Year: 1863




by the Constitution upon American citi-
zens (Great applause. Can you
safely US these thingsH Are you not
trampling upon our own rights if you
refuse to listen to appeals. Isit not revo'
luton which you are thus creating when
you say that our persons may be right
fully seized, OUT property conascated, our
homes entered? Are you not exposing
yourselves, your own interests to as great
q peril as that with which you threaten
as? Remember this, that the bloody,
reasonable, and revolutionary doctrine
of "public necessity" can be proclaimed
by mob as we'll as by government
(Applause.). Remember oil the teach.
ings of history; and we implore you,
with regard to your own interests, to
stop and inquire if you are not doing
yourselves and your own families, and
all that you hold dear to you, an infinite
wrong wien you sustain propositions that
tear away from them, as well as from US,
all the barriers and projections which the
constitutions of your country has thrown
around public liberty. (Groat applause.


Can you tell when ambition, love of plum.
der, or thirst for power will induce bad
and dangerous men to proclaim this
very principle Of military necessity, pub.
lie necessity, as a reason why they should
trample beneath their feet all the laws Of
our land, and the institutions Of our
country. l ask you again to think if
measures like these give power, dignity
and strength to our government? ask
you, on the other hand, if those govern
ments have not lived out the longest Pc
riodS, who, in times Of public danger,


instead of shrinking from the principles
Of liberty and the barriers of order, have
raised aloft these great principles, and


battled under them, and thus given
strength to the hearts Of the people, and


gaind the respect Of the world. Gap


plause. l ask you lift is not an evidence


of weakness, defeat and discontinue,


when, in the presence Of armed rebellion


the administration is compelled to say


that the very charter by which it holds


its power has ceased to have virtue


that can protect citizen in his rights.-


Suppose we accept this doctrine, what


will be the consequences to this govern
ment? To-day the great conservative


party who still battle for time. .honored


principles-for chartered rights, amid


denunciation and contumely and abuse


is the only barrier that stands between


this government and its own destruction.


If we accept tomorrow their teachings


If we tomorrow should acquiesce in


the doctrine that in times Of war con-


stitutions are suspended and laws have
lost their force, then we should accep'
the doctrine that the very right by which
this government administers its power
has lost its virtue, and that it is brough
down to the level of rebellion itself, living
and existing only by virtue of materia
' power. Would not the vital blow b'


struck at liberty if we should accept thi
doctrine, and what would be the conss
quence? When men accept despotism
they may have choice as to who thu
deSpot will be. The struggle, then. viii
not be, shall we have constitutional lib
erty? But, having yielded to the doc
trine that the constitution has lost it


force, every notice of personal ambition
every instinct of personal security, woulC


lead men to put themselves under tn,
protection of that power which they sup
posed most competent to protect thei
, persons. And then this administrator
! would find that in putting military rul
ers over US they had made military mas
, terS for themselves; for all history teach
: es us that that general who will betra!
the liberties Of the people for the pur
pose of gaining the favor of power, will
when opportunity occurs, seize powe
itself.