Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1867-04-16
john 5. c HoeAN q 90.



rItE PAST THE CHEAT TEACHER
A little while an actor, and then 3
silent and sorrowful spectator Of the
bloody and fatal struggle between the
States, we reflected, long and painfully,
If not profoundly, for thsnOst part IN a
great solitude. upon theeses that LED
TO the great commissions by which the
Republic was rent asUnder, and al law
and liberty sunk under the red waves OF
Civil War upon the that, while
the strife ragged, put the property and
lives of the citizens OF our once free
Commonwealth at the mercy OF the
most worthless miscresnts that took
from all who did not rule, the entire con-
troll ef their own fates; inst made
human life Of as little consideration as
the lives of worthless and nOxiOus YER
min: that paralyzed laws and COnstitu-
tons, strangled personal and political
liberty. and enthroned military power
a. II it were a God.
The same causes. whatever they were,
have. since the war, revoludonized the
Government and changed the whole
nature Of the Constitution, whileits letter
remains unaltered. They have made the
Congress as omnipotent as the French
National Convention 50 that the Presi-
dent, shorn OF the flowers Of his Consti-
tutional prerogatives, protesting that its
enactmeuts sFe utterly unconstitutional,
and therefore null, still does not dare to
refuse to carry them into execution. II
menaces him with impeachment, and
commands the Judiciary to reverse its
solemn decisions. It levies uncoustitu-
tional taxes, less rightful than the levy
Of ship-money which JOHN HAMPDEN
refused to pay, and for his refusal was
tried in the Exehequer, and. plumbers
the people By stamp-aets and other IN
lawful modes, unequal and oppressive.
It demolishes at a blow the government
Of ten States, erects them into military
districts and establishes owe them a
Pentarchy of desp0ts, with unlimited
power to make and administer the laws,
TO abolish the Courts, and to exercise all
the powers OF government to try citi-
zens for offences before underlined, by
Military Commissions and other n0vel
tribunals, unknown before to a free peo-
pie; to arrest and imprison whOmsoever
they please, and to give account to no
one Of their actions. It eoDfers the
right Of suffrage on an immense multi
Jude Of negroes just emancipated, and
DISTINGUISHES a multitude Of white men (;
II annuls the privilege Of the writ Of
Habeas Corpus and the right of trial by
jury, in sII the country south CT the Po-
tomae. 50 that its legislators look from
the windows Of the Capitol, across that
river. into a Proconsulate in which no
citizen has any certain rights, or for
wrong and injury any remedy or redress.
Il maintains t~est-oaths, decided by the
supreme Judicial tribunal to be uneOD-
stituti0nsl, and threatens the South with
a general c~onfscation committing all
these crimes In the name Of liberty, and
opening it, sessions with the hideOus
moekery Of prayer.
Has the Ship Of State struck upon q
shoal, and gone TO pieces among the
breakers OF has it become a wreck on
the open sea by faults of construction,
dF for want Of cohesion Of its parts?
Upon as solution Of this question de-
ponds the value Of the lesson, to the States
themselves, and to humanity.
History warns Us that Republics are
always short-lived. Democracy or Re
pubTcanisn can never be, with any
people. more than q state Of transition.
Change IS the law Of the political exist
enee Of states, as it is Of individual and
material being. God is slwsys the same
Trinity Creator, Continuer, Destroyer.
At last, the same causes invariably pro-
duee the same result. A Constitutional
Monarchy IS never the immediate sue
eessor Of a democracy, bat only Of an
autocracy or an oligarehy. As certainly
and unerringly as any chemical effect
flows from its cause, a Democracy always
becomes a government by the worst, and
then vanishes before the usurped andyet
welcomed dominion Of a single will; ac-
eepted gratefully, because the alternative.
IS continuance OF anarchy or the rule Of
the basest.
II a Southern Confederacy had been
established, the process Of disintegrstion
would not have stopped there. That
would have been but the beginning.
Prevented by armed force, the futile at
tempt has only prepared the way for
other separations that are as inevitable
A fate. The end viii be the setting up
in housekeeping, in a shabby way, offour
or Eve separate Republics, all soon to
become bankrupt aud fall into decay.
Wars win accompany these separations,
or follow them. Temporary dictator
ships. usurped under the plausible plea
Of necessity, viii end, s they always
have done, in establishing thrones aud
hereditary secession. Ultimately, one Of
the despotisms Will swallow all the rest;
ana after another period Of transition, a
constitutional Monarchy will follow the
despotism.
IL is not possible to prevent these sue
cessive phenomena, sny more than for
human power to prevent earthquakes
The omnipotent cause Of these changes
q, states, are in their original cOnstitu-
zion snd IN human nature itself. It is
mot possible 10 prevent death; but it is
nossible to extinguish life. It is not pos
sible to prevent, but it is possible to de-
tav as Il i a to hasten, the decadence
Of a free State.
When the seeds Of ruin are once sown,
they cannot fail to quicken and produce
according to their nature. In a case,
those fruitful seeds are to be found in the
Constitution itself. Their termination
might have been delayed and if wisdom
ha9 ruled, and God had desired to con
tipue the Republic, which He could not,
since it was rapidly becoming the enemy
Of the human race, temporary separation
,.,opia have become the means Of new
o,5 psrmsnent union. Two friendly
canfeaeraeies, composed Of States with
the same institutions Of Government, Of
3 people of the same lineage aad speak
inc 8 single tongue. with unrestrained
mutual intercourse and constant inter-
marriages, a commerce with each other
unburthened by yexatious restrictions,
and common interests as against the rest
Of the world, would o have felt the
need and advantage Of a closer cORnec-
tien. and again have become one people
under q common Government.
The surest way to render this unity Of
NafionaI existence impossible, was to
y. fo-ee to effect it. The Northern
Ststes il subjugatiDg the Southern,
nave acted As sensibe as n who, hiil-