The Plymouth Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1869-1941, 1870-01-13
The Progress Of Revolution.

The auguries which the proceedings
and debates of the present session OF Con
gress have furnished us are assuredly OF
the gloomiest description. Every account
from Washington which reaches us con
veys intelligence that the Radical leaders
and politicians are, If possible, more reck-
less and vengeful than they were last ses.
sion; and if we had not received a word
or syllable beyond the published reports,
we should know the fact. The DRIFT OF
everything is in one direction Desperate
attachment to power drives the Kadicais
to legislation which grows more and more
desperate being already quite revolution
ary, and we mean what we say, ana are
not writing against time and pace when we
declare, most earnestly, that our republic
is in danger. The danger is real, lmml-
nent. immediate The existence OF the
Supreme Court as al effective department
of the Government is threatened. An at
tempt is in progress to strip from that
high tribunal all of the powers which the
trainers of the Constitution conferred upon
il, and which our grand old fathers. in
Guiding the wise and illustrious authors Of
the Federalist, and all the succeeding states
men of the nation down to our time, have
recognized as belonging to it. The SUI
preme Court has ever been regarded as
the sheet-anchor of the republic, but there
is strong reason to fear that the ship OF
state may soon be cut loose from it to run
at will before the tempest. The party In
power repudiates all the established theo-
ries and established practices of constitu-
tional government, and is resolved to rush
recklessly into innovations, which, If con-
summated, will probably result first in an
archy and finally in despotism.
The war upon the judiciary as depart
ment of the Government, as check upon
the executive and legislative departments,
has been brewing for considerable perl
cd, sometimes silently and at other times
with portentous sounds falling dOlefully
upon mems ears. The last Congress
waged war, half covert and half open,
upon both of the coordinate departments,
and, although the Radicals OF the present
Congress have perhaps concluded to post
pone for time their attacks and encroach-
ments upon the executive, they are dis
posed to wage hostilities against the judi
ciary more boldly and violently than their
predecessors ever did. They entered upon
their campaign on the very first day OF
their session. On that day Senator Drake,
of Missouri brought forward his bill for
bidding the judiciary to take cognizance
of the question of the cOnstitutiOnality Of
any act of Congress, and of course making
Congress supreme In the exercise of power,
unless the President, there being no ar
bitter between the two, should, upon his
single responsibility, decide to enforce his
own views of the Constitution by the use
of the army and navy. In Drako bill
there was nothing vague, uncertain, or in
direct, either as to the object to be achieved
or the means to be employed The pur-
pose was to wipe out, by simple enact
ment, the Constitution of the United
States as check on Congressional legis-
lation-tO provide that any excuses of
Congress should be unchallenged by a
legal tribunal, and not resisted unless by
the commander-in chief of the army and
navy upon the bloody tbeater of revolu-
ton. Congress and the President, with
no common arbiter, can only fight out
their battles with each other by the strong
hand, and the President, like the first
Charles, may lose his head or Congress,
like the Rump Parliament, may be kicked
out of doors.
And Senator Simmer offered bill in
the Senate at the same time when Drake
offered his, that is on the first day of the
session, bill contemplating the same gen.
eral object as brakes but exhibiting a lit
lie less audacity Summers bill is blow
at the appellate jurisdiction of the SUI
preme Court 1t proposes to abolish all
appellate jurisdiction OF that tribunal in
causes or proceedings commenced by hdJeas
corpus. In other words, it is aimed at
the great writ of freedom which for CEN
turtles has been the pride and the boast of
the Anglo Saxon race. And the people
should not forget that the whole of this
crusade against the court and the habeas
corpus was suggested and prompted by
nothing more than a feeble, hesitating and
irresolute declaration on the part of the
court OF its power to grant the writ of
hd6eds corpus in cases where, as in that of
1erger of Mississippi, private citizens are
condemned to death in time of peace by
military tribunals. The court said that it
could call up the Yerger case, but it did not
call Up the Yerger case, and here, in reply
to Its feeble suggestion, comes Sumner s
bill to cut off the tribunals power to
grant the great writ of freedom upon ap-
peal IN the 1erger case or in any case
whatever, present or future brakes and
Summers bills are quickly followed in the
Senate by that of Trumbull, hitherto re-
garded as one Of the most moderate and
rational Ofall the Radical members of that
body. Indeed he has on various occasions
exhibited so much moderation that the
Democratic organs have chosen to desig-
nate him as Republican rather than as a
Radical. But, though less bold than
Drake In his phraseology, he comes fully
up to him In violence and ultraism Ct pur-
pose And his action may well make
men doubt whether there is even one
Radical In the Senate who is not in favor
OF destroying the checks and balances of
the Governmental favor of subverting
the institutions of the country.-Loyis,
rule C01L1Jer-,I0urnnI