Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1867-11-03

only seventeen dollars a month, ia paper
which the Government itself refused Il
r~eoei0e IN PoyHeHt Of the tar on gold.
ezceptG at is value Of fUe cents per dollar,
They served cheerfully, while their wives
and children were wailing, at home, fol
corn, to make themselves bread. The
war was emphatieaIy the peoples war.
waged by them ia the face Of every dis
couragement and in despite OF every
conceivable folly on the part Of the Gov
eminent, Of vast abuses in administers
ton, immense misery everywhere, o
u%surpations, blunders, and military tyr
amy. Let history look into these, fol
the causes of defeat and the inutility o
efforts. Men are neither machines no.
brutes. The soul, even of q soldier
merits some regard.
The Northern and Southern conscrip
ton acts were twin creations despoti,
sutoorscy being the sire Of each, and con.
temptof the rights Of the States and PEG
pie the foul and fruitfuldam. A thoughtful
student Of human nature cannot but note
and admire the singular parallelism o
events ia the North and in the South
aud how the same causes, there ndhere,
have produced the same effects. We do
not mean, by events military opera
tons and battles. These, in comparison
with other things that have occurred
and are still occurring, with the organic
changes being silently or noisily E effected,
are as really unimportant to history and
mankind Is the battles Of ALEXANDER
and PoRUs. They are but the bubbles
and gaseous explosions that result from
and accompany the great chemical
changes and commissions which are being
wrought, deep in the bosom Of the volca-
no. What is most important to the hu-
man race, is the disintegration Of Consti-
tutional Government, and the certain
and not slow replacement of it by desBo-
tism. The forms remain, as do those OF
the fbres and circles in petriied wood
but the slick is rapidly dispiacing she
woody fibre, throughout the whole. The
hearts of both Constitutions, at a and
the same time,
A" like unified drums, were beating
Funeral marches 10 the grave.'-
1t has long ceased to be q question, in
either the North or theSouth, of retaining
or preserving, and become n Of TecoUer-
ing and accompanying constitutional lib
erty.
The National Constitutions were viO-
lated and the rights Of the States disre-
garded by the President, the Congress
and the Military alike, in the North and
South. On the 18th Of April, 1854, F. W.
DICKINSON, 1st Lieut., 5th Cavalry,
Act'g Adj't, addresses, from Head Quar-
tiers, Cavalry Detachment, District Of St.
Mary's, LeOnardt0Tn, Maryland" an
order to the Publisher and Proprietor Of
the st. Msry's Gazette, LeOnsrdtown,
Nd, notifying him that the Commander
Of the detachment desires that he will
not publish or make any allusion in the
Gazette to the " reasonable and disgrace
FOL speech" Of the member Of Congress
from that District, delivered in the House
Of Representatives on the 9th instant.
This wss only 3 fair sample Of the con-
dition OF things sll yer the North, when
q new Chapter was added to the law Of
Treason, making free speech and discus
sion Of the measures OF the Government
reasonable, as in England it was for s
long time IRRESPONSIBLE to imagine COM
passing the Kings death. In the
C~onfederscy the President never
dreamed OF interfering with the
freedom Of the Press and the Richmond
Examiner denounced his administration,
without stint or moderation, during the
whole war. The Congress, in the third
year Of the war, by an act creating mill
tsry despotism, did adopt the Northern
code as TO t~reasOnable ~utterances, and
authorize illegal arrests and d]etentions
for scts not known to the law as crimes:
but ir the North the right Of free speech
was virtually a~nnihilsted from the begin
ming. A republic is always more prone
to repress ii, than an absolute monarchy
is. Aud yet It had been but a few short
years since DANIEL WEBSTER, Of Masss-
chusetts, uttered these memorable words:
Free speech is 3 homestead right, a
hreside privilege. It has ever been en-
joyed in every house, cottage and cabin
in the nation. 1t il not to be drawn in
controversy. It is as ~und0Ubted s. the
right Of breathing the sir and walking
on the earth. It is q right to be main
tanned in peace and war. 1t is q right
which cannot beinvsded without destroy
ing Constitutional liberty. Hence this
right should be guarded and protected by
the freemen Of this country with a jesl-
Gus care, unless they are prepared for
chains and anarchy"
There can be no free speech, where
men can be silencsd and gagged by mil
itsry arrest. for any expressions of dis
content or ~fault-hndlng; upon an arrest
for which, the writ OF HsbeRs Corpus is
parslyzsd. One stroke Of paralysis, it is
well known, never fails to be followed
by others, and they recur st intervals,
until death ensues.
Would it not have been deemed dis
loyalty, st any time within the last FIVE
years, would it not be deemed so now, in
the Southern Provinces, to say with
JOHN HANCOCK in I7T4, that, 1t is to
the last degree vicious and infamous TO
attempt to support 3 Government which
manifestly tends to render the persons
and property OF the governed insecure.
Some boast OF being friends to Govern
ment: I am a friend to righteous Gov
eminent, to 3 Government founded upon
the principles Of reason and justice
but / gloya s publicly avoUiRg my eter-
nal eHHtty to tyranny