Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-06-25

phernalia Of war; and, instead of that
popular consent on which alone free gov.
ernments can be based, in this or any
other country, you have barracks, arse
mails, cannon, bay yonets, and all the dread
circumstances and pomp of war, in time
of peace. Can government be repub'
lie that governs, in one-third OF its bound
aries, by military power2 OF course not.
They have destroyed your union by say
ing that these States were lost to the
Union. They have destroyed these States
by sweepiag them out of existence and
converting them into military districts.
States, according to my theory, are in
destructible; there is no power to sweep
out of existence an American State
like the eternal stars in the heavens, they
will last forever. They are fixed by the
fathers in our hemisphere in the sky, in
our political sky, as it were, to last for
ever.
But their career of destruction stops
not here Not content with thus de-
stroying the framework and the form OF
your Government, not content with thus
destroying the Union, they go further.
After destroying the form, they trample.
out the life, the soul and the spirit of
your Government Don't tell me that it
is matter of no consequence to the
people Of Indiana whether the principles
of civil liberty prevail in our sister
States of the South. Don't tell me that
they are rebel States and no concern OF
yours. The man that can see liberty
thrown down to the ground, the princi-
ple of law trampled in the dirt, without
any personal concern, is not an Ameri-
can citizen applausel ], for every part
and parcel of this Government is your
Government. The old maxim. Of Greece
was true one, that when the liberties OF
a county suffered in the person of the
humblest and lowest citizen, the whole
commonwealth felt the pang, and bled
from the wound. That is the true spirit
and doctrine of liberty, and when por-
tray to you the loss ofliberty in Virginia,
IL is your loss-the loss Of liberty in
Georgia is the loss of every American
everywhere. No rivers bound my love
of country. There is q class OF mem
and some, too, born under Southern
affections are bounded by
these waters that roll right here by your
wharves, but not so mine. Every spot of
American soil is my country and your
country in the highest and best sense OF
the term. These people at Washington, not
content with sweeping out Of existence
your Union and your States, sweep out
of existence those principles without
which States and Unions are worth moth
ing at all. Throughout one-third of the
States of the American Union liberty lies
dead in every form. They say they are
republican forms of gov
ernment to the people of the South.
They say that is the reason why they put
them under military government and
hold them with standing army at the
expense Of the Taxpayers at the North.
Why, you all know what are some OF the
leading principles that characterize re-
publican form of government Can a
form of government live with
outtrial by jnryf Why, my friends, for
hundreds OF years your ancestors in the
old world struggled upon every noble
field of battle TO guarantee to themselves
and their posterity forever, as one OF the
greatest safeguards of liberty the right
of trial by jury. 1t is nominated in the
blood-bought bond of the revolution. the
Constitution of your country. Your
fathers fought for it, and they put in the
charter of all our liberties, so that no
Congress, no Legislature, no upstart ty.
rant, with his sword by his side, could
cleave il out of its place but it is imbedded
in that glorious instrument. Bot what do
we see 2 Why, we saw, few days ago,
party of young men, in the State OF Ala
bama, arrested upon the charge Of as
sault and battery, simple. They were
tried by military commission, and sent
to the Dry Tortugas as punishment,
and this iu the nineteenth century, and
in the American republic-peace in all
our borders; military commissions,
though, aud the Dry Tortugas for pun
ishment for assault and battery, and,
throughout this wide domain that lies
under Southern sky, the right of trial
by jury is dead, trampled under the heels
Of the vandal crew at Washington. Ire
nroach not the officers down there, bat
he hideous monsters who are preying
upon your liberties at Washington.
this uo,hingf Can you sit tamely still
and say eli this is nothingf Throughout
len American States no right Of trial By
iurT erisss But some Of ycu, perhaps.
viii say, "This is nothing, because u
does not come home to me That is
the poorest and meanest resource that
could cone from the human breast
Suppose you. yourself, want 70 20 there
Tbs is al your county; you have tne
same rirhts under The Consiitution N
Georgia that you have in Indiana foa
have The right 70 20 there, and your child
ren have The right foo. yourtelt When
there, would have no more righu than