The Sumter watchman. [volume] (Sumterville, S.C.) 1855-1881, 1870-04-06
lFrom tho Baltimore Gasstte.l
F0RCIBLE RESISTANCE.

When a short time since no suggest.
ed that forcible resistance to tho Fif.
teeuth Amendment on the part of the
people of Maryland would be as unwise
as it would be hopelessiy futile, we by
no means Intended to deprecate an up-
rising of the people Of this country
against the foctiou now dominant at
Washington. On the contrary, it i. our
deliberate conviction that oil further
aggressions aud usurpatious of Congress
SHOULD be checked, if it can be done in
no other way, by the mighty voice of a
popular revolution. We speak these
words advisedly. They embody the
doctrines for the viudication of which
the founders of the American Republic
stakcd their fortunes and their lives,
and it becomes this people to cling to
them now, despite tho mcnaces of the
faction which wiolds the purse and sword
Of the uation and controls the corrupt
currents flowing from what short time
since was our great fountain of justice.
What is called loyalty to day is barren
lie, and true patriotism means stern and
manful resistance to tho powers that be.
Is there never more to be opposition to
arbitrary rule? Is there never more to
bo limit to subsorvieat submission
Are the majority Of the citizens of this
country to refrain hcnceforth from hav-
ing voice in its affairs 2 II the Radical
faction to be suffered to oblitcratc the
Constitution altogether and forever, and
to trample ut will upon. the rights of
two-thirds of the people? It would
seem so. Now or never is tho time when
those who would stop this mad Radical
revolution must act. No tyrant has ever
more manisestly abused the power con-
fidcd to him for the public good that has
Congress; none has ever rendered him.
self moro justly amenablc to popular
Indignation and punishment than the
leaders Of the Radical faction. They
have oye:tirown the public laws aud
time. .houorcd, chartered institutions.
They have cruelty oppressed and
wrongcd thousands upon thousands OF
innocent men. They have by triokery
and violence forced upon the people Of
various States rulers whom the latter
justly and cordially despise. They have
wrestcd political power from the hands
of the white man aud conferred it in
large measures upon the negro. They
construct and overturn State govern.
ments by their own despotic edots,
regardless of the will or rights of the
governed. They are the masters of this
land, and if they be not now called to
ACCOUNT, the American freeman must
s6bn sink into the political scrf. The
hypocri,cs call their course "progress."
Cromwell called it the "Lord's work"
when he put his foot upon all that was
best aud noblest in England, stabbed his
dragons in her churches and cathedrals,
and filed the Parliament at Westmin-
lister Hall with a set Of ignorant and
canting jewellers. NIarat preached fra
ternity when the heads of hundreds of
innocent women we're falling beneath
the suilotinc, and little children were
being shot and drowned en- masse in the
name of liberty. II resistance 70 the
course which the Federal Congress is
and has been pursuing be not the privi-
lcgc-nay, the duty OF the pcoplc-thcu
the teachings ofall history are wholly
false, and tho principles for which our
fathers fought were but so much clap
trap. they became but perjurcd
traitors by taking up arms against the
successor of the Plantagcncts and
Tudors, if Americans arc to be accounted
culpable should they refuse to day
futhcr submission to the DEGREES of the
sham Congress which now claims to be
the real aud legal representative of the
people of the United States. The South
is helpless. Maryland stands alone, aud
OH tho verge Of deadly peril, as did the
prophet upon the edge Of the pit of
ravening lions. But tie Democratic
party still exists. The majority Of the
Northern people cannot but dcplore the
ruin which is being wrought, and despiSe
the agitators who recognize now no law
but their own will and their own
interests. The timid subscrviency. or
to speak it plainly in this great crisis,
the cowardice of the Democratic leaders
of the large Northern States has made
the Radical faction what is. For years
they covered before military insolcncc
and the threats Of arbitrary power. They
not only maintained silence when it most
became them TO speak out maufuily, but
uttered from time to time thoughts
which the. loathed and accepted doc.
rincs WHICH they dcspised. Since the
rcd cloud Of war has passed away they
have ceased to speak with batcd breath,
aud now utter defiant words but, mis-
trusting the honest instincts and noble
courage of millions who await the sig
nal to vindicate liberty and constitu-
tional government, they a,e dallying
with schemes by which to cheat bold,
insolcnt faction out Of its power, or
seeking the channel through which it
may be most "cxpedient" to filch back
the rights ana freedom which have been
taken from us. How long the true pa.
'riots Of the North propose to bear the
yoke of an nnframmelled and dcspotic
Congress, we cannot know. How long
they Intend to consent to surrender OF
all they were taught to hold so dear and
priceless, we may not surmiso But in