The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1869-03-11

~
They have maintained a large stand
ng army for the enforcement Of their I,
measures Of oppression. They have |
in class legislation; built and I
encouraged monopolies, that the few !.
may be enriched at-the expense Of the
many. They have failed to act upon
important treaties, thereby endanger-
ing our peaceful relations with, for
eign powers. '' = '3' !
q Their course, of usurpationT has not
been limited to 1nroads upon the eX7
department. By. uneonstitu7
tional and oppressive. ,enactments, the
people Of ten States of the Union have
been reduced to a, condition more in d
than that from which the, pa
triots of the revolution rebelled.=--i
Millions of American citizens can now
say Of their oppressors; with more
truth than our fathers did of British
tyrants, that they have e forbidden the
to pass, laws of im7
and pressing Importance
unless suspended until their consent
should be ebtained;;Y = that they have.
refused to pass other laws for the acr,
commodation Of large districts of peo7
pie unless those people would relinz
quish the right of representation in
the legislature, a right inestimable to.
them, and formidable to tyrants on
ly;' that they have made judges de-
pendent on thGifsWilld alone for their
tenure of offices and the amount and
sofitheir salariesl;' that 'sthey
have erected aamultitude of new5iof-
fices, and sent hither swarms of off
GERS to llarrass ouispeople and cat out
their substances" that they have
affected render the military inde-
pendent OF, and superior to. the civil
powers, combined with Others to sub
jectius to a Jurisdiction foreign to our
constitution and unacknowledged by
our laws; quartered large bodies of
armed troops among us; protected
them by amock trial from punishment
forlany murders they should commit
on the inhabitants; imposed taxes up1
on us iwithoutiouf consent :; deprived
us in many, cases of trial by jury !;
taken away otirqcliartefs; excited do
mestic insuTreetion among us; abol-
ished our most valuable laws; altered
fundamentally tile forms Of our gov
eminent; suspended our own legisla9
ton, and declared themselves invested
with power to legislate for us in all
cases whatsoever .'n11H34 9Ysh fItai'!
This catalogue Of crimes, long as ii
is, is not complete. The. constitution
vests the judicial power of The United
States in one Supreme Court, whose
jurisdiction shall extend to all cases
arising Under the constitution and
laws Of the United States. Encour-
aged by this promise, al.efungee a from
tyranny, a citizen of the United States.
who, by the order Of military com
mander, given under the sanction Of a
cruel and deliberate edict Of Congress,
had been denied the constitutional
rights of liberty of conscience, free
dom Of press and speech, personal
freedom from military arrest, Of being
held to answer for crime only upon
presentment or Indictment, Of trial BY
jnry, of the writ of habeas corpus, and
the protection of ciYil and eonstitu-
tional government; a citizen thus
deeply wronged, appeals to the Su-
preme Court for the protection GUAR
anteed him by the organic law Of the
land . At once a fierce and decided
majority, by the ruthless hand of leg
islative power, stripped the erm1ne
from the judges, transferred the sword
Of Justice to the General, and remand
ed the oppressed citizen to a,degfeda-
ton and bondage " worse than death.
twill also be recorded as one of the
marveis Of the times that a party
claiming for itself a monopoly Of con
sistency' and patriotism, and boasting
of its unlimited sway, endeavored by
a costly and deliberate trial to impeach
one Who defended the constitution ana
the Union, not only throughout the
war of, the rebellion, but during the
whole term of Office as Chief Magis-
trate but at the same time could find
no warrant nor means at their COM
mand to bring to trial even the chief
of the rebellion. Il Indeed, the remark
able failures in this, case were SO, often
repeated that for proprietyis sake, if
for mo no Other, Il reason, it BECAME at last
necessary to extend to him an uneon-
ditional pardon, What more plainly
than this illustrates the extremities of
party management and Inconsistency
on the one. hand, and of faction, YIN
dictiyeness and intolerance on the
other hand. Patriotism will hardly
be encouraged, when in such a record
itIsees that its instant reward may be
most yiralent party abuse and oblo-
,quy,. if nat attempted disgrace, In
stead of seeking to make treason obi
io9s, it would in truth seem to have
been their purpose rather to make the
defense of thei Constitution and the
Union a crime, aud to punish fidelity
to an oath ofoffiee, ifcountert to party.
-dietation, by all the means at their
commando .ttHidn bsbi4sb TO aam 3
Happily ortthe,peaee of the, couno
try the war has determined against
the assumedpoWer4of States to, with
draw at pleasure from the cUnion.=-7
The institution Of slavery also found
its ydesipuetioni in q. srebelliono conf
meAced inRits interesto Itilsheuld be
borne An mind, however, that the war
neither impaired nor destroyed the