0s RcUicl0 lionized him now. =
aea be is a dead lion, il turns round and ID
sks him. There is not only a pood le;
al Of M nature in man, but a na