The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1874-01-01

q q CAlAAGs ans 10 nv AAAhOA AoW IN
you must vindicato if you desire TO prov
Mr.. Seward a statesman.
He did not propose to substitute anoth
err rule of conduct, derived from highe
authority, in Place of the system establish
ed by our fathers. til not the will o
God as revealed in his word hat was Il
be obeyed. The higher law. as ~expoundeC
by his school, is theoretically and praetic
ally above all law, human or divine. l
looks down upon the decalogue with a
much contempt as il does upon the habeal
corpus act. 1t has no more respect FOL
Moses than for Washington. Those whC
received it earliest and worked hardest t.
propagate it were notorious for their ri
bald abuse Of Christianity. When they
met periodically at birmingham and else.
where to proclaim the higher law, theil
invectives against the Constitution were
accompanied by blasphemies against Goo
too shocking to be repeated. They had
men among them who protested TO be
christian preachers. How Uany were
wolves in sleeps clothing and how many
sheep in wolves clothing | know not, but
the leading one said that their object was
to be accomplished by the ruin of the
American Church as well as the destruc-
ton ofthe Federal Government. The doc
trine was also supported by christian
statesmen, bat you know, Of course, that
recent evidence proves their religion to
have been a mere disguise. In fact, the
higher law, in its whole character. is SC
directly in conflict with every precept Of
the Bible that no man who has the least
respect for one can possibly believe in or
practice the other.
This higher law, scouting the law OF
God aud man, what Is IT'D II Is simply
not law ut ali, but license to use political
power in any way that will promote the
interests or CRAFTY the passions of him
who wields it. 1t tells those who admin
ister the kgovernment that they may do
whichever they can do. 1t abolishes all
law aud puts in its place the mere force
which law was made 70 control.
Jura negat sihi nata; nihiI non arr OEat Armis.
How thoroughly it disregards the yight
Of men and how exclusively it respects
the might Of men is seen in the whole
history Of its administration by Mr.. Sew
ard himself. His first enunciation Of it
was connected with his movement against
the South. That part of tue Union, be-
ing encountered by its negroes and afraid
of them, was TOO weak to defend its con-
s%titutional rights, and might, therefore,
become the prey Of the spoiler. he new
err once kidnapped q citizen until he had
The organized physical force of the nation
at his back. His victims were powerless
men and women, who had no defence but
their innocence. HIS great diplomatic
achievements which you vaunt 50 loudly
illustrates the rule clearly. Mason and
Slidell were captured from a British vessel
in plain violation Of public law. But il
there was a law higher than the Constitu-
ton and higher than all laws of God and
man, it must also be higher than the law
Of nations. Why should not the higher
law ''have free course to run and be glori-
fed" on sea as well as on land? The
President could not see his way through
these logical difficulties, and the Cabinet
was all IN a muddle. Nj. Blair denounced
the conduct of Wilkes as an indefensible
outrage, which would be sure to make
trouble, while Mr.. Seward was as much
delegated as if one of his deputy kidnap-
pers had broken the head of an honest
Judge or dragged an Independent editor to
prison. But he remained in this frame Of
mind only as long as he supposed that
England could not or would not resent the
injury. he understood his own code well
enough to know that it did not apply to a
case IN which the right wa defenced by 8
force strong enough to repsl the wrong.
When, therefore, England armed herself
and uttered her stern demand for immedi-
ate reparation his whole tone was changed.
He not only backed squarely down. but
he signalized the humiliation of the high
er law by long -winded and supurfpous
praises Of legal JusticseTio, q i,ii.u
L r,,.I-moutn nOnor, breath, ,a5I s1l
Which the poor heart would fein deny ent dare
-. g.9f1 rairltuQsu q 1sdfo cas
This feature Of higher law was, kept in
mind by the Administration afterwards
When the publishers of the Chicago Times
showed their pluck by resisting q tyIan-I
meal order, and the people PUSHES to their
rescue, the decree was revoked. The high
err law invades only the rights Of the weak.
and the defenceless.
Called by other names the higher law
was pracsiced often before it was intro
duced here. Amprath securing his
throne by killing all his brothers and
uncles; Herod slaughtering the %innocents;
Nero prosecuting the Christians; Nine. de
Pompadour filling the Bastille with VIC
Tins Of her petty spite, Lola Montez set
ting her dogs on the students at Munich
for doubling the political wisdom Of the
Kings misfress-an these acted upon the
same kind Of law that Mr.. Seward de-
clared to be higher than the American
Constitution. 1t reduces free govern
ment to a personal despotism- The citi-
zen who voluntarily submits to 1t is 3
slave in his soul M llsga I'm u
It will not do to. say that the higher
law was, set up merely to meet the ext
r. cd ho1 ht,k n fapnHO-
rary- reign. That Mr.. Seward stabbed,
the Constitution in the back only after
secession had struck It q blow in the face,
would net be a valid excuse If it were
true, nor 3 true one if It were valid. In
point Of fact the higher law was pro-
claimed, urged, and advocated by him
and by others as early as 1850, a. q time
of profound peace, and without reference
to waIs, or rumor OF wars. Its worst
acts were done before the war, after the
war, aud at places where war never ex-
listed. In 1867 two years after the peace,
it embodied itself in the reconstruction
laws" which did not leave one single pro-
vision of the Constitution unviolated. At
the present moment 1t Is adhered to with
as much tenacity as ever. Do you know
any member of the dominant party who
ablures it, or processes to have been con-
verted TO the doctrine OF legal obedience?
Have o the least reason TO doubt that
the abolitionists would tomorrow unite
in a compact body to trample down the
p~lainest constitutional rights of their OPP
ponents, North or South. if that wers
necessary TO win supreme power, to re-
tain possession of it, or to quell q danger
GUS opposition? They may act within
the forms Of law for their own convs-
niencs and safety; but where law that can
be overborne stands in their way. what
is there to believe that they will
it2 Let me tell you a fact. In
1865, months alter the peace, at the POI
litieal metropolis of the nation, in full
sight : of the Executive Mansion; the
Capitol, and the City Hall where the
courts were in session, a perfectly inno-
cent and NEST respectable woman was
lawlessly dragged away from her family
and brutally put to death, without judge
or iuryy upon the mers order of certain
military officers convoked fer the purpose.
1t was, takeLit for all in all, as foul q
as ever blackened the tace of
Gods sky. But it was done In strict ae-
coEdanee with highsr1aW and the law
Department. of the United States approved
it. Nov marx you:aS Within less than