The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1876-10-14

that day through which their private judg
ment could be expressed else you woult
no doubt have cases directly in point t,
justify your forcible suppression of twc
hundred and fifty newspapers.
Enmity to the right Of private judg
ment comes down to the party of Plymouth
ideas by consistent and regular succession
1t is woven like a dirty stripe into thu
whole warp and woof Of their history. Al
soon as they got possession Of the fedora
government under John Adams they begar
To use it rs an engine for the suppression
of free thought Their alien law gave the
President power to Danish or imprison
without trial, any foreigner whose opin
ions might be obnoxious to his supporters
Their sedition law put every democratic
speaker and writer under the heel of the
administration. Their standing army wa:
used, as it now is, to crush out their po.
political opponents. If you come into
Eastern Pennsylvania, aud particularly
into the good county of Berks, you will
learn that the people there still think with
indignation Of that old reign ofterror when
federal dragons kidnapped, insulted and
beat their fathers, chopped down their
/" liberty poles" broke to pieces the press
of the Reading Eagle, and whipped its
venerated editor in the market house. The
same spirit broke out again in the burning
Of nunneries and churches under Maria
Monk, and under John Brown the whole
country swarmed with spies and kidnap-
pers. When you abandoned the harlot
and rallied to the standard of the thief,
yon changed your leader without chang
ing your principles.
The slave code planted in Massachu-
sets was the earliest in America and the
most cruel in all its provisions. 1t was
pertinaciously adhered to for generations,
and never repented Of or formally repealed.
1t was gradually abandoned, not because
it was wrong, but solely because it was
found, after long experiment, to be un-
profitable. Their plan of keeping twenty
negroes as cheaply as one white servant
did not work well, for in that climate a
negro thus used would infalliby die before
his labor paid what he cost. They sold their
stock whenever they could, but emancipa-
ton was forbidden by law, unless the
owner gave security to maintain the slave
and prevent him from becoming public
charge. To evade this law those who had
old or infrm negroes encouraged them to
bring suits for their freedom, and then by
sham demurrers, or other collusive arrange
ments, got judgments against themselves
that the negroes were free, and always had
been. Females likely to increase the stock
were advertised to be sold for that fault
alone" Young ones, because they were
not worth raising, were given away like
puppies of superabundant litter. In
this way domestic slavery by degrees got
loose in practice, simply because it would
not pay; but the principle on which one
man may own another whom he subdues
by superior strength or cunning was never
abandoned, repudiated or denied. That
principle was cherished, preserved and
transmitted to you, their initiative and
loving disciples, and you have applied it
wherever you could as tyraunically as they
did.
You say that "war without an idea is
simple brutality" Isubmit to your judg-
ment as christian man whether war is
redeemed of its brutality by such ideas as
you and your political associates entertain
Of its purposes, objects and consequences.
In all your acts and measures, and by all
your speeches and discussions, you express
the idea that the logic Of blows proves
everything you choose to assert that a
successful invasion Of one people by another
has the effect of destroying oil natural
right to and oil legal guarantees for the
life, liberty and property of the people so
invaded and conquered; that after trial
by battle the victor may enter up and ex-
ecute what judgment he pleases against
his adversary; that the crimes which
weak community are guilty of when they
attempt to defend their lives, their pro.
perty and their families against invaders
who come upon them to kill, destroy and
subjugate them, is so unpardonable that
the whole body Of the offenders taken col
lectively, and all individuals who partake
even passively of the sin, may Justly be
devoted to death or such other punish
ment, by wholesale or retail, as the strong
power shall see proper to infict; that the
conqueror, after the war is over, may in
sist that the helpless and unarmed people,
whom he has prostrated, shall assist him
by not merely accepting but adopting"
Il use your own word) the measures in.
tended to degrade and rob them, and thus
make himself master of their souls as we'll
as their bodies. All rights of men are
resolved by this theory into the mights of
men.
l aver that this doctrine, in all its length
and breadth, is false and pernicious 1t is
the foundation on which slavery rests,
and the excuse for all forms of tyranny.
1t has no support in any sound rule Of
public law, and has never been acknowl-
edged by wise or virtuous governments
in any age since the advent of Christ.
You can find no authority for it, except
in the examples Of men whose names are
given over to universal execration. Ma
homet asserted it when he forced his reli-
gion upon the subjugated East, when
churches were violently converted into
mosques, and the emblem of christianity
trampled under foot to be replaced by the
badge Of the imposter On the same
principle Poland was partitioned and Ire
land plundered dozen times. The King
Of Dahomey acted upon it when he sold
his captives, and the men of Massachu-
sets endorsed it when they took them in
exchange for captives of their own. You
and your confreres adopted it as a part Of
your political creed, when, after the south
ern people were thoroughly subdued, you
denied them all the rights of freemen,
tore up their society, abrogated all laws
which could protect them in person or
property, broke their local governments in
pieces, aud put them under the domina.
ton Of notorious thieves whom you forced
them to accept as their absolute masters.
These results of the war are no doubt
very precious. The right to traffic in the
Qoah &c T.I,ona III ..n...ora 49,.