Wilmington journal., 1868-10-16

of those which, in November next, Will
range themselves under the rescued banner
Of the Constitution. Our hands are tied
in Virginia, but yours are free, and we
should feel as if the great Constitutional
triumph were incomplete if North Carolina
is left prisoner in the hands of the en-
emy."
a centralized Government-The TorfuSas
Prisoners.
Within the last eight years there has
been an entire revolution in the nature OF
this Government, and a revolution which
will not ego backward" if the party now
in power shall succeed in retaining place.
The military will henceforth be the gen.
darmery of the Federal Government, and
will be found, whenever within the broad
limits of the Union the central government
may apprehend any dissatisfaction with the
"powers that be-" prompt and ready to
enforce its DEGREES. The time is rapidly
approaching when freedom of speech and
freedom of the press will be numbered
among the things that were. From a
Government of delegated and limited
powers, We are fast drifting into military
despotism, with power uncontrolled, save
by it's own unbridled will, and with O.
standing army at all times prepared to
execute it's mandates, however oppressive.
When Mr.. Seward boastfully proclaimed
the effect of his touch upon his Little
bell" he announced the sad truth that this
had ceased to be the land of the free.
Mr.. Montgomery Blair, in q recent speech
at Alexandria, Virginia, said, and well
said, that it yet remained to be proved
whether those who took part with the
Federal Government, in its recent war
upon the South, had not committed a
s' blunder." This, from an advocate of
coercion, from a strong war man, is very
suggestive. The statesmen of the South
have never had any doubts upon this point.
We know and knew at the time, that they
committed the greatest "blunder' of
which it was possible for any people, so
intelligent and heretofore so jealous of
their liberty, to be guilty. In waging war
upon the South, they not only dug the
grave of Republican government in this
country and substituted in its place grand
central despotism-not only annihilated all
the rights of the Southern States, but also
of all the Northern States-Massachusetts
as well as Virginia New York as we'll as
Texas not only placed the whole people
Of the Country, North and South, at the
mercy of the Federal Government, but
have deprived them of every right which
that Irresistible, irresponsible central power
may not choose to concede to them.
If the Northern people have not expe-
rienced the change, it is because they have
not yet como in conflict with the central
government, and tho mailed hand of that
government has not yet been laid upon
them because they have sustained it in its
violent usurpationa They have heretofore
tamely conceded its power over life, iber-
ty and property, and they will one day, to
their blank dismay, learn that there is not
one of the three safe from the long arms
of Uncle Sam. This old gentleman,
whose benignity We have been accustomed
to hear highly eXtolled in Fourth Of July
orations, knows his power and will never
willingly relinquish it. The Northern
Radicals claim, perhaps honestly, that the
1nstigators and prosecutors of the war
should be considered as benefactors of
their race by future generations, and they
smile scornfully when any doubt is ex-
pressed as to its being great and glorious
success. So felt the Dantons and Robes
pierres, when they had succeeded in up-
heavlng the French government and estab-
lished the reign, as they vainly claimed, of
" Liberty, Equality and Fraternity" and
yet the verdict of posterity has denounced
them to eternal infamy and their own
party, when recovering from its delirium,
evidenced Its returning reason by consign-
ing their late leaders to the very tortures
these had so mercilessly meted to others in
the day of their power.
These remarks are suggested to our mind
by having seen recently that another un-
successful effort had been made to obtain
the release of those unhappy prisoners
confined to the dreary Island of Tortugas,
to which they were illegally condemned
more than three years ago, by order of q
military COMMISSIONS court of iudicature
unknown to the Constitution, established.
os II haa haaD ua1I said to oo.,..:.,