The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1867-12-12

/ the South. l submit to the judgment of
Congress whether the public credit may not
| be injurious!y affected by a system of meas
ures like this. With our debt and vast pri-
vate interests, which are complicated with
it, we cannot be too cautious Of a policy
which might by possibility impair the conf
dence of the world In our Government
| That confidence can only be retained by
carefully incucating the principles of justice
and honor on the popular mind, and by the
most scrupulous fidelity 10 all our engage
ments of every sort. Any serious breach of
the organic law, if persisted in for consid-
erable time, cannot but create fears for the
stability of our institutions. The habtual
violation of the prescribed rules which we
| bound ourselves to observe, must demoralize
the people; our only standard of civil duty
would be set at naught, and the sheet an
chor of our political morality is lost public
conscience swings from its moorings and
| yields to every impulse, passion ard interest.
| If we repudiate the Constitution we will not
! be expected to care much for mere pecuniary
obligations The violation of such pledge
as we made on the 22d Of July, 1861, will
| assuredlY diminish the market value of our
other securities. Besides, if we now ackuowl-
edge that the national debt was created, not
to hold the States in the Union, as tax pay
ers were led to suppose, but to expel them
! from it and hand them over to be governed
| by negroes, our moral duty to pay it may
seem much less clear. / say it may seem so,
| for l do not admit that it or any other areu-
meut in favor of repudiation can be enter
! tanned as sound, but its influence on some
classes of minds may well be apprehended.
The financial honor of this great CONNER
cial nation is largely indebted, and with a
republican form of government, administered
| by agents of popular choice, is thing of
| such delicate texture, and the destruction of
it would be followed by such an unspeaka-
BILE calamity, that every true patriot must
desire TO avoid whatever might expose it to
! the slightest danger. The great interests of
! the country require immediate relief from
| these enactmeuts.
| Business in the South is paralyZed by a
sense of general insecurity, by the terror Of
coniscation and the dread of negro suprem.
| acy. The Southern trade, from which the
| North would have derived so great profit
under government of law, still languishes,
and can never be revived until it ceases to be
| fettered by arbitrary power, which makes
| all its operations unsafe. That rich country,
the richest in natural resources the world
| ever saw, is worse than lost if it be not Eoon
| placed under the protection of free Consti-
tuition. Instead Of being, as it ought to be.
a source of wealth and power, it will become
an intolerable burden npon the rest of the
nation. Another reason for retrieving our
| steps will doubtless be seen by Congress in
late manifestations of public opinion upon
| that subject. We live in a country where
! popular will always enforces obedience to IT.
self sooner or later. 1t is vain to think of
| opposing it with anything short of legal au-
thority, backed by overwhelming force. 1t
cannot have escaped your attention that
/ ~ 10 e.. !,
! formally presented the proposition to govern
the Southern States by military force, with
a view to the ultimate establishment of ne
| gro supremacy, every expression of general
| sentiment has been more or less adverse to
| it, The affections of this generation cannot
be detached from the institutions of their
ancestors. Their determination to preserve
| their inheritance of free government in
their own hands, and transmit it undivided
and uninpaired to their own posterity, is too
strong to be successfully opposed. Every
weaker passion will disappear before the love
of liberty and law, for which the American
people are distinguished above all others in
| the world.
How far the duty of the President, to pre-
serve, protect and defend the Constitution,
requires him to go in opposing an unconsti-
tutional act of Congress, is a very serious and
|
Grated much and felt extremely anxious to
reach a proper conclusion. Where an act
has been passed according to the forms Of
the Constitution by supreme legislative au.
Jhority, and is regularly enrolled among the
public statutes of the country, Executive re
sistance to it, especially in times of high
party excitement, would be likely to pro
duce violent collision between the respective
adhereGts of the two branches of the govern
ment. This would be simply civil war, and
civil war must be resorted to only as last
remedy for the worst of evils. Whatever
might tend to provoke it should be mos
carefully avoided. A faithful and conscien
tious magistrate will concede very much Il
honest error, and even something to pervers
malice, before be will endanger the public
peace and he will not adopt forc;ble meas
uIes, or such as might lead to force, as lonl
as those which are peaceable remain open Il
him or his constituents. 1t is true that case
may arise in which the Executive would b
E compelled to stand upon its rights, AM
. maintain them regardless of consequences
. If Congress should pass an act which is no
| only in palpable conflict with the Constitu
ton, but will certainly. if carried out, pre-
i duce immediate and irreparable injury 10 tn
J, organic structure of the Government and
p there be neither judicial remedy for wrong
it iuflicts, nor power in the people TO ptOtcc
themselves without the official aid of thei
elected defenders ;-if, for instance, the Ls
gslative Department should pass an &C
even through all forms of law, to abolish
coordinate department of the Government
in such case the President must take tt
high responsibility of his office and save tt
life of the nation at all hazards.
The so-called reconstruction acts, thoug
: as plainly unconstitutional as any that ca
bs imagined, were not believed to be with
the class last mentioned. The people We
not wholly disArmed Of the power of sci
|. defence In all the Northern States tht
= still had In their hands the sacred right
. the ballot, and it was safe to believe that
. due time they would come to the rescue
: | their own institutions. It gives me pleasu