Year: 1867

is an obstruction to progress and IS abolished yea, morc--supposc they shall declare what they have often said, that the Federal Constitntion ''is a covenant with hell and a leaguo with the devil,r and that no State Constitu- tian is republican in form, and that all shall be set side, or declared only provisional, and the whole country shall be placed under military rule with commanders subject only to the orders of this conclave. until new Con- stitutions, State and Federal shall be approved by them, and in making which all who agree with them shall be enfranchised, and those who differ from them shall be disfranchised, must the President be bound to execute this revolution or quietly look on and see the Government destroyed? All of these things some of this conclave have declared ought to be done, and have threatened to do More than all these they have done, and are now actually doing for ten of the States. Why may they not do so for all The power is the same oyer all that it is over one. They ought to do so for all or for none. They send single officer to Virginia, who is not even Il resident of the State, and claim for him power to repeal the laws passed in the days of Washington aud by the votes and approval of lief ferson, Madison. Monroe and Marshall {; and similar nonresident individual, by his own irresponsible edicts, sets aside whole constitutions and codes in the States of Macon and Pickneys, and proclaims others in their stead, in a manner more summary and arbitrary than any monarch in Europe dare ex- hibit All this is admitted to be plain ly, grossly unconstitutional. but it must be done, and the President is bound to see to it that it is done, because two thirds of this conclave says it must be doneI at

 Thus, not only two-thirds of a Con- grcss, but fragmentary conclaves of mcmbers--who secure that two-thirds by unlawfully excluding from their seats those members who are not will ing to commit perjury to destroy the Government--becom not only greater than the constitution, not only have power to destroy the Government, but can command, order, compel every other department of the Government to aid in the destruction. Was ever conclusion so lame, heresy so danger ous, or patriotism SO self-destructive?

 Eenceforth, not the Constitution and laws passed in pursuance thereof, but the will of the two-thirds of Congress. or of a eonclave taking forcible posses. sion of the capitol, shall be the supreme law of the land. Would it not be well to require us all, from the President down, to take an oath to support that will, instead of requiring Us to swear to support the Constitution, and then compelling us, by the higher power of this will, to violate our oaths?

 No Congress not even legitimate Congress, by even a unanimous vote, have power to destroy States, to pass laws forbidden by the Constitution, nor to subvert the Government; and when they undertake it, and in the mcanest and most dangerous of all ways--nnder cover of oaths and otfice---it ia as much the duty of the President 10 suppress them as it is his duty to suppress an in surrectioa or an invasion. The contra " doctrine is proclamation to Radi- calisn that it shall bc aided in its work even by the friends of the Constitution. It is a iiccnee to propa gandism to bring all Constitutions, Goycrnm ents and people into complete subjection to its will.

 Alas. our country sinks for want of nerve in its defenders. Truth Is weak only because it's disciples will not sup port as well as assert it. Radicalism is strong only in it's sense of impunity.- Unlimited, it, loses all iconsciousness of guilt aud throws away restraint upon its will. Assured of Assistance from it's enemies, there is no excess at which it will hesitate. But boldly and fearless ly opposed, and denounced and treated as the most dangerous enemy of all government and law, its own con science will at once become it's ticrcest accuser; if will grow weak, will trem- ble like the detected thief, and will soon sink beneath the weight of its own sins, abandoned by the selfish, and despised by the good. But now, such men as Stevens and Sumner. seeing how timid and indifferent and unnerved the friends of the Constitution have be- come, encourage the hesiiating of their party in the same spirit with the bloody 1 Lady Macbeth when urging her falter- | ing husband to his crims:

 "When in swinish sleep

 Their ireanchcd natures lie as in death, What cannot you and perform upon

 The nnguarded Duncan? What not put upon His spongy officers who shall bear the guilt ' x,c