Year: 1863

BELIEVES that they would have yielle !
a base and sla ish submission t. the
men who occupied the Presidential
chair in their day, if they had have
undertaken to transcenl the limits of
| The Constitution: or WITHHOLD from them
Il sipglc one Of its saore guarantees?
Who believes tha: Presidential ehict
striking down the great writ Of humar
freedom would have inspired them with
fear Or given rise to crin-ing thoughts
of suhjection in their minds; they
would have resisted unto death
the first attempt to deprive them Of the
poorest privilege which the constitution
WAS intended to secure and fortify.


The laa7 Of necessity was unknown
in their s'av. IF President Polk had
have attempted under the plea of ne
cessity, to arrest Tom, Corwin of Ohio,
at the time of the Mexican war, and
cast him into a prison without a trial
bv a jury Of his peers, when he express
sed the Infamous hope, that the Amer
lean sol |iers would be welcomed with
"hloodv hands to hospitahle graves" on
the Plains of Mexico; is it likely, Or
probable that Clay and Webster and
B enton would have witnessed the
outrage in silence? ? No the clarion
voice of the Sage Of Ashland would
have been calling upou a perjnrel Ex
ecu'ive to respect the obligation which
he assumed when with uplifted hand
in the presence of the Searcher of all
hearts he solemn!y swore to protert,
defend and respect the Constitution.
The mighty Webster would have arous-
ed Il e nation like the sho,k of an
earthquake. Every church stccple in
the land would have sounded the alarm,
and the people in their righteous in
digna,ion would have hurled from pow
err the miscreant who dared attempt an
act of oppression in land consecrated
to freedom.


When I remember these great and good
men. and then reflect upon the horrid
leeds of intalny perpetratel by the
men who now control our National af
fairs; when I see our streets crowded
with women clad in the habiliments of
of mourning, when Ihehold ruind com
,aerce. when am told that that starry
,anner, once the idol of every heart
and protecting shield to the Ameri
can citizen in every land and on every
sea, is now no longer respected either
at home or abroad when l look around
me and see the great pillars Of indus
trial thrift b o Ell d 'wn and 0 st labor
no longer able to obtain livelihood !;
when see the harvest of the farmer
earnered in the sweat of his brow and
then filched from him to support in
pampered ease and luxurya prohigate
band of land thieves and pirates, I am
forced to exclain in the language of
the bard


"Oh +! for the sword Of ether times,


Oh! for the nsen who bore them,


In Freedom cause they stood sublime;
When tyrants crouched before them.
But although the future looks gloomy
and mn romising. vet We should not
d sp i; al,h ugh i is true that the
party in power have in the brief space
Of nineteen months destroyed the wor k
Of f VI score years still nature has
N ade our country rich in all the ele
ments If wealth, and if she is only res
cued in time from the hands Of the
mutnous crew who are Ut present di-
rectine her course in unknown channels
she will yet be able to recuperate her
exhausted energies and recover
her once opulent and powerful position.
Let then every man who loves his
country and her matchelss institutions,
let every man who is animated by a
spirit of Justice, and who desires that
posterity shalI ENJOY share in the
high and priceless privileges purcha sed
by the blood Of the mar yred, heroes Of
76, resolve to undertake the work
Let every man feel that there is an in
iividual responsibility in the present