The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1870-07-28


" appeared an article of yours entitled Edwin
NJ. Stanton" 1t contains some statements whirl
are very wonderful, iftruc and if false they ought
to be corrected. ! ask you to review This produc.
ton in the light Of certain facts which shall now
take the liberty to mention.
My principal object is to satisfy You that YOU
have wholly misunderstood the character of Mr..
stanton, and grossly in nlured him by what YOU sun.
pose to be panegyrc. But before I begin that
su1er me to correct some of your errors about
other persons.
| In your yituperatiye description of the Buchanan
administration. you alleged that 1.-The President
and his Attorney-General surrendered the Govern.
ments right of >elfpreservation' and pronounced
against its powers to cOerce seeding State" You
/ refer manifesty to the opinion of the Attorney.
/ General dated the Goth of November 1860. detin-
ing the duties and powers of the President and to
the public acts of the President which show that he
took the advice of the Law Department and square,
his conduct accordingly. Upon this ground mair-
ly, if not entirely, you denounce the administration
as not only weak and unpariotic, hut wilfully
wicked and treasonable. | propose to show that
you have committed a cardinal error, if not some
| thing worse. The coarse Wav in when you charge
| the dead as well As the living with the highest
crimes would justify Il reply in language much
palmer than intend to use
\ our modes of thinking and speaking on subjects
OF this kind are so loose and inaccurate, that is
necessary to furnish You Will Hn idea Of certain
elementary principles which to most other men are
/ too familiar TO talk about.
|. The GOrernntfHt Of the United STATES is the
| ConStitutiOn and Itt7rS.
,. The preSeFtati0n Of the government consists
in mdint0iniH9 the supremacy of the Constitution
and laws
5. For this purpose certain coeFcire powers are
delegated to the Executive, VIII ch he may use to
defend the laws when they are resisted.
4. But i'll this country, rs i'll every other, except
where the government is an absolute deSpoti>m
the authority of the Chief Magistrate is imited and
his hands are tied up by legal restrictions, to pre-
vent him from using phy sical force against the life,
liberty and property of his felow-eitizens, unless
in certain prescribed ways and on proper occasions.
| .. lie Is bound by his inaugural oath to keep
within those limits if he br@0hS the laws, he 3iS-
trays the governments he cannot stab the Consti-
tuition in the back because he i afraid that some
body else will strike it III the face.
6. The government Of the United States, within
its proper sphere is a SGrefeifR, ;~ much a> the
States are sovereign within their sphere. 1t acts
| tnnediofFiy upon the people and claims their d.
rect obedience to its laws. As State cannot make
war upon city, county. or town, and put III lis
inhabitants to the sword because some of them
have acted or threatened to act Illegally, so the
General Government Is also restrained from eNter-
minating the whole population of State for the
offences. actual or intended, of some who live
among them
| :. The so-caed ordinances of secession in 1850
and dl were the declaration Of certain persons who
made them that they tatcnde1 10 dis0bpy the laws
of the United States. 1t was the duty of Congress
and the President to see that forebe resistance to
the laws. when actually made, should be met by a
countertorce sufficient to put it down but neither
Congress nor the President had authority to declare
war and begin hoStilitleS. by anticipation. against
all the people At once, aud pat them all in the atti
tutie of public enemies without regard to their per-
sOnal guilt or innocence.
The opinion of the Attorney General. which you
have garbled, and the messages of President Rti-
chanan, assert these principles in plain English
words. We held that the whole coerciye power of
the nited State, delegated by the Constitution to
every branch of HE government, judicial, legsla-
tive and executive, including its military ami naval
force, might. and ought, in the appointed way, 10
hC used 10 maintain the supremacy ul the laws
against ALI nppostt-, to hold on retake the puhlir
property, and tn collect the revenue. Bat we as
serted, ALSO that powers not given ought not 10 be
uSurpea. and that war upon a state, in III, then
circumstances OF the country, would be- not only
| uSurpati0n, but destruction of the Union.
"f'"ur"' y'"'i ""nn" DO .'" ""r""t "f tho fun" IL.
| mental law, :4 not 10 know that exposition of
it perfectly sound and correct. \ on never
| prctcndcI-nO man with ScnSe enough TO know
his right hand from his left ever viii pretcnl-that
the President tad constitutional ol legal authority
to make aggressive war against the States bV
his own act, nor had Congress any such power.
But yon think | ought not 70 have answered the
Presidents question truly AMI that he ought not
to have been influenced by constitutional scruples.
That il the rub. There is no liSputr-npVcr was
and never can he-;th0ut the law; bat Mr.. Buchan-
ans wlckedness and treason consisted in obeying
it when vou think he ought to have broken it. For
this cause You Try to excite against his memory
those bad party passions by which he was bounded
and prosecuted during all the last wears of his life.
| will make no effort to convince you that Mr..
buchanan WAS right in standing by the ConSitl-
ton which he had sworn to preserve to protect
and defend. That | know would he altogether
hopeless. The declared a,lmirer of John Brown,
the political ally of Jim Lane the partlzan of Baker.
the advocate of general kidnapping and special
murder by military commissions. the open sup
porter of measures which abolish the right OF trial
by Jury and build UP m Asiair de>potism on the
ruins of free goNernment-surh man would en-
! trev misunderstood the reason. simple as it is
upon which put the Justification of dead Presi-
dent ior refusing to pcriurc himself But, if can
not jHstJy, perhaps can crcuse him. will o1el
some apologies which may possibly dSarm yonl
censurc, or at least mitigate the severity OF youl
| righteous Indignation.
| In the first place, then. Mr.. Buchanan wa, born
of Christian parent, and educated in Christian
community. All his lifetime. and at the moment
of his death. he felt that fear of God which a re-
spectacle authority has declared to be. not weak
ness, but the ''hcgnnng of wisdom and the on y
,luced into the church by the political preachers OF
New England never reached HIM lie Was simply
Il Christian man and Il firm believer in the morality
taught by the New Testament. Now, you know
Cat all events you must have hearoD that persons
who adhere to that kind of religion always contract
Il habit of regarding tie violation OF an oath With
| neXpressible horror, whether it he committed by
an officer or witness; whether the object of 1T h,
to destroy the character of political opponent, tt
promote the interests of a party. or 10 enSlWe
State. MI kinds of false swearing alike I,
them. They Stu,hornly reject the reasoning Whicl
seeks to nce the that observance Of oaths bs
magistrates and legislators i~i mere question o
cXpediency and selt-ntcrcsl, varying with cirrum
stances Mr.. Buchanan being man Of this class,
| submit the question whether his prejudices agains
perjury unreasonable rs you may think them) art
| not entitled to some little respect.
| Apart from the religious obligation of his oath
he loved the Constitution Of his country ON its own
/ account rs the best government the world even
saw. | do not expect you TO >ympathize with this
feeling; your affections are otherwise engaged
| But can you not make some allowance for his at
tachment to that great compact which was frame,
Il,Iy.n hon tl xtIpa