Year: 1863

GOV. MOrtOn'S Proclamation.


We print this morning solemn warn
ing to the people of the State from
their Executive. Whose proclamation
contains words of truth and soberness and
it ought to attract the attention of ev-
cry thinking man The events daily oc-
crring in different parts of the State
give unmistakable indication ssthat a
dangerous and revolutionary element is
at work among the people, embittering
them against the Gov ernment, and in
citing them to acts of lawlessness, in
surrection and murder. The assassina-
tion of two agents of the Government,
while engaged in the official discharge
OF duty, in Rush county; the murder of
a gallant soldier while attempting to
carry out command, for which he was
liable to be punished by death in case he
refused or neglected to comply, in Shell
by county, are acts well calculated to
arouse the most serious apprehensions of
the law abidingss for the stability of their
institutions. These acts of lawlessness
and others are threatened in various
parts of the State-call for stern and
unrelenting justice. Timidity now, on
the part of the State or National author
tiles, will plunge our State into civil
war We have had too much compro-
missing with crime, and there has been
altogether too much " kindness of
heart" in dealing with assassins and
murderers. Mercy has forgotten her at
tribute and dIusurped the throne of justice
and it is high time the latter asserted
her perog


A rejecting observer must have been
forcibly struck with the fact that most of
the resistance to the execution Of ma
tional law in this State has been in those
-onunties -Srhnra- a Gaantiar.s--------i---
had freest scope and gained most infu-
ence. The blood of the Provost Mar
shall, recently assassinated in Rush
county, crimsons the pages of the Rush
Vile Jacksonian His murder is the
legitimate result of the infamous doc
trines which that paper has instilled into
the minds of its readers The disloyalty
in Sullivan county is largely due to the
Sullivan Democrat The recent rebel
lion of Judge in Marshall county, Hi
nois, has no greater cause than the ex-
ertions of the county paper. Give un-
bridled license to revolutionary press,
in times of excitement and war, and it
will destroy almost any government.
We are fervent advocates for freedom
of opinion and freedom in expressing
it-but that freedom has its limits.
There is, or at least there ought to be,
no freedom for treason. No man has
any right to advocate resistance to law
or to the exponents and administrators
of the law.


No little of the trouble now brewing in
our State is attributable to the misera-
BILE sophisms, that man must support
the Government, but not its executive
that he must obey the law but may dis
regard its executors. 1t is with such in
sidious notions that the leaders of the
Democratic party have been preparing
the minds of their ignorant partisans for
the work they are too cowardly to under
take themselves. Convinced that a Law
is arbitrary, in violation of vested rights
oppressive and tyrannical, and they
need not be further told that resistance
to tyrants is obedience to God; their &C
tions can safely be left to be influenced
by their inhamcd prejudices.


This, we need hardly say. has beer
the work of portion of the press of thu
country for the past two ears. No stel
has been taken by the Administrator
for the suppression ofthe rebellion, but
has been denounced as unconstituiona
and usurpation. The order calling ou
, troops to defend the Government, an
the laws passed for the suppressing of ir
surrection, for the collection of revenue
and for raising men for the army, hav
alike been assailed as unjust and uncor
stitutionaL Is it stra nge that me
should band together to resist measure
theychave been made to believe are III


just and tyrannical?


We are gratifed that Gov. Morton ha


issued warning" We have had man
we trust this will be the last No
G let US witness an attempt to enforce II


LawS. We have had enough talk-giy


US little action. One good wholeson
= example will be more beneficial than
a multitude of proclamations Onr peop
- need to be convinced that the Executiv,


are in earnest We are anxious ft
o. them to be sure they are right-but q
assurance on that point will do no goo


if they don't 60 ahead.


Read the Proclamation carefully al