The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1868-05-04
The Speech of Var. Evar,s

The speech of MI. ENariS, SO lar AS IL
was delivered OIL Tuesday, did not touch
apy of the legal or constitutional cues
tiops involved in the jmpeachment 1t
self. 1t was a splendid plea for justice
10 the President. 1t was an attempt to
impress upon the minds of Senators the
solemn nature of an oath, the high
character of the Presidential office, the
dignity that should attach to the trl-
bnnal itself, and the fact that the Con-
stitution must be Obeyed whether the
laws are or not. If he treats every
question involved in the case with the
same ability that marked his discussion
of these points, his speech nust be pro-
nounced Superior even to that OF Judge
Curtis, We give an extract which Will
convey good idea of his style and
matter:
s"Now, what does the Constitution de
fer MS I A few little words; that Is all.
Truth. Justice, oath, duty. And what
does the whole scope of our moral ma
ture, and what support we may nope
from higher aid extended to in any OF
our affairs Of life than this' Truth,
Justice, oath, duty, control the fate,
life, liberty, character and property OF
every citizen. Truth, justice, oath,
duty, are the ideas which the Consti-
tution has forced upon Your souls to-
day. You receive them OF you neglect
them. Whichever way Won turn you
cannot be the same men afterwards that
you were. Accept them, embrace, obey,
and you are IObler aud stronger and
better. Spun and reject them, and
YOU are worse and baser and weaker
and wickeder than before. 1t is
TINS that a free government must
be always held to the power
Of duty, TO the maintenance of its au-
thority, and to the prevalence OF its
own strength, for its perpetual exist
ence. They are little bnt they have
great power. Truth is to the moral
world what gravitation is to the. mate
rial world. 1t is the principle on which
it is established and COheres. The
adaptation Of truth To the affairs Of
man is in human life what the mechan-
ism of the heavens is to the principle
which SuStains the forces of the globe.
Duty is acceptance of obedience to
those ideas; aud this, once gained, Sc
cures the operation that was intended.
When, then, YOU have been submissive
to that cath, that faith among men
which, as Burke says, holds the moral
elements of the world together,
and that faith in God which binds the
world to His throne, it subdues you to
the service of truth ana justice. The
purity of the family and the sanctity of
Justice have ever been cared for, and
will ever be cared for, by the ever-liv-
ing Guardian of human rights and in
terests, who does not neglect what is
essential to the preservation of the ha-
man race and its advance. Tue Furies,
in old mythology, had charge OF the
sanctity of all oath. The imagnatiOns
of the prophets of the world have sane.
tilted the solemnity of an oath, and
have peopled the places of punishment
with oath-breakers. All the fortunes
and torments of history are applied to
public servants who, in betrayal of
sworn trusts, have disobeyed this high,
this necessitous obligation, without
which the whole fabric of society falls
into pieces,
Now, do not know why or how il
is that we are so constituted; but SO it
is. The moral world has its laws rs
we'll as the material world. Why
point of steel, lifted over temple or
house, should draw the thuuderbolt
and speed it safely into the ground,
know not. How,in our moral constitu-
ton, an Sats, lifted to Heaven, can
draw from the great swollen cloud of
passion, and of interest, and of hate, its
charge, | know not: but so il is. And
be sure, that loud and long as those
honorable Managers may talk, although
they speak in the voice of all the peo-
pie of the United States, with their
bold persuasions that you shall not obey
judicial oath, can bring against it
but single sentence aud a single
voice; bot that sentence is a command
ment, AID that voice speaks with awe:
Thou shalt not take the name of the
Lsrd thy God in vain; for the Lord will
not hold him guitless that taketh his
name in vain The moth may consume
the ermine of that Supreme Court whose
robes you wear: rust may corrode, Sen.
ators, the centre of your power; nay,
Messrs. Managers, time even shall de-
your the people whose presence, beating
against the doors of their Senate-house,
Won so much love to tauDt and menace;
but as to the word which / have spo-
ken, Heaven and earth may pass away,
but no jot or title of it will fail"