Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-08-06

1
key or Russia, and why not here? Be-
cause your Constitutions forbid it. What
| Is 1t that secures your person from 1mpris-
lonmentat the pleasure of a dictator There
| is no such security In very many countries
why is there here? Because your Con-
stitutions forbid it.. -.
What is it that secures you in the acqui-
sition, enjoyment and disposition of prop
erty?
In large part of the globe there is no
such security-why is there here? Be-
cause your Constitutions declare 1t.
+ What is it that secures the minority from
being trampled upon by the majority?-
There is no such security where there are
no restrictions upon power; then why Is
there here? Because your Constitutions
forbid It'll
Hey then, who undermines the respect of
the people for their Constitutions, under
mines their security for life, liberty and
property, BE who treats the words Con-
stitutionalist and traitor as synonymous,
as meaning the same thing is himself q
traitor or a fool. Understand me, my
friends. do not say that any Constitution
can, of ITSELF secure the people from op-
preston. We have ample proof of this in
the history of the last six years. There
have never been Constitutions that guar
anteed the rights OF man more plainly than
do ours, and there have never been Consti-
tutlons more shamefuiiy violated. Our
Federal Constitution provides that the Con-
gress shall be composed of Senators and
Representatives from all the States: and yet
ten States are deprived of any representa-
ton and two others are partially deprived.
1t provides that no bill shall become
law without the Presidents approval,
unless passed by two-thirds of each branch
of the Congress; and yet, by ydisfranchising
twelve States, a afragmentary and unconsti
tutional body, self-styled a Congress, nulli-
fies the veto and enacts whatever it sees fit
to call by the name of laws 1t provides
for Supreme Court of the last resort, and
yet the willof a Brigadier General is made
paramount to its solemn and most thorough
| ly considered decisions. 1t declares that the
right trial by jury shall be inyiolate,
and yet men and woman too have been sent
to the scaffold and to death, by sentence of
Military Commissions; and that, too, when
the Civil courts were open and peace every
where prevailed, 1t declares that no per-
SOM shall be deprived of life, liberty or
property, without due process of law; and
yet, without process OF any kind, without
even the sentence Ofa Military Commission
organized to convict, y thousands of Amer
ican citizens, females as well as males. have
been plundered and Imprisoned. and some
of them slain by the Government or its
agents; and this, too, where the courts
were in the unobstructed exercise OF their
functions.
1tforbids the making of any law prohib-
iting the free exercise of religion; and yet
preachers have been silenced and even inn
pris6ned for teaching Christ's sermon on
the Mount.
1t guarantees freedom of speech and of
the press; and yet banishment, or impris
onment, or both, have followed the exer-
else of this right; while press after press
has been silenced by the orders of Govern
ment or the instigated violence of mo bS.
Indeed, it is but truth to assert that there
is scarcely provision of the Constitution,
that has not, within the last six years, been
shamelessiy and needlessly trampled under
foot, and that is not, at this day, yet more
shamelessly and more rneedlessly violated.
In face of these facts, it is apparent that
no Constitution can, of itself, protect the
people.
To produce that effect, it must have the
constant affection and support of the mass
es; and just in the proportion that this af-
lection and support are necessary to its
effracy, just in the same proportion is the
merit of obeying and teaching obedience to
It's commands, and the crime OF violating
the popular mind.~
And here, my friends, we find a broad
line of distinction between the Democratic
and Radical parties. The Democratic party
is and ever has been a Constitution loving
party and so was the Old Whig party un-
the poison of Abolitionism, and it became
changed from great National and Union
preserving party into great sectional and
Union destroying organization. But the
Radical party, or at least its leaders, have
no respect for anything but their own un-
governed will, and their own insatiate lust
for power and plunder. From the day that
that miserable faction, whose oracles had
for twenty odd years, denounced the Con-
stitution as ''acovenant with death and q
league with -heil,v and who had strained
every nerve to bring about dissolution of.
the Union-from the moment, I say, that
these enemies of our Government obtained
the ascendency and imposed their.will upon
our rulers, this country has seen little else
than Woe. seF7 - 81 80 -. a
1t was owing to the Vaccinations of this
faction that disunion and civil war were
not peaceably ayerted; it was to. their
maehinatlons that we owe the prolongation
of the war two years longer than it would
otherwise have lasted; it is owing to them
that the Union was not completely restor-
ed as soon as peace was achieved; and they
are the men who, with diabolical ingenuity,
add, every day, some new element of dis
cord to aggrayate aonr unsettled and dam
gerous condition, and TO menace us with a
future of anarchy or despotism. : 2 sa
They overwhelmed with abuse and ridi-
cule every man, who, before the war,
sought to preserve the Union by peaceful
means; they hunted down, as far as they
were able, every general of the war, how
ever meritorious, who refused to become
their servile partisan they deprived Nc
Clellan of his command because after South
Mountain and Antietam, it was plain that
peace could speedily be obtained on the ba-
sis of the Constitution. and Union of our
fathers, and because he W as in favor of thus
obtaining it; they conve rted the war from
what the President and Congress at the out
set declared it to be-a war to preserve the
Union and the Constitution-into war for
the acknowledgements of negroes and the
perpetuation OF the power of party; they
denounced Sherman as a traitor because he
granted terms of surrender to Johnson
which, if carried out, in their letter and
spirit, would have given US restored
Union and peaceful country in less than
a month. They alternately coax and abuse
for their purposes rise or fall. They threat
en- the President with Impeachment, be-
cause he hesitates to become the President
of "a party instead of being the President of
the ltepublic. u 80
They reject by the hundred the most
gallant and meritorious officers and SOL
diers, when nominated for Office, If they
refuse to keep step to Radical music. They
use every art, resort to every device, pull
every string, invent or repeat every false
hood that can in any way serve to excite
and maintain angry passions and prejudicesI
among the people, to prevent their ever
again becoming, one people in feeling as
well as in interest. ia
: But not content with all this, they now
demand that the white race, to whom this
country owes all its greatness, all its free
institutions and all of liberty and civil
government that is left in it, shall become.
subordinate to the negro. l say subordi-H
nate, for, is it not subordination when
white men are disfranchised and black men,
set to rule over them; and IS it not unde-
niable that for every negro the Radicals
propose to enfranchise they demand the
disfranchisemeA6 of more than two-Wbite