Middletown transcript., 1870-03-26
THE MILITARY VS.. THE CIVIL POWER.


The jealousy Of a free people toward the
employment of military power for the
enforcement Of tho civil law, is right and
proper in itself. The employment of the
military force, in such a service, is a fea-
! ture of despotism, and the authors or in
stigaiors of it, ought to be held up to pub
Nc odipin and execration The proposed
resort to the military arm in the enforce
nent Of the Fifteenth Amendment, mea-
sure forced upon unwilling States by the
bayonet, is suficicnt to kindle afresh the
fires of Seventy-Six in every bosom where
the spirit of our fathers is not wholly ex
tinct They rose up, as one man, to re-
pei the tyranny of George the Third,
against whom it was alleged in their ever
memorable declaration, -" He has kept
amongst us in times of peace, standing ar
mics, without the consent of our legisla-
turc. He has affected to render the mill
tary independent of, and superior to, the
civil power" Have not our Congrcssion-
al tyrants done the same thing? And is
the deed any the less reprchensible when
done by many tyrants, than when COM
mitted by one? Have we not " stand
ing army" in time of peace, throughout
the Southern States ? And these fifty
thousand men are quartered for their sup
port upon the tax-paying people of this
tax-burdened country. Not satisfied with
this, it is now proposed, in Congress, to
send Federal soldiers into every voting
precinct in the country, to enforce that
political iniquity known as the Fifteenth
Amendment, which never could have re-
ceived the sanction of three fourths of the
States, if left to their own free volition.
No man, with the slightest regard for
the truth, will have the hardihood to deny
that the ratification of that amendment, in
number of the States, was obtained
through duress or a state of compulsion /:
1t is therefore Of no more binding force, in
law, than if such pretended ratification
had never been made. No lawyer or ju-
rist, whose judgement is not warped by
partizan influences, will affirm that it is
And if the question could be tried, upon
its merits, before the Supreme Court of
the United States, Republican as that
Court is, with Chief Justice Chase at its
head, it would be declared imperative and
void. Yet, it is proposed to enforce it by
the military power, in fragrant violation
of the organic law of the land, and in vio-
lation Of the lawfully obtained consent of
the States. If this is not the quintessencc
of despotism, we know not what is.
Then turn your eyes to Virginia, and
see the Federal soldiery in the streets Of
Richmond, brought into requisition by the
military satrap, Gen. Candy, against the
protest of Gov. Walker, under the pretext
OF maintaining peace between the adhe
rents of rival claimants of the city govern
ment! Look, also, to Tennessee, the camp
ing ground of Federal soldiers, at the bid
ding of heated partzan! What do these
things portend-what is their rationale.-
unless it be that the liberties of the Amer
lean people are passing from civil to mill
tary sway?
Again, look to Georgia. sovereign
state, remanded to territorial condition
under the reconstruction fasco-read
mitted to the Union of these States-and
again remanded to a territorial condition
simply because her course was not in ac-
cordance with the will of the Mountain, .
dignifed as the Congress of the United
states What does Congress propose to
do IN Georgia? Look at brakes amend
ment, authorizing the President to send
troops into the States, { not the Governors
TO call upon the militia on acquisitions of
the Governors or legislatures, and proyid-
ing that martial lac may be established
Qn time of peace in the troubled dis
trlcts. and "lery" made therein for the
payment of the cost of transportation of
said troops! Whose life or property will
be secure under laws like these ma infam-
GUS as the code of the bloody Draco. This
Drakeonian amendment may not pass into
law, but it serves to show the temper Of
The leaders of the cabal, of whom Il has
been said. with too much truth, that thew
acknowledge no law save that of their own
wills, and that they are become "a law un-
to themselves. Will not the American
people protest, in the name of liberty and
human rights, against such legislation as
THIS Let the people peaceably assem-
BILE, through the length and breadth of
this land, and lay their indignant protest
EAEr