Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1872-08-28

III Juliet purposes, ldppfoFtu ny uIaut hplll
20, 1871 and passed at his personal instance
and importantly, after Congress had declared
that no more political legislation was needed
for the country. and was about to adjourn. 1t
gives the President power to treat any politi-
cal scufle between two or more persons in a
township or county as an offence against the
United States; to pronounce what is an unlaw
full political combination against their authorl-
ty; to declare counties, districts, and States to
be in rebellion; to suspend the writ of
habeaS corpus in such instances without appli-
cation to Congress; and to break, sword in
hand, into State upon his l1se DIRT; that the
State does not or cannot protect itself against
domestic violence or maintain peace within her
borders. Yet there is provision ia the Con-
stitutlou that such step shall never be taken
but on application Of the State by its Legisla
ture or Exccutlve-a provision which Mr.. JUS
tice Story valnly supposed takes away every
pretext for intermeddling with the domestic
concerns of any State under color of protecting
it from domestic violence. A vast body Of
criminal aud civil jurisdiction is vested exclu-
sively in the Fedora! courts under this law.
BY its authority Fe' ,ral marshals, supported
~ the Federal sodiery, ride the county armed
with blank warrants, and arrest whom they
will; terror drives the people from their homes,
and even from their States; numbers are hur-
red to distant jails, their families unprovided
for, and their crops exposed; partisan judges
and plant jurleS convict without scruple, some
times Oh the false plea of guilty wrung from
bel pless fear; and numbers now Droan in north
sive sentences, beyond the aid or sympathy Of
friends.
We desire that our canvassers will take these
laws along with them, and read and explain
them TO the people. They carry their own
commentary with them. No better documents
are needed or can be had. To those We es-
pecially appeal who revere the tlme-hOnOred
doctrines of the rights of the States. There
may come a time-God send it-When we
will cease to speak with bated breath of the
"powers of local self. government," and In the
language of freemen assert the sovereign right
Of the States. There is a natural reaction of
popular opinion from violent extremes. Only
a few months ella psed between the time when
the people Of England were receiving in savish
submission from Parliament, from the bench,
from the pulpit, the doctrine Of passive ODE
dience and non-resistance' to The power Of the
Kings and the time when her constitution was
placed by the revolution as the hrm basis of
temperate and regulated freedom, where 1t has
rested ever since. Compare the depression Of
spirit with which our own people permitted
negro convention to frame for them scheme
of political ensavcment and the grand reaction
of 1869, by which they threw it off This
State rights doctrine is true and whatever
else may perish, truth Is indeStructible. Though
sown now in dlshoucr, let Us live in the faith OF
it, joyful resurrection.
Some good people disquiet their souls be
cause ut certain Incorporate expressions said
to have been used by Mr. Greeley about the
South in the heat of sectional controversy, and
repel with distrust the alliance Of himsef and
his friends who have abandoned the victorious
and triumphant Radical party and cast in their
lot with our party-the opposition. But ought
the bitter words of MIR. Greeley to weigh in
the scale of judgment against the positive acts
of his rival-his established acts of veDallty,
corruption, and oppression The declaration
| avcwcd BY the Liberals at Cincinnati, and at
frmed by the Democracyat Baltimore, contains
all that heart can desire for the country. May
we not trust men who stake their political for
tunes upon redeening their pledges? Have
they abandoned one party and joined another
merely to continue the same course OF policy,
or, with thorough change OF men aud the
Junction OF party superior IN numbers and
power, must they not come necessarily into
change of system We hail with satisfaction
single converts to our side why not welcome
them when they come to Us by troops and bat,
taIions? Shall there be no turning and bring
ing forth works meet for repentance save
in the domain of religion, or are charity
and mutual forgiveness of injuries to be
tolerated no where else ? But say tina, these
men are as selfish, designing, and false
as suspicion can paint them. Can we do with
out their aid ? 1t is more than dozen years
since the Democracy controlled the ballot in
presidential election In all these weary years
they have sought to overcome the Radical party
By direct assault, yet each year has seen them
more firmly entrenched in power. we eau
Conquer by dividing does not the lowest pru-o
dence teach that we should avail ourselves OF
their dissensions? The greatest good is not Of
ten attainable at once gradua ly the way, may.
be clared for building up anew the edltce OF
peace, prosperity, order, and law. But we teel
that such dstruSt is aftrontiug to them and un-
worthy of ourselves The conviction is common
to both that the States must be restored to
equality 10 the Union, and that it is corrupt
and wicked Government which still excludes
those of the South and still labors to fan the
expiring fames OF war seven years after war
has ceased; that the prosecutions and military
drd0o0nut{.s of Grant in the South disgrace
civilized age: that the civil service should be
purified and reformed and that President
running the Government as a personal job, quar-
tering his connections to the remotest degree on
the puplic treasury, and getting rich in Office by
traffic in its patronage, is spectacle no longer
to be endured; that the President of the United
State should hold Office for the single term OF
four years. prescribed in the Constitution,
whereby his aspirations will be directed to the
public good rather than his own continuance in
Office: that the supremacy of the civil over the
military authority and the freedom Of persons
under the writ of hobeas CO, ons shout ID be re-
asserted and firmly established; that the
States should be restored to the exclusive CO.
joyment Of the revenues derived from
internal taxation, so necessary to support the
credit of the largelyindebted States and
the Federal Government be RENTED tor
support to its revenues derived from duties
on imports, in harmony with the usage OF both
Governments from the beginning and that wal
taxes in time of peace shonId cease-levled to
pay the principal ola debt not yet due, and
which this generation never under took to pay