Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-10-26
How History Repeats ItseIf-NIa

We are abundantly able to do it.
How History Repeats Itself-NIas-
sachusetts Protests Against the
Acts of the English Parliament
i'm I765-The Southern States and
Congress I'm 1867.
The holding of the Southern States in
military bondage has parallel in Am eri-
can history, when the English Parliament
assumed the role now being played by the
body calling itself an American Congress.
| In 1765-one hundred and two years ago
the Parliament of Great Britain, pro-
claimed itself sovereign over the colonies
in all cases whatsoever, and that ''the
Americans shall obey implicitly all laws
made by the Parliament, or they shall en-
| joy no rights or privileges at ALL" The
people of Massachusetts were declared soon
after to be in a state of riot and rebellion,
and troops were ordered there to aid in
preserving the peace. The answer of the
Massachusetts, Assembly to Lieut.. Cover
nor HUTCHINsoN's message on a riot at
Gloucester, will exhibit the similarity of
the scenes at these two periods of time:
"May it please your Honor, when COM
plants are made of riots and tumults, it is
the wisdom of government to inquire into
the real causes of them. II they arise from
oppression, a thorough redress of grievance
will remove the cause. 1t cannot be ex-
pected that a people accustomed to the
freedom of the English Constitution, will
be patient while they are under the des-
potic hand of tyranny and arbitrary power;
they will discover their resentment in a
manner which will naturally displease their
oppressors, and in such a case the severest
laws and most vigorous execution will be
to little purpose.
"A military force, if posted among the
people without their express consent, is it.
self one of the greatest grievances, and
threatens the total subversion of free Con-
stitution, much more if designed to execute
a system of arbitrary power, to eXtermin-
ate the liberties of the country.
THE Bill of Rights, passed Immediately
after the revolution, expressly declares
that the raising and keeping standing
army within the Kingdom in time of peace,
without the consent of Parliament, is
against law and we take occasion to say
with freedom, that the raising and keeping
standing army within this province in
time of peace without the consent of the
General Assembly, is against law. Such
an army must be designed to subjugate the
people to arbitrary measures; it is most
stitutional rights; it is an unlawful assem-
bly,, of all others the most dangerous and
alarming, and every instance of its actual
restraining the liberty of any individual,
is crime which infinitely exceeds what
the law intends as riot.
'Resolued, By the people of Massachu-
sets, that it is better to risk our lives and
fortunes in the defense of our rights than
to die by piecemeal in slavery.
''Resolued, That standing army in this
colony in time OF peace, without the con-
sent of the sovereign, the people of the
same, is an invasion of their natural rights,
as well as of those which they claim as
free-bOrn Englishmen, confirmed by Mag
ma Charta, the Bill of Rights as settled at
the revolution [of 1885, and by the charter
of the province.
"Resolued, That a standing army is not
known as part of the British Constitu-
tion in any of the Kings dominions, and
every attempt to establish it has been
deemed a dangerous innovation, manifestly
tending TO enslave the people.
"Resolued, That whoever has represent |
ed to his MajesGy's ministers that the peo-
pie of this colony in general, or the town
of Boston in particular, were in such astate |
of disobedience and disorder, as to require |
an army to be sent here, is an avOwed ene-
my to this colony, and to the nation in
general, and has by such representation en-
deavored to destroy the liberties of the
people here, and that mutual harmony and
union between Great Britain and the colo
nies, so necessary to the welfare of both.
And this House cannot but express their |
deep concern that too mary clearly avow
the most rancorous enmity against the tree
part of the British Constitution, and are
indefatigable in their endeavOrs to render |
the monarchy absolute, and the administra-
tion arbitrary in every part of the British |
EMPIRE" --rr
"History is repeating ITSELF" The con-
dition of the Southern States, previous to
the passage of the Military Government
Law, was similar to that of Massachusetts,,
in l765-and New England is now repeat
ing upon the Southern people the same
cr lelties and usurpations, against which
she so eloquently protested, when fastened |
upon her by Great Britain! -ae-s
Then, Virginia and Georgia and the Car
Olinas took the part of Massachusetts,
and made common cause with her, rightly
viewing every attack upon Massachusetts
and her people as an attack upon them
selves. Ten years after, when the Port
IF Boston was closed, and the series of in
uries against the Provinces eliminated in
IN appeal to arms, the people of the Shen-
,ndoah valley, without waiting for orders,
net (near the spot where JOHN Brown, in
lid of Massachusetts, Radicalism, attempt
ed to incite servile insurrection, and
where he committed murder and eXpiated
his crimes upon the gallows,> and organ
lied company that marched to Boston to
share the fate of the men of Massachusetts,
who were oppressed.
The defender has now become the op-
oppressed ofother days is now
paying the debt of gratitude towards its
defenders, by heaping upon Virginia the
and cruelties which England at
tempted to practice upon Massachusetts,
which led to the seven years war of the
and ended in severance of the
Union which bound the Thirteen Colonies
10 Great Britain.
Not one sentence in the answer of the
Legislature to Lieuten-
ant Governor HUTCHINSON, over one
hundred years since, but is applicable
now to the Radical legislation against
the people OF the South. ......
Hon. G. T.. ValIandigham.
This gentleman was at the Neil last
night, on his way home from Mt. Vernon,
where he had the qualification of address,
n,t