Des Arc weekly citizen., 1868-08-25

the 1a1lure Of the reVOlut1On, ana th( oath which took to support it is nc longer binding upon me. So I was re quircd in 1865 to take an oath, as ar attorney, to support the Murphy con. stitntion, framed by body of men who assembled without any legal authority but afterwards made valid cohstitu. tion by the general acquiescence of tho people. That constitution has beer overturned by congressional enact. ments and military force, and I can nc longer keep the oath which took tc support it and am under no obligation 10 do so. So if you take an oath to support the present constitution, or any oath prescribed by it, the oath will fal with the constitution be tl<at sooner oi later.
 I have said that man cannot di. vest himself ofan unalienable right by an oath, nor can ho legally bind him. self to do wrong. Herod, the Roman governor of Judea, (forced upon that people by the sword of the conqueror as Clayton has been forced on es by military despotism and fraud fascina. ted by the dancing of his beautiful step. daughter, promised her, bya rash oath anything that she might ask of him Prompted by her yindictive mother, she demanded the head of John the Baptist; and he was sacrificed in the keeping of an oath, which all moralists have agreed should have been broken These fair ladies, who are compli. menting me by marked attention, arc familiar with this example.
 So an oath forced upon man by compulsion or durcss, and taken to preserve life, is said not to be binding on the conscience. A familiar example of this is where the highwayman robs the traveller of his purse, but spares his life on condition of his taking an oath not to disclose the crime. Casuists have concurred in the opinion that the traveller may well report the crime to the officers of the law, and cause the arrest and punishment of the robber, regardless of the oath.
 How far oaths forced upon our peo- pie by adventures from abroad, who have ususrped the state government for spells, and taken to preserve rights as dear to freemen as life, are binding upon the conscience, leave others to decide. The oath under discussion may be taken ill good faith, according to its proper and legal interpretation and kept so far and so long as it is bin. ding under established principles oi constitutional law.
 The framers of the oath knew it would be obnoxious to our people and it was devised for the party purpose of driving them from the polls, and exclu- ding them from the jury-boxcs and public offices. They designed it to be an instrument to enable them to mo- nopolizc all the places of profit and honor in the state-to perpetuate their power by using the two easily deceived and deluded black men as the electors and to put the white men into the con- dition of serfs and taxpayers, to fill the pockets of their imported task masters. The oath is scare crow, and its cunning inventors thought they had added much to its frightfulness, by threatening indictment and imprison- mcnt in the penitentiary for perjury, for it's violation as interpreted by them. Are our people indeed crows and cravens to be thus frightened ? Let them remember that an outraged and indignant people may drive corrupt partizan judges from the bench, and demolish prisons, as did the people ot France the Bastile! We are law abiding people, but the meanest reptile will sting when trampled upon!
 Our people, though upon their own soil, are like ancient Israel in Egypt unsympathizing task-masters are over us, and we are oppressed with toll and burthened with unexampIed taxntion to fill the pockets of rulers whom we have had no voice in choosing. In tho language of the orator of Mars Hill who shall deliver us from this body ot corruption and death Capt. HOWARD the gallant union soldier, but friend ol the oppressed, has told you. Look al the names painted upon that canvas one of them is not Grant, the persecu tor of the Jews !-they are the names of SEYMOUR and BLAIR, the Moses and Joshua, chosen by the direction O Providence to deliver our down-trod den people from bondagel see tn, pillar of cloud by day and fire by nigh to conduct us safely over the opposing flood, and through the radical wilder ness of sin. Upon the banner of SEY MOUR are the symbols of the wisdom of the man, and the strength of tn, lion ;upon the banner borne by BLAIR are the symbols of the swiftness of tn, lofty-soaring eagle, and the patience and endurance of the OK. Already W, are on the mountain that overlooks tn, promised land of Unconstitutional liberty and the shouts of the millions of tn, northern democracy are congratulatins us on the prospects of our deliyerence SEYMOUR and BLAIR, the cham pions of the unrepresented, the taxet and the oppressed, live FOREVER.
 Go, my friends. and swear early, ant fighting the Devil with fire, vot numerously and late!