Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1877-09-21

The Turkish Porte has issued decree or
dering the formation Of a national militia to
increase the number Of the defenders of the
faith" by compelling all bodied Mussul-
mans to enter the service. The Sultan Or
ders the formation into an active militia of
the present reserve, and all who have either
been in active service, or who, though liable
to service, have never been called out. The
national militia is to include all those who
have exempted themselves by payment from
active service all those who have not yet
been drawn in the conscription; youths be-
tween the ages of fifteen and twenty, who
have not been hitherto liable to conscription;
and finally, men over the age Of forty. The
last two classes will, for the present, be al
lowed to remain at their homes, but will be
armed and equipped in order that, as the
proclamation phrases it, "the enemy enter
ing upon Turkish soil will no longer find the
population unarmed and defenceless, and
easily crushed, but will, on all sides, have to :
encounter the bayonets oi the population"
The Governor of Armenia recently order
ed into the field the entire male population
between the ages of sixteen and sixty. The
still more sweeping conscription now extend
ed over the Whole Of Turkey shows that that
country has already reached the point of ex-
hauston of the South, in our own last war,
"rObbing the cradle and the grave" to re-
cruit its shattered armies. Nothing could
show better the desperate nature of the
struggle now in progress. There have been
less than five months of active campaigning,
and yet Turkey is drawing upon her ulti-
mate resources.
Mr.. HENRY C. HALL, of Csyuga, n. Y,
discusses the Presidents order, in the Al
bany Erening Journal, as follows:
The President. without law, and of his
own will and discretion, has ordered that
persons holding civil appointments Under
the Government may not also hold official
places in the primary organizations Of the
political parties to which they belong. If
this be not the full scope of his command,
it is certainly included IN that Executive
edict.
Now let us carefully inquire how this
order involves the rights and liberties of the
citizen. The people of this country, in
their constitutions and laws, have jealously
reserved to themselves certain political and
civil rights. Among those rights are the right
to vote and the right, in an orderly way, to
DIN in all the preparatory work Of parties
by which candidates for suffrage are named
and by which voters are induced to come
onward and cast their ballots on the days of
election. Both of these rights are equally
important. Under our government the
ruling power is intended to be the majority.
But no majority can be possible if every Cit
izeD should 90 to the polls and vote merely
upon his personal nomination. Previous
agreement in caucus or convention is there
fore indispensable to a government by the
majority. This creates the necessity of
parties, and this necessity creates the parties
themselves. Such parties must be organ
lied that such caucuses and conventions as
are needed may be called by authority.
Caucuses and conventions also must be
or they cannot do their work.
Party committees, presiding officers and the
whole machinery of party organization thus
become indispensably essential to a govern
nent by the majority. The right to vote
would be almost worthless without such
preceding agreement for whom and for what
to vote, so that the will of a majority could
be discovered. The right to vote is, at most,
but half the rights of the franchise. The
right to cast his ballot and the right to
DIN in the organization of parties are both
secured to every voter by law. The Cen
'titution and laws which confer these rights
Ire equally commands tn all men, the Presi-
lent included, to abstain from all interfer-
ence with the exercise of such liberties.
But the President, by his order, has forbid
len the use of one of these rights by a large
:lass of citizens. If he has the lawful
power to do this, he has the same power to
AXE away their right to vote for one is no
more sacred nor any more guarded by law
han the other. In truth, he has not even
he shadow of any power to deny to any
.itizen the free use OF all his political rights.