The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1871-10-30
THE NATIONAL DANGER.

THE NATIONAL DANGER.
The high-handel tyranny that Is
being act: ed hy Federal authority
upon the people OF South Carolina
should be sufficient to open the eyes Of
the people to the danger that Is Just
before US all. There is, however, not
much hope that it will. We have been
so long accustomed to usurpatlon and
have acquiesced so long in the suprem-
acy Of the military over civil power,
that it will take severe shock indeed
to rouse US to consciousness and stir US
10 effort to regain our lost liberties.
With this idea the Washington Patriot
says: 1--WE are glad the American peo-
pie are likely to encounter 4 good
wholesome, stout usurpatlon nt author
ity. We congratulate them upon the
prospects OF coup dc'at and Deccm5rI'
aie that will put the mild tyrannie5 OF
LOUIS NAPOLEON to the blush. We
felicitate them upon the likelihood OF
soon tasting the English experiences
under CHARLES and JAMES, with KIRKE
for commander and JEFFR!Es for judge
Of knowing, by bodily encounter, what
sort of time the Rochellois had
daring the dragonaies, and how happy
the people OF Arras could be under
JOSEPH LEDoy. For. uuquestionably,
we want shaking up" Something
has narcotized us; we are stepped in
apathy and indifference, like men
drunken with mandragora, with all
the precious essence Of the spirit of lib
erty and the consciousness OF political
right is being drained out Of us There
never was truer word spoken than
the satirical remark of the Englishman
Who said we did not know how to value
the habeas corpus and other precious
safeguards OF private right, for the rea-
ron that we had not fought to obtain
them. One after another these rights
are Invaded, and we say nothing, see
nothing. feel nothing. What is the
law any more, with its principles deep
rooted and its robed and awful sanctity,
in the presence of political advantage,
popular passion, or a pecu-
mary pressure? What is the do
mestic hearth, that castle whose ira
dictionary exemption from invasion, as
il comes down to US from our English
sires, is like the unsullied name OF yir-
Unity? What is the sacred private
right OF a man in his own domicile any
longer. if partisan purpose or a sup
posed public expediency choose to in
wade it? What is personal liberty any
longer-that grand ideal, for the resti-
tuition o. which some few years back
we were supposed to have two millions
OF men in arms? Here is South Caro-
lima harried as fercely as the Assyrians
harried HEzEKIAH's Jerusalem, or as
the French swept the Palatinate, and
no man says them nay. Here are men
dragged off to prison by hundreds, no
redress, no hearing, no judge to try
them; but prison to receive them, bay
onet TO coerce them; all ready, and the
people conserving! When an assassin
shot down England's favorite premier,
and was regularly tried, convict
ed, and executed in week,
ERsKlNE protested with horror, and
BRorGuAM proclaimed that justice was
dsgraced Where are the rrotestants
now, viii Marshall JOHNSON outrases
law and idge BOND mocks at justice
in the South? Who dares seize private
property in England, even under color
oflaw2 Here, last week, in Chicago,
where certain proprietor sets a high
rent upon his premises, wanted for pri'
vate uses, and refuses to abate, General
SHERIDAN marches in a file Of men,
takes possession, installs the Board of
Trade there, and orders the man shot if
he attempts to resist or to eject them!
Who in all Chicago protests Who
seems to appreciate the fact that to toll
crate this is to live in a cam, not q city
Are not these things straws, telling
which way the wind blows? Is not
the sense OF personal liberty and private
right escaping out Of the American con-
seriousness p