Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1868-04-09

bound to express opinions of ar
concerning the public characte
conduct, views, purposes, motive
| and tendencies Of all men engage
in the public service as well as
Congress as otherwise, and that fC
anything he may have said on eitht
of these occasions he is justified III
der the constitutional right of free
dom Of opinion and freedom 9
speech, and is not subject to ques
ton in impeachment or inculcatio
in any manner or form whatever.
He denies, however, that by rea
son of any matter in said article, it
specifications alleged he had saic
or done anything indecent or unbe
coming in the Chief Magistrate o
the United States, or tending tt
bring his high office into contempt
ridicule or disgrace. The issut
then finally is this: That these ut
terances of his in the manner anC
form in which they are alleged tc
have been made, and under the cir
cumstances and at the time they
were made, are decent and becom.
ing in the President of the United
States, and do not tend to bring his
office into ridicule and Disgrace
We accept the issues. They are
two first, that he has the right TO
say what he did of Congress in ex
ercise of freedom of speech; and
second, that whathe did say in those
speeches was highly gentlemanlike
and proper performance in a citizen
and still more becoming in a Presi-
dent of the United States.
HIS RIGHT TO MALIGN CONGRESS con-
sIDERED.
Let us first consider the grave
matter of his assertion of his right
to cast contumely upon Congress,
to denounce it as a body hanging
upon the verge of the Government,
pretending to be a Congress, when,
in fact it was not a Congress; a
Congress pretending to be for the
Union, when its every step and act
tended to perpetuate disunion and
make disruption of States newt
able. A Congress in a minority as
suming to exercise a power which,
if allowed to be consummated,
would result In despotism and mon
archy itself; Congress which has
done everything to prevent the
Union of the States; a Congress
factious and domineering; a Radi-
cal Congress, which gave origin to
mother rebellion; a Congress upon
vhcse skirts was every drop of
blood that was shed in the New Or
cans riots.
You will find these denunciations
lad a deeper meaning than mere
expressions Of opinion. It may be
aiken as an axiom in affairs of ma
ions that no usurper has ever seiz-
ID upon the legislature of his coun-
ry until he had familiarized the
people with the possibility of so do
ng by vituperating and denouncing
t. Denunciatory attacks upon the
legislature have always preceded
landerous abuse of the individuals
omposing it, have always accom-
'anied a seizure by a despot of the
legislative power of a country. Two
memorable examples in modern his
Dry will / bring to the memory of
very man. Before Cromwell drove
ut, by the bayonet, the Parliament
f England, and his partisans had
enounced, decried and DETAINED it,
nd thus brought into ridicule and
Ontempt, he vilifed it with the
lme name, which, it is a significant
lct, the partisans of johnson by a
oncerted cry, applied to the Con-
ress of the United States when he
ommenced his memorable pilgrim
&c and crusade against il.
1t is a, still more significant fact
lat the justification made by Crom-
ell and by johnson for setting I
side the authority of Parliament ,
I'd Congress respectively, was pre- j
sely the same, to.wit: That they
ere elected by a part of the people !
lly. When Cromwell, by his sol {
ers, entered the Hall of Parliament a
disperse its members, he attempt |
to cover the enormity of his I
jurpation by denouncing I'll is man e
,rsonally as a libertine, that as c
another as the betrayer n
the liberties of the people. h
johnson started out on precisely 0
e same course, but forgetting the f
Irallel too early, he proclaimed e
is patriot an assassin, that states a
an a traitor, threatens to hang the s.
an whom the people delight to b
NOR, and bristles out with threat o
ings and slaughter against this b
an whose services in the cause of o
man freedom have made his name
household word wherever the Ian c,
age is spoken. There is, howev- W
an appreciable difference between in
omwell and johnson, and there Il
a like difference in the results ac- cl
mplished by each. a
When Bonaparte extinguished the te
gislature of France, he waited in
til through his press and his par ot
ans, and by his own denunCiation m
brought its authority into dis az
ICE and contempt, and when final al
he drove the Council of the Ma th
n frem its chambers, like Crom- bs
Il, he justified himselfby personal dl
Use of the individuals themselves, je
they passed by him. sa
That the attempt of Andy John m