The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1868-01-31
THE STRUGGLE THROUGH WHICH
WE ARE PASSING.

THE STRUGGLE THROUGH WHICH
WE ARE PASSING.
The two most violent political con-
vulsiOns of modern times furnish con-
tinual types of comparison with the
fearful struggle through which this
nation is passing. In the English and
in the French revolution every act Of
violence was done prOfessedly in the
name Of public rights and for the ad-
vancement of human liberty. All
things were claimed to be done in the
name of the people and on behalf Of
the people, and for time the darkest
acts of tyranny and violence were
made to wear the semblance of popular
right. When arbitrary power is exert
ed by king or a despot, the world at
once discerns the personal motive, and
is not deceived. When it is eXerted
by the so-called representatives of the
people, the motive of immediate self
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT is not so readily dis
covered, and hence the people are du
ped longer and will bear more. Charles
lost his head for acts which were
mild compared with the usurpations
of Parliament, and tonO tyrant, ancient
or modern, can be imputed crimes to
be named with the bloody deeds of the
representatives of France. No con-
stitutional chief magistrate could with
impunity perpetrate the outrages
which we are daily witnessing at the
hands of the miscalled representatives
of the American nation. In the case
Of the English revolution, successive
aggresSiOns upon the constitution were
made under color of restriction upon
the unjust prerogations Of the king
In America the constitution is hourly
assaulted under a claim that the eXer-
else of this heretofore acknowledged
power of the President is dangerous to
liberty. In the case of England, the
Parliament misused its power by per-
petuating its sessions when it had ceas-
ed to reflect the will of the nation
The Thirty-ninth Congress, so soon as
a majority of its members had been
elected, in advance of their fiagitiOus
usurpatiOns, decreed that the FOrtieth
should meet by anticipation nine
months before its regular period of
assembling, thus virtually, practical
ly making its one session continuous
for four years. The revolutionary
Parliament of England earned the
name of Rump and the present trun-
Gated American assemblage deserves no
hnttop titlo-
Sustained by the power of Parlia-
ment, Cromwell hectOred the judges
| of England and threatened them with
| imprisonment if they dared to issue
the writ of httbeds corpus. The. tools
of the American Congress have, in like
manner, trampled upon the privileges
of freemen. The eexecutiveand judicial
authority was brought to the feet OF
the legislative, and thencefOrth the
will of Parliament was the only pow
er in Great Britain. So in France,
the first efforts of revolutionary power
were used to break down the checks of
the national organization in the Ma
tional Assembly by reducing the three
orders into one. The judiciary never
had an independent existence under
the monarchy, and therefore the next
stride, the overthrow and decapitatiOn
of Louis, on the 21st of January, 1868,
left the convention the cruel and afro
cious tyrants of France. In both
countries the stages of the process were
substantially the same, and the results
| identical. The overthrow Of law and
the extinguishment of right were con-
Quoted in the name of liberty, and ap-
parently on behalf of the people, until
liberty had become only remem-
brance, and thepeOple were the slaves of
a body of wild and bloody fanatics.-
The thoughtful man who considered
! the general features of those two great
movements will be struck with the
identity of the governing principle i'll
those national tragedies with that
which is operating the darkening fu-
/ ture on our own country. The differ
ent orders in the National Assembly
! of America have not been abrOgated,
| but the establish of the joint COM
mittee of fifteen on reconstruction,
actuated all the while by the potent
! machinery of congressional caucus,
| has tended to the same practical issue.
( The Executive has been stripped, one
by one, of his just privileges perpetual
war has been made upon his constitu-
tional authority, and although he has
once escaped impeachment, it is by no
means certain that the effort to dis
place him will not be renewed. The
last assault upon the guardians of the
constitution, the Supreme Court of the
United States, by the bill which pass
ed the House of Representatives on
Monday last, has no specific parallel
in France, because there the judicial
was but an incident to the kingly
power, while under our form of gov
ernment it is an independent. co-or-
dinate department. 1t is a body to
which tyranny and oppression, practi-
cal and direct, upon the body Of the
people cannot be imputed. All its
traditions are on the side of freedom,