The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1871-05-10
Liberty or Despotism.

In the passing of the personal gov
eminent, or force bill, the Iadictl ad-
minis.ration has made a political issue
which the country must accept. The
Democratic members of Congress, aid
ell by a few sagacious Republicans,
have urged their demurrer with vigor,
ability and sincerity. They have
spared no effort to prevent this new
step in the radical progress toward
monarchy. They have done all that
an able and earnest minority could do
to defend constitutional government
against the assaults of desperate and
INSCRIPTIONS party, inspires. by the
lust Of power, and led on by traitors
to constitutional liberty. Their de-
murrer has been overruled. The de-
cision of the radical party has been
made, that the sword shall supersede
the law. There is nothing left for the
advocates and defenders of law against
the arbitrary power of the sword, but
to join issue and trust to the decision
of the country.
"Popular governments" says a dis
satisfied Republican journal, "cannot
be maintained by the sword" 1t is
simply the re-assertion Of a fact which
all history establishes, and which ev
cry member and every adherent of the
Washington administration perfectly
understands. Whoever says that the
object of the force bill is to maintain
popular government, declares a 9. If
evident fallacy, Popular government
is impossible where the assent of the
governed to the laws is wanting. 1t
is essentially the government of laws
made by the people, or by their repre-
sertatives. The force bill assume to
supercede this government CT law by
the government of the sword. 1t sub
stitutes for the will of the people the
will of the commander in chief. 1t
~supercedes the civil statutes by mill
tary orders. 1t puts in the place of
courts of justice the tribunals of a
military commander 1t suspends the
great writ of liberty, and subjects per-
sonal freedom to the despotic law of
war. 1t erects a personal military
government in the st, at of the consti-
tutional government of the people
And in a time of peace it quarters
upon the people an army OF soldiers.
to strike down their civil rights and
devour their substance.
No pretence of public disorder-not
even a state of actual war--could
furnish a warrant Tor an act so despot-
ic; so %repugnant to every principle OF
constitutional popular government
1t is not even pretended that a state
of war exists. An ,issolated riot, a
case OF murder, the execution of some
obnoxious person by mob violence
such cases of Lynch law" as have
not been of infrequent occurrence, In
Illinois.-are made. the pretext OF in
a~ngurating in the United States this
revolutionary government of a mill
tary dictator. In one of the central
counties of Illinois, not long since, a
sherif's officer was assassinated by a
supposed horse thief. A mob OF peo-
pie collected, seized one of the sup
posed gang OF law breakers, and hang
ed him by the neck until dead. = SINH
lar outrage vas perpetrated by an in
furiated mob of political fenatics in
Ogle county Another, of like char
acter, in Adams county. Still an
other in Fulton county. All these,
and perhaps others, occurred within
the space of five years. in the loyal
State of Illinois. The facts in the
case of any southern state will not
show an equal number of equally great
outrages sgainst the civil law in an
equal number of years.
The facts in the case of Illinois
present a sufficient excuse for the
in chief, under the person
al government act, to send a military
force into Illinois to %supercede the
government of the state and to
set up the personal government of a
military commander; to set aside the
civil law, and declare martial law ; to
suspend the writ of Au6eas corpus and
to liberty Of every citizen to
the will Of the military dictator. For
the perpetrators of those outrages
have poi been punished by the state
authorities. Under the personal COY.
srnment act, the dictator may decide,
With or without reason, that they were
he work of armed combinations with
which the state authorities are unable
. deal. There is every reason for
iuc4a an assumption in The case OF Hill