Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1903-05-13
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Written for The Courier by So

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In last weeks paper the writer alluded
to the arbitrary arrest sentence and es-
cape of prominent citizen of Ohio in
1868. BY the law of association this has
brought to remembrance many other
occurrences of n like distressing nature
that took place in the North and Weso
during our late civil war. After the
bombardment of Fort Sumter on the
18th of April, 1861, followed by Mr..
Lincoln's proclamation, calling out the
MALTA of the several States to the num-
Der. of 1900 men, the war spirit swept
over the country like wild fire. The pub
lie buildings were decorated everywhere
with the Stars and Stripes, and almost all
private dwellings displayed miniature
flags proclaiming to all passers- the
loyalty of their occupants. The word
loyalty at that time was given new
meaning. In monarchical countries it
meant fealty to the reigning sovereign.
In the United States it had meant fealty
to the government, which had always be-
fore, except during the term of the elder
Adams, allowed the widest freedom of
speech and of the press. Now, for the
first time after the deposition of the old
Federal party, the word was made to
mean unqualified approval of all the
measures of the President, and his adj
ministration was called the government
Criticism of the Chief Magistrate by the
of disloyalty. In Madison's time, when
the second war with England-the war
of 1S12-took place, the Chief Magistrate
and his war measures were criticised
most numerically, especially in New
England. In Hartford, Conn.,, on De-
cember 10th, 1914, the opponents of
Madison's administration, with delegates
from each of the six New England States,
met in solemn convention and pro-
claimed to the world their unqualified
opposition to the war. But they were
not molested, or hunted down or ar
ton was Democratic. 1t believed in
free speech free press, and all the rights
guaranteed in Magma Charta. Why,
when crazy George III was trying to sub
due our forefathers in the war of the
Revoi@ 1cp, William Pitt used all his
mighty pS%S,S of eloquence in the British
Parliament against the measures of the
King, and his popularity and power arose
in proportion as his tongue was eloquent
in defence of American freedom and in
condemnation of the Kings mad attempt
to crush it, During the Mexican war,
which began in 1916, when James X. Polk
was President, the opponents of the
administration were exceedingly bitter
in their denunciation of the war, and
Mr.. Corwin, a Whig Senator from Ohio,
declared on the floor of the United
States Senate that "if he were Mexican
soldiers with bloody hands to hospitable
graves" But he was not molested, nor
did he lose standing in his party. He
was given a Cabinet position in 1850
under President Fillmore. His savage
expression, which was denounced by
Democrats, came back upon him after
wards, on one occasion, to his confusion.
tAt Antioch College, located at Yellow
'prings, Greene county, Ohio, a court
trial occurred, and Mr.. Corwin was en-
ployod by the faculty to manage their
case against some rebellious students.
A Democratic student was called to the
witness stand. After some preliminary
4 questions and answers, Mr.. Corwin adj
dressed the student about in these words:
''Mr. D.. suppose that, instead of being
studep at college as you have been
here, you occupied professors chair,
and some of your pupils should treat
you as you and others have treated this
college faculty, what would you do in
such case9' The student, with mock
gravity, instantly replied: "Why, Mr..
!, Corwn, / would welcome them with
bloody hands to hospitable gravesp
That was "a sockdolager." What fol-
lowed in the trial the writer was not
told. The anecdote was related as an
illustration of the manner in which the
user of indecent bravado may be "hoist
by his own petard."
It had been handed down from Runny.
mede in 1915, that "a mans house was
his CASTLE" William Pitt declared about
the time of tho Revolutionary war that
"the poorest man in his cottage may bid
def 70 to all the power of the crown.
The ttagv nay. be frail. It's roof may
shake. The ttasamay blow through it.
The storm ma : ~ But the King of
dares not cross the threshold of that
ruined tenement.'' Old England with
her monarchy allowed more protection
to private citizens than free America
under the elder Adams and Abraham
Lincoln. Under the 1lien and Sedition
laos of the former, many freemen were
driven ut of the country, and many
more, accused of sedition on account of
their free speech and free press utter
ances in criticism of the President, were
arrested, fined and imprisoned as male
factors. That was under federalism DUST
before it's fall The arrest and imprison-
ment of hundreds of citizens from 1861
to 1865. so similar to those that occurred
any thoughtful student of our political
history that the Federal party, supposed
to have died at the end of the elder
Adams administration, had only gone
to sleep under stupefying potion of
such power that it lasted sixty year,,
just three times as long as Rip w |.
Wrinkles sleep, and the noise that wal a
1t was the roar of cannon firing on 6ft
SUMTER State rights were now abif Jed.
Federal powers were now enlai ed as
never before in the history of the Soun-
try. Lord Lyons, an envoy of the Gtish
~overpment at Washington during the
: lar, on one occasion in conversation
with Mr.. seward, Secretary of State, ex.
pressed some doubt as to the power of
the government to carry on war on
such gigantic scale. Mr.. Seward said:
"My lord, / can touch a bell on my right
hand and order the arrest of citizen of
Ohio. can touch q bell again and order