Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1867-11-20
Hon. S. ]. Nav and the Jury order.

The Charleston Mercury says Hon. S. j.
Hay, District Judge for Barnwell District,
has recently, following the example of Judge
Aldrich, declined 10 carry into effect the mil
itary orders in relation to the formation of
juries, and in so doing delivereda lengthy and
able address to the members of the bar in at.
tendance upon the court. In that address he dis
cussed elaborately all the questions involved in
deciding what were the duties of Judge IN the
premises, and in SO doing he selected the
opinion Of Hon. George S. Bryan, United
States District Judge for South Carolina,
published some time since in the Mercury, as
the only able defence of the other side which
he had seen, and directed his arguments
against the various positions and points there
in contained. He handled the subject in
mastery manner, supporting every position
which he took by constitutional law.
After quoting the famous resolution Of Oon.
gress that the war was conducted in no spirit
of oppression, but only to preserve the Union,
he concludes as follows:
Can language be palmer than thia Or convey
propositions more distinct with graver or more
earnest emphasis? And here, gentlemen, 1
seem to catch glimpse of what a0ould hare
been, had the people of the North been as
temperate in victory as they were unques-
lionaby patient, unyielding and persevering
under disappointment and defeat. seem to.
seas the smoke and dust aud blood OF a.
thousand battles are lost in its widening shad.
ow-ri: .ng majestically before me, and stand.
ing on deeper and broader foundations-freed
from every element of sectional dscord-ln
all lis grand proportions, stronger, dearer,
never, ..ore to totter or to fall, the Doblest
political structure ever reared by man, while
The united voice of rcconcied and rejoicing
people, swelling from sea to sea, like the
voice of many waters" !" is lifted up ID praise
aad thanksgiving, that though wind and storm
and flood have beaten against and swept over
it, the American Union yet stands secure,
where our fathers founded it, on the rock"
of the Constitution. And, gentlemen, though
we have drifted far from "the ancient land
marks" it is as true this day. as when ar-
nouncel by one Of the fathers of the republic,
and acquiesced in by all the rest, that " this
Union can never be held together by force"
While the present unnatural state oil things
exists this is not tie Union of our fathers.
Nor can that Union be restored by pouring
out the life blood of States, once high con-
tracing parties to the compact. know that
the:e terms have become obsolete, but We
must return TO them, or this Government be-
come to all, what it now is to the South-a
terrible military despotisln. That llag-once
the symbol of liberty ard equality between
the. States-and once floating for the protcc-
ton of all their citizens alike, Oh every shore
washed by old occai.'s waves, and in every
cline visited by TIC winds Of Heaven, cannot
long remain blessing 10 one Section and
curse to the ether; they cannes, reserve its its
stars FOR tbs, North and its stripes for tie
South. 1t is as sure as that it now waves in
Istriumph over our closed and silent temples
of Justice that when the liberties the South
are consigned to the tomb, t9cse of The North
vii; lave received dcath-b'o% FROM which
recovery will Le hopeless. am aware that
l might have taken higher ground in this ar
guncnt, but preferred dealing with things as
they should be. Congress, protesting to be-
!cYe the compact bciwecn The States indisso-
| lub!c, it had been bo;li good logic and good
lax (cn their par') 10 say, that all acts passed
bv those States from the ordinance Of seces-
sion 20 the da;e of its repeal, were au!l and
void. But to say that in consequence Of this
unlawful legislation they ceased to be States,
or to have legal State governments, is just,
and simply rs illogical rs itwou'd be to argue
that bt Cause three Of seven Tor tc, cf thirty
.cyenl partners cEensed in conducting busi-
ness in accordance ycith certain written stip-
ulatious. Withdrew from the concern ard vio
lated The articles Of agreement (if you viii,
therefore they had ceased to irc men.