Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1869-02-19
Exit Springer.

During the rebellion the Democracy of
each of the Western States had one or
more especial champions. Ohio had her
Vallandigham; Wisconsin her Sat-
Clarke; Indiana her Milligan and her
Bright; Iowa her Henry Clay Dean, and
Illinois her Springer. The acts of these
lllustrious men have nearly all passed into
history and into proverbs. Vallandigham
crowned his Immortality by crushing Pen
dleton, and then, Samsonlike, the entire
party at New York. Bright is contesting
the honors of the Confederate X Roads in
Kentucky with Nasty; Milligan has had
Supreme Court decision in his favor,
ana now Springer has been snuffed out by
the same tribunal. While Vallandigham
sought to preserve the Democratic party
intSt by. trying to have the members all
fight on the same side, while Singleton
changing gold and bacon for their tobacco;
Springer was vindicating the "tattered
fragments" Of the Constitution, by resist
ing the collection of the "income tax"
Hampden played his part well, but
Springer enlarged, embellished and i'm
proved that part. Hampden refused to
pay his taxes, but Springer permitted the
minions of the law to seize his property
and sell it. like the boy who endures the
labor of pulling his sled up the hill that
he may enjoy the sensation of sliding
down, so Springer let his property be
sold for his income tax, that he might
have the reactionary" satisfaction
of having the property returned to
him, with damages for the great outrage
upon his rights and feelings. Mr.. Springer
is a lawyer. He practices at Springfield,
in this State, and in obedience to the nat
ural laws of affinity between great minds,
he is business partner and associate of
the gentleman who " furnished the brains
and captured Vicksburg." Mr.. Springer
claims to be the original inventor Of the
idea that an income tax is unconstitution-
al. Others have made the same claim,
but State pride, if nothing else, compels
us to insist that to our Illinois Democratic
chiettain belongs all the fame In support
of this theory Mr.. Springer has written
the longest briefs ever put together by
any member of his profession. He man
aged his own case. The old maxim saws
that "he who pleads his own cause has
fool for a client" And so it turned out.
Webster's legal fame rested upon a few
leading cases, but Webster never pleaded
the cause of whole people, robbed of
their substance by rapacious usurping
government, under the color of laws
passed by Congress which had no legal
existence. Webster pleaded the cause of
man against man, but Springer was to
plead the cause of whole people against
q government whose usurpations had no
parallel since the time when Noah took
exclusive possession of the ark. Like a
true Democrat Springer did not appeal to
the Federal Court; in point of fact. in his
opinion there was no Federal Court. he
cause the Union had been disintegrated bv
the resumption of their powers by several
sovereign States" and what was left
was but the trump" Of the dismembered
Government. Though the Union and the
Nation and the Government as whole
had ceased TO exist, Illinois VAS still
sovereign" so Springer appealed to the
only sovereign" which he, as a Demo
crat, recognized, and asked the Supreme
Court OF this State TO vacate the seizure
and sale OF his property for an unconsti-
tutionRl income tax, which he, as Dem
ocrat had resolutely and fearlessly refused
to pay. His arguments and his briefs, if
collected, would fill a volume No man
could read them without lamenting that
Tax producing such a result had ever been
law. No man could read these volumin-
Gus documents without feeling certain
thHt tnough Hamilton, Madison, Marshall
ana story were dead, their successors
could rely on the .eLlightening aid of
springer. The Supreme Court Of this
state, after reading these arguments, and
unable to combat their reasoning, shirked
lhe responsibility of asserting the soVer.