The Plymouth weekly Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1860-1869, 1869-03-11


partment, by making subordinate officers
Independent of and able to defy their
Chief Magistrate; they have attempted
to place the President under the power of
a bold, defiant and treacherous Cabinet
officer; they have robbed the Executive
Of the prerOgative of pardon; rendered
null and void the acts of clemency grant
ed to Thousands OF persons under the pro-
visions OF he Constitution, and commit
ted gross usur 2ations by legislative at
tempts to exercise this power in favor of
| party adherents; they have conspired to
change the system of our Government
by preferring charges against the Presi-
dent in the form of articles of impeach-
ment, and contemplating before hearing
or trial, that he should be placed under
arrest, held in durance, and when it be-
came their pleasure TO pronounce his SEN
tence, driven from place and power in dis
grace they have in time of peace in
creased the national debt by reckless ex-
penditure of the public moneys, and added
TO burdens which already weigh upon
the people; they have permitted the ma
ton to suffer the evils of deranged cur
rency, to the enhancement in price of all
the necessari> J of life; they have main
tanned large standing army for the en-
forcement of their measures of Oppres-
sion they have engaged in class legisla-
ton, built and encouraged monopolies
that the few might be enriched at the eX-
pensc of the many; they have failed to
act upon important treaties, thereby en-
dangeriug our peaceful relations with for
eign powers; their course of usurpstion
has not been limited TO inroads upon the
Executive Department by uncOnstitution-
al md ~, hn
pie of ten States of the Union have been
reduced to a condition more intolerable
than that from which those patriots OF
the revolution rebelled. Millions of Amer
lean citizens can now say of their Oppres-
sors, with more truth than our fathers did
of the British tyrants, that they have
forbidden governments to pass laws
of immediate and pressing import
ancc, unless suspended until their assent
should be obtained; that they have refused
to pass other laws for the accommodation
Of large districts of people, unless these
people would relinquish the right of rep
resentation in the Legislatures right in
estimsble to them and formidable to ty-
rants only; that they have made judges
dependent on their will alone for their
tenure of offices, and the amount and pay
ment of their salaries; that they have
erected multitude of new offices, and sent
hither swarms of officers to harass our peo.
pie and eat out their substance; that
they have affected to render the military
Independent of and superior to the civil
power; combined with others to subject us
to jurisdiction foreign to our Constitu.
ton and rnacknowledged by our laws
quartered large bodies of armed troops
among US, and protected them, by mock
trial, from punishment for any murders
which they should commit on the inhab
itants; imposed taxes upon us without
our consent; deprived us, in many cases
of trial by jury taken away our charters
excited instruction among us; abolished
cur most valuable laws altered funda-
mentally the forms Of our Government
suspended our own Legislatures, and de-
clared themselves invested with power to
legislate for us in all cases whatsoever
This catalogue of crimes, long as it 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 Con
stitution and laws of the United States
Encouraged by this promise, a refugee
from tyranny, q citizen of the United
States, who, by rider of military com.
mander, given under the sanction of q
cruel and deliberate edict of Congress
had been denied the constitutional
rights of liberty of conscience, free
dom of the press and of speech
personal freedom from military arrest OF
being held to answer for crime only upor
presentmert of an indictment, or tria
by jury; of the writ of ha6eds corpus, an(
the protection of civil and constitutions
government citizen thus deeply wrong
ed, appeals to the Supreme Court for the
protection guaranteed him by the organic
law Of the land. At once fierce and ex
cited majority, by the ruthless hand ofleg
islation, stripped the ermine from the
Judge, transferred the sword of Justic,
to the General, and remanded the Cypress
ed citizen to degradation and bOndag,
worse than death. 1t will also be recorded
as one of the marvels of the times, that
party claiming for itself a monopoly o
consistency and patriotism, and boastinl
of its unlimited sway, endcsvOred by
costly and deliberate trial TO impeach on,
who defended the Constitution and tn,
Union, not only throughout the war o
, the rebellion, but during the whole tern
of office, as Chief Magistrate, but at tn,
same time could find no warrant or mean.
at their command to bring on the tria
even of the chief of the rebellion. Indeed
the remarkable failures in this case were
SO often repeated, that for propriety's sake
If for no other reason it became at las
necessary to extend TO him an uncOndi
tional pardon. What more plainly thar
this, illustrates the eXtremitieS of party
management and engine ring on one hand
and Of faction, vindictiveness and intoler
ance on the other? Patriotism will hardly
be encouraged when in such record it see,
that its instant reward may be the most
virulcnt party abuse and obloquy, if no
attempted disgrace. Instead of seeking
to make treason odiOus, it would in truth
seem to have been their purpose rather tt
make the defense of the Constitution anC
Union crime, and to punish A ielity to ar
oath of Office, if counter to party dicta-
ton, by all the means at their command
Happily for the peace of the country, the
war has determined against the assumed
power of States to withdraw at pleasure
from the Union. The institution of slavery
also found its destruction in the rebellion
commenced in the United States in its in
terest.
1t should be borne in mind, however
that the war neither impaired nor de
strOyed the Constitution, but on the con
trary preserved its existence and made
apparent its real power and enduring
strength. All rights granted to the State.
or reserved to the people, are therefore in
tact. Among those rights is that of thu
people of each State to declare the quail
fications of their own State electors. 1t i.
now assumed that Congress can contrO
this vital right, which can never be taken
away from the States without impairing
the fundamental nrinpin1p Of tho Gnvorn