Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1868-03-18
nnnaE WOODWARD.

says:
II I were the Presidents counsellor, /
would advise him, il you prefer articles Of
impeachment, to demur both to your Juris-
diction and to that OF the Senate, and to issue
a proclamation giving you and all the world
notice that, while he held himself impeacha-
bic for misdemeanors in office before the con-
| stitutional tribunal, he never would subject
the office he holds in trust for the people to
the irregular, Unconstitutional fagmentary
bodies who propose to strip him Of it. Such
proclamation, with the army and navy to
sustain it, would meet q popular response
that would make an end Of Impeachment and
impeachers.
Two years ago Mr.. johnson himself
called Congress "an irregular body
hanging on the verge Of the Govern
ment," and needs not so much the ad-
vice rendered to him MS encouragement
to act upon it. Still it was not exactly
impertineut in the Judge to put his
opinion into the shape of instruction,
for he was earlier in Rebellion than the
President, and his record rs q Rebel is
every way more consistent. The Judge
never ouce called the Secessionists Reb-
els he never denounced treason as obi
Gus. When Johnson stood fair enough
to loyal principles to command tho NOM
nation for the Vice Presidency, the
Judge was ruling the draft %unconstitu-
tioual, and e%ndeavoriug to invalidate
the national currency. While Johnson
was still sustaining the Government,
Woodward vas laboring to take from it
at once the power of tho purse and OF
the sword. This position gives him in
matter of principle tho precedence and
rank, with all the authority which NOR
ally belongs to them. He also has aus
other claim to play counsellor to johnson.
When Johnson, in the Senate, was OPP
posing Secession with an earnest energy
to DO repeuted of, Woodward was all
right. He has nothing to r~etract, moth
ing to regret. While the South Caro-
lima Convention was in session, which,
on the Goth of December, 1860, took the
State out of the Union, Judge Wood
ward, at the Union meeting held in lu-
dependence Square, which he was inri-
ted to address as a representative Of the
Democratic party, held this language
The law Of self-defenso includes rights
Of property rs well as Of person, and it
appears to me that there must be a time
in the progress Of this conflict, il il in
deed be irrepressible, when shareholders
may lawfully fall back OF their natural
rights, and employ in defense of their
property whatever means Of protection
they possess or can command.
In this same speech he quoted as q
settled construction of the Constitution
tho " confessions Of President and At
torney General Black, that tho Govern
mont, as now constituted, is unable to
prevent or punish secession But it
was not alone the lack of power in the
Federal Government which restrained
the Judge from advising its mainto-
nance against a revolt of the Southern
States. They had the right side Of the
quarrel, and were j%usti6able in resort
ing to whatever means they had or could
command for remedy Having argued,
and, he believed, proved, in his wi
words, that the principle Of human
bondage and of property in man is di-
viuely sanctioned, if not divinely or
daiued, and that Cotton, the product Of
Stare labor (these capitals and italics are
his) has been one Of the indisT ensable
elements Of all our prosperity-more-
it must be an indispensable element Of
all our future prosperity )" aud, assum.
ing that the abolition Of the divinely
sanctioned right of property n man,
and the destruction Of the indispensable
element of all our prosperity in the flu
ture, as in the past, was the sole
ground, aim, and object Of the conflict
pushed upon the South by the North,
he advises Pennsylvania, through her
Legislature, to "appeal to the South to
stand by us a'little longer, till we have
proved, not by fair words but by deeds,
that we will arrest the irreprcssible con-
fict, and give us time to place ourselves
right in respect to your peculiar insti-
tuition"
We say, again, that in view Of Judge
woodward's consistency Of rebellions
sentiment aud services from the begin
ming and before it, eve unto this day,
it is not assuming anything gratuitously
to appoint himself the counsellor of the
man who cannot claim to be more than
an apostate or a fresh convert at bcst.
Moreover, the Judge stands upon an
experience that gives strength to his
authority rs an adviser. He counselled,
aided and abetted the great rebellion,
and survives it without loss Of life,
limb, property or position, and why not
promote another? Treason is not dan
gerous even under the rule Of tho ir,eg-
ular, 6agmentdry, unconstitutional, ramp
Radical Congress; it is not even odious.
There is as fair u chance for the Demos
cratic party to take the Federal Govern
ment out Of tho hands Of the party
which lately saved it, as thcre was for
the States Rights Democrats Of Jcfrer-
sons day, to ~disposses tho party that
organized and put it into the pathway
of practical success. The way to do
this is to follow the old plan-denounce
every act and effort for the yjndication
of the Union ; every measure for its
preservation and pcrpetuity, as uncon-
stitutional, tyrannical, monarchial or
in ono word, which sums up all these
horrors and hatreds-federal.
There is not the least chance in the
world for restoring cotton to the rulo Of