Year: 1864




ing this rule, / desire you next TO di-
rect your attention to the prevalence
of a certain tone of thinking and act
ing upon the relations between gov
ernment and citizen, which is any
thing but American, and which will
be fatal to liberty unless it issoon ter
minated, if it has not already destroy
ed our capacity to appreciate and de-
fend liberty as We ought. You will
readily understand to what l refer,
when remind you how common it
has been among us for now quite q
long time, to hear the rights of gov
ernment spoken of as paramount to
the rights of individuals; how great
have been the wrongs which we have
excused under the plea Of necessity"
and how completely the sacredness Cd
those constitutional guarantees which
protect the Liberties of the citizen has
faded out from the minds Of great
numbers of men. The proposition
that the government has rights para
mount to the rights of the citizen, as a
legal or as an ethical proposition, is
Just as untrue as it would be to assert
that the rights of the citizen are para
mount to those Of the government.


AS the government derives all Its
rights and all its powers from the
Constitution, which places it under
positive restrictions i'll respect to the
modes of exerting its authority over
individuals, and as the Constitution,
in all its parts and for all purposes, is
the supreme law of the land, it is inn
possible that the rights of persons
should be Justly subordinated to any
thing else. OF course, when / speak
of the rights of persons, l do not in
clude right to commit crimes, or to
endanger the public safety, or to OBJ
struct public operations, but j do in
clude the right, even when there is an
accusation or suspicion of wrong do
ing, to be dealt with III those modes
to which the government is restricted
by the fundamental law right
without which. there can be No secu-
rity for innocence, and no certain
method of preventing or furnishing
guilt.


But there has sprung up in oui
days, and amid the circumstances
which surround us, habit of think
ing on these subjects, which is one oi
the sure indications OF that weakness
which always precedes relapse into
despotism. 1t is the habit of depre-
eating the safe and ordinary meth
DDS of procedure, as if they were un-
suited to emergencies, and lacked the
vigor which We erroneously suppose
to be attendant upon arbitrary meas
ures; and to such an extent have we
carried this habit, that, in conmuni-
ties where there was no immediate
public danger of any kind, where the
ordinary machinery Of justice was in
fu | activity, the most enormous dis
regard has been manifested of the
plainest constitutional principles
Well, it needs no prophet TO foretel
that a people who allow their own
liberty to be thus dealt with, cannot
preserve it. They will lose it not So
much because a tyrant, or class OF
tyrants have arisen TO steal it away,
as because they have themselves been
untrue to it, by giving their sanction
to maxims of government utterly un-
suited TO the nature of their institu.
tions. Liberty is not fashion, it is a
principle. 1t is not an outward show
il j. an inward virtue. 1t is to peo-
plo what chastity is to woman. To
consent to live without it, for a peri
cd, with intent to resume it i'll better
or in other times is to consent to the
ruin of the moral nature. Repen-
tence and the power of the Holy
Ghost made Mary Magdalen fit foi
the society of heaven. A special in
terposition of Providence, and the pu.
rifcation of great suffering may re-
store constitutional liberty to people
who have surrendered it. But nvth-
ing else can. When once the plea oil
urgent necessity, with its insidious in
huence, has satisfied the conscince,
aud great constitutional guarantees,
founded in the experience of ages,
have been put aside, the power OF
that plea over the moral Sc SO has
been established, and its next occa-
sion will be its next triumph.


i cannot but marvel that my ceun-
trymen should not universally see how
impossible it will be to preserve con-
stitutional liberty in this country, il
these parts of our political system
which secure the rights Of States and
of citizens are made to give way to
the unchecked force OF national phys
ical power, welded by a central arm
OF authority. For one, l have never
desired to see that arm crippled i'll the
slightest degree of its legitimate pow
or; and there is no citizen Of tlis re-
public who could more deeply deplore
its severence into two OF mvIe cOnfed-
eracies. But i hold it to be the first
and highest duty OF those who are
charged with the conduct Of GU. ma
tional affairs, to prevent the destruc-
JlOll VI AotiVN liiO ia
crcise of powers which the Constitu-
ton not only does not sanction, but
which it absolutely prohibits. have
never seen a single instance Of the OK
ercise of arbitrary power, in which the
object to be attained, if rightlul, could
not have been better reached by the
Legitimate methods of the Constitu-
ton. / have never heard or read q
presentation Of tho argument of ''pe-
cessity" which did not leave al that is
most dear and valuable in our SYSTEM
exposed to present overthrow and bn-
al ruin. / have never seen an occa-
SION when the government could not
have gained infinitely greater strength
by concllintlng the feeilngs, and win
ming the corporation of men who love
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