Year: 1861

|


| Tho destruction of the Federal Constitution has


an the most rapid and complete that has ever over


Ian politicaI structure since the world begun


H. his first proclamation the Washington President
,noiv assumed the war-making power-which is


.onS;itutionay given solely to Congress-and with


~, authority of law, called out army of seventy


Srs thousand men. In his next edict he usurped


L,5t denied BY the Constitution the usage of the


.;Intry. and the law of nations and laid whole
,sst under blockade Ifthese usurpationS of power


t,3 been made under the pressure of foreign in


r,son, and brought to bear against public enemy


=, excuse might be found in the demands of the pub


!, interests; but these violent measures are taken


,,,iust people whose liberties he is bound to pro-
,rt He proceeded much farther in this course of


onduct Of his own motion, he ordered large
increase of the army and navy for the purpose of
snnpressing what he is pleased to denounce an in
sDrrection of the people He accompanies these
measures by disarmng private citizens, and depriv
ing those whom be chooses to suspect of the con-
situtonally guaranteed right of having weapons
and firearms for their defence He follows this high
handed proceeding up by dOmiciliary visits and
searches To c1p the climax of tyranny and to
finish the work of ensavement he authorizes SUBJ
aternS to do what he cannot constitutonaly do him.
self-to suspend the habeas corpus writ


The overthrow of hd6eGs corpus is, of ITSELF the
destruction of liberty. If a citizen may be seized
BY military corporal and thrust into prison; and
if there be power in the Courts of law to inquire
into the cause Of the arrest or to release for want
of cause then there is no such thing as personal
liberty left If the arbitrary acts of military chief
tans are not to be inquired nto and the Chief JUS
tee of the United States may be treated as an old
woman then the last vestige of freedom is gone, and
the gloem of despotsm has settled upon the land.


There could be no more wretched condition of
slavery than subsection to such despotism as that
which re;gns at Washington, If it were single
monarch dictator who ruled, with arbitrary pow
er the slavery would not be utterly intolerable;
but puppet is set up, in the of Lincoln,
BY an ogarchy of fanatics, ard forced to do what
ever their mad passions and tyrannical natures may
dictate. The most savage, the most corrupt and the
most reckless party which any age o. country has
ever produced has seized the reins of power taken
possession of the military organization of the Unlon
oyerthrown the Courts trampled under foot the Con-
sttution sec at naught all the franchises and i'm
munities with which the Common Law surrounds
the citizen: and with such puppet as Lincoln in
the seat of Washington, undertakes to conquer and
subugate twelve millions Of people In the effort
to destroy the liberty of others they have over
thrown their own. Ifthe proceeding of Cadwalader
is to be sustained, then no more account need be
taken of the Constitution of the laws of the courts
or Of the rig hts of citizens. There is no law but
the arbitrary will of the Chief of the Government
or of the ogarchy of which he is the tool. There
is no necessity for Congress to make laws which
are not regarded, and which the courts are not al
lowed to administer There is no necessity for any
of the great departments Of Government, save the
Executive head. The statute books and the liberty
charters may as well be thrown into the fire for
henceforth the only oracleS that men need consult
for the regulation of their conduct to be found
in the columns of such journals as the Iribune-
Selfgovernment is to be taken from the people, and
their liberties turned over to the tender keeping of
the men who invoke armies into the field, uphold
them in acts of outrage at home, and set them to
subjugating and conquering neghbourng States
They have no more right to subjugate at distance
than to subjugate at home and they have commenc-
ed the work at home by overthrowing the writ in
tended to protect all the personal rights of the cti
zen.


Without habeGs corpus the citizen is less secure
in his franchises in America than in Europe inf
nitely less secure in Maryland than in England
Without hdbsGs corpus it were better to be subject
in Austria than citizen in the North for there they
have hereditary monarch, responsible to his own
fame lineage and interests for his acts whereas at
the North they have an elected vugarian, managed
and controlled by vicious, corrupt and filthy oil
garchy of politicians and plunderers.


When we reflect that the whole professed object
for which they are waging this war, is to uphold
and enforce the authority of government, and that
the government which they are seeking 70 maintain
at such COST is the vu and unscrupuous despot-
Ism which Lincoln and his managers has made that
at W ashington overcome with disgust to-
wards all concerned which it is hard to find adequate
language to express. In resisting such govern
ment the South is not only defending her own sacr-
ed rights out she is resisting the most corrupt vici
ous and dIabolical assault upon liberty and law
which the world has ever witnessed.