Vol. II.] the: [No
• t* *
OLD GUARD,
A MONTHLY JOURNAL;
DEVOTED TO THE PRINCIPLES OF
i 7 7 6 and 1787.
FEBRUARY, 1863
■ —1 -j^aga i^--
New York::
C. CHAUNCEY BURR a CO,,
No: 119 Naflau Street.
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2011 with funding from
State of Indiana through the Indiana State Library
http://www.archive.org/details/oldguardmonthlyjv2n2burr
V W. G. Jackman^S-
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Devoted to the Union from the beginning, I will no1 deseil it now, in this the hour of its sorest trial '.'
THE OLD GUARD,
A MONTHLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE PRINCIPLES OF 1776 AND 1787.
VOLUME II.— FEBRUARY, 1863.— No. II.
FINANCIAL RUIN OF THE COUNTRY.
The wants of the Government, as we have said, are to be supplied only by three means, viz. : taxation, loans and paper money. The first has been ig- nored by the Government; the second we showed -in our last number to be im- possible ; and it remains to discuss pa- per emissions, by which it is sought to obtain from the people^, without interest, that capital which the wealthy refuse to lend the Government on any terms.
The person who invests in a long loan does so when he knows something of the stability and resources of the lend- er. In the present case, not the most devoted patriot can tell the issue of this war. How many States will exist when it shall have ceased, and who will be re- sponsible for the debt created avowedly for revolution ? Among the States that survive how many will be able to pay ? How many will be willing to pay ? — Even in the event of an ultimate resto- ration of the Union as it was, how far will the impoverished tax-payer consent to meet debts that are reeking with cor- ruption ? How many persons whose sons have bled on the battle-field will put their hands in their pockets to con-
solidate the scandalous fortunes gath- ered * by robbing those sons, in their hour of need, of their food and clothing ? All these and more are contingencies which make loans impossible, even if surplus capital existed to the extent re- quired. The only alternative then is paper money ; and it is no doubt the' case that, while both Chairman and Sec- retary are striving to throw the respon- sibility upon each other, neither con- templates any other result of congress- ional action.
Both the Secretary of the Treasury and the Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means labor under the delu- sion that paper money is capital, and that, consequently, the success of loans depends upon the amount of irredeem- able paper first put afloat. The Secre- tary is so filled with this idea that he reproduces it on every occasion, and with a degree of fatuity scarcely cred- ible. The same notion possesses Mr. Stevens, the Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, who, in his speech of Dec. 18, previously alluded to, has this extraordinary passage :
25
26 FINANCIAL RUIN OF THE COUNTRY.
" It was proposed to do so by issuing able to negotiate any loans at all, al-
legal tender notes to the extent of $200,- though the price of United States six
000,000 beyond the amount already au- cent stock_twenty years to run_
thorized, and a billion of bonds at six -
per cent, interest, redeemable in twenty had fallen from Par> December, 1861, to
years in coin. The issue of $500,000,- seventy-five, December, 1882, in gold,
000, legal tender, would render them so he yet found no buyers. He had with
abundant that capitalists would be glad great difficulty raised during the year
to turn them to profit by investing them the f0nowing sums . in loans. In a year the whole billion of
bonds would doubtless be taken at par." Currency notes issued $222,932,111
" fractions 6872,101
By what process of reasoning the Deposits received— five per cent 79,798,650
Chairman persuades himself that the is- One-year certificates— six per cent. . . . 87,363,241
sues of Government promises in pay- Three-year bonds-7. 3-10 per cent.. . . 50,000,000
.,/ , . \ , . Five-20-year bonds— six per cent 23,750,000
ment of its debts will make the public
richer, and increase the amount of sur- Total $470,716,103
plus capital they may have to invest, it
is difficult to determine. It would ap- The currency was poured out, as fast as pear that the history of the past year printed, in payment of soldiers, and has been totally lost on both the Secre- creditors whose capital had been ob- tary and the Chairman. When Con- tained hJ the Government. At the gress met in December, 1861, the Sec- same time the three-year bonds and the retary had made three loans— two of one-year certificates were also paid out, 150,000,000 each in three-year 7 3-10 until they fell to so heavy a discount bonds at par for gold ; one in a twenty- that creditors refused them. The capi- year stock bearing six per cent, stock tal of trade and commerce being un- at eighty-nine per cent., or eleven per employed accumulated, but the Govern- discount for gold. He had issued $24,- ment loans were no temptation for its 000,000 of currency notes, and had still investment. It was loaned temporarily $50,000,000 of bonds bearing 7 3-10 to on deposit to the Government on bonds issue, but he required to borrow, in ad- payable within a year, but could not be dition, $231,000,000 up to July, 1862. — drawn into the long stock. While these To supply this, Congress authorized operations were in progress, the paper $150,000,00,0 of currency notes, $500,- of the Government depreciated twenty- 000,000 of six per cent, stock, interest five per cent, which was apparent in payable in gold, and redeemable in from the rise in gold, and also in all corn- five to twenty years, in which the notes modities, their value having advanced might be funded. It authorized, also, thirty-three per cent, in the market. — the recall of deposits payable on de- The Secretary was surprised to find mand at five per cent, interest in gold, that notwithstanding the large amount and the issue of an unlimited amount of of notes issued, they were not more certificates payable in a year, bearing available for Government loans than six per cent, in gold. When Congress before. This fact might have opened again met, in December, 1862, the Sec- his eyes to the real operation of his pa- retary reported that he had not been per money. He adhered, however, to
FINANCIAL RUIN OP THE COUNTRY.
27
his dogma — " the more paper the more capital." It is a law of finance, that currency cannot be increased by any artificial operation. In ordinary times, when specie payments are maintained, the currency required is determined by the productive industry of the country. If the crops are large and manufactures abundant, there must be more currency to represent them. If there are no bank notes, a portion of the products will be exported, and specie will return to swell the currency \o the required sum. If the banks supply it, the notes will return upon them for redemption whenever there is an excess issued, and none can be kept out beyond the actual wants of commerce. If, in a time of suspension, as now, the Government undertakes to issue notes in excess of the natural demands of business, those notes, being neither exported nor re- deemed, will depreciate in value in pro- portion to the amount issued. In other words, the prices will rise so as to re- quire more of the notes to represent the same commodities ; and no matter how great may be the issue, there will be no more currency than before. Thus : a bale of cotton which will make eight- een hundred yards of cloth, last spring was represented by $80 ; it now requires $310 to buy it. A yard of cotton cloth was worth 8 cents ; it is now worth 22. Thus : last }Tear a manufacturer would sell eighteen hundred yards for $144. — To reproduce it he gave $80 for cotton, $50 for labor, and had $34 for interest, rent, profit, &c. ; now he sells eighteen hundred yards for $396, gives $305 for cotton, $80 for labor, and there remains $21 for other items, leaving no apparent profit. It will be observed that this transaction requires three times as much
money as before. All articles and all business are affected in the same way, but not to the extent of cotton, because the short supply of that article aids in the rise caused by the paper money. — This absorption of money by the rise in price is apparent in the higher loans of the banks and deposits. A man who sold one thousand bags of coffee last year, would deposit the proceeds, $10,- 000, in bank ; the same quantity sold now involves a deposit of $30,000 ; hence the deposits of the banks repre- sent no more capital, although the fig- ures are much higher. A sale of ton thousand pounds of sugar last year would realize $600 ; this year it will bring $1,000, and this cost is made up as follows :
Sugar cost in Cuba, 1,000 lbs §45.00
Duty 30 per cent, in gold $13.50
Premium on gold for duty 4.47
" " exchange in paper. 17.10
Charges 35.07
Cost of sugar... $30.07
To these rates must be added freight and other costs of importation, new taxes, and the profit of importers, and the consumer pays 10.1-4 cts. The consumption of sugar in the Northern States being per annum 30 lbs. per head, it follows that every individual now loses $1.00 per annum on the sugar he uses, in consequence of the paper money. He is subjected to similar loss on every article he uses, and is gradu- ally impoverished. It does not follow, because the prices are high, that the dealers make more profits, and have, therefore, more to invest in Govern- ment stocks. Nevertheless it is this delusion that possesses the Secretary,
28
FINANCIAL RUIN OF THE COUNTRY.
and the Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means. They alledge that the increase of business has absorbed the paper ; that is, the paper having depreciated as compared with commod- ities, more is required to represent the same quantities ; and they propose to double the quantity outstanding, which, as seen in the above extract, the Chair- man of the Committee of Ways and Means says will suffice to fund "a bil- lion " of stocks in a single year, at par. We do not know that he meant to be ironical, and ridicule the notion of the Secretary to the same effect, but the word "billion" twice repeated would lead to that supposition. "A billion " means a million multiplied by itself, or " one million of millions." The square of a million — a trillion— is a " million of millions of millions," the cube of a million, &c. It is hardly probable that the Chairman, who has been one of the most active men in pushing on and pro- longing the war, has any idea of the force of the figures which he so glibly uses to represent its cost. The sum he mentions as possible to borrow in a year is three times the whole British debt, which required one hundred and fifty years and many wars to create. — It is obvious, however, that that sum might very easily be reached in the way he proposes, without the results that he anticipates, although both the Secretary and the Chairman overlook the main ef- fect of their paper issues, and the only one by which such magnificent figures may be reached. We have shown that prices rise in proportion to the quantity of paper out. With that rise the amount of paper must be increased. Thus: the salaries of the diplomatic corps are $1,000,000 per annum. At present, to
pay that sum abroad, it costs the Gov- ernment $1,330,000, because it must buy exchange with paper. The whole expense of the Government is increased in the same proportion; $600,000,000 this year will go no further than $400,- 000,000 last year, and the disbursement of this money will make $900,000,000 necessary next year to effect the same object. This, in its turn, will produce further depreciation, and it will be ob- served that the amount of taxes levied will not keep pace with this deprecia- tion. If the cost is enhanced this year by $200,000,000 by the use of paper money, that sum absorbs and neutral- izes the whole tax, even if it should reach $200,000,000. This process of depreciation is also greatly aided by the diminished production of needed ar- ticles. One million of men have stopped productive labor and become destroy- ers. The price rises in the double ratio of scarcity and depreciated currency, and the point is being rapidly approxi- mated when the paper will become dis- credited. Holders of property will then bargain only for gold, and the whole fabric of paper will perish in an awful crash. Meantime, creditors will have been ruined, while debtors will not have been enriched. Suppose a life in- sured for the benefit of a family falls in when legal tender paper is of the value of $1,000 for a barrel of flour, what be- comes of the dependence of that family ? There are now $200,000,000 of hard earnings in the savings banks, most of it lodged in gold. Mr. Chase and Mr. Stevens have put it afloat, and told the poor owners they must take paper, no matter what may be its value. The assets of the savings banks will be paid to them in this valueless paper, and
REMARKS ON THE FRENCH DECLARATION OP RIGHTS.
29
they will have no other means of pay- ment. The owners of ground rents fixed in their value will get paper of no value. The holders of $700,000,000 of railroad bonds will get paper of such value as it may happen to be when the payment is due. The banks of New York have now no legal existence, but they are incurring their liabilities on federal paper, which has also no legal existence. Their assets will be paid in the depreciated legal tender of the Gov- ernment, leaving their stockholders per- sonally liable for the flood of paper they are issuing based on the Government paper.
The ruin of fortunes and values flows from the exhaustion of capital fictitiously
represented. Whether the Government borrows in stock or on paper money the result is the same — it obtains capital, the products of industry, and consumes it without reproduction. If it borrows on stock, it destroys values by compe- ting for the capital represented by those values; if it borrows with paper money, it destroys capital by sapping its rev- enue. A person who holds $1,000 New York six per cent, stock receives $60 income. This was last year equal to twelve barrels of flour ; it is this year only equal to eight barrels. One-fourth of his income is gone, and with each succeeding issue of paper his income will diminish, until a common insolvency falls upon all alike.
REMARKS ON THE FRENCH DECLARATION OF RIGHTS OF 1793.
We give below, entire, a translation of the celebrated Declaration of Rights put forth by the French nation in 1793 — followed by remarks on certain sec- tions which are important at the pres- ent time. This Declaration of Rights possesses an especial interest to us, from the fact that it was made six years after the establishment of our own Con- stitution, and much of it was undoubt- edly inspired by that immortal instru- ment.
DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF MAN AND OF CITIZENS.
The French People, convinced that the forgetting of the natural rights of Man, and the contempt shown to these rights, are the only causes of the ca- lamities in the world, have resolved to
set forth in a solemn declaration these sacred and unalienable rights ; in order that, it being in the power of all Citi- zens to compare continually the acts of the government with the design of ev- ery social institution, they may never suffer themselves to be oppressed and debased by tyranny ; — and in order that the People may always have before their eyes the foundations of their liberty and of their happiness ; the magistrate, the rule of his duties ; the legislator, the object of his mission.
Consequently, the French People pro- claim, in the presence of the Supreme Being, the following Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizens :
Art. 1. The design of Society is com- mon happiness.
Government is instituted to secure to Man the enjoyment of his natural and imprescriptible rights.
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REMARKS ON THE PEENCH DECLARATION OP RIGHTS.
2. These rights are : equality, liberty, safety and property.
3. All men are equal by nature and in the si^iit of the law.
4. The law is the free and solemn ex- pression of the general will ; and is the same for all, both in protecting and in punishing ; it cannot command but that which is just and useful to Society ; it cannot forbid but that which is hurtful to the same.
5. AH Citizens are equally admissible to public employments. Free People acknowledge no other motives of pref- erence in their elections than virtues and talents.
6. Liberty is that power which be- longs to Man, of doing everything that does not hurt the rights of another : its principle is nature ; its rule justice ; its protection the law : its moral limits are defined by this sentence : Bo not to an- other what thou wouldst not wish done to thyself.
7. The right of manifesting one's thoughts and opinions, either by the press, or in any other manner — the right of assembling peaceably — and the free exercise of the different manners of worship — cannot be forbidden.
The necessity of declaring these rights, supposes either the presence, or the recent remembrance, of despotism.
8. Safety consists in the protection granted by Society to each of its mem- bers, for the preservation of his person, his rights, and his property.
9. The law ought to protect the lib- erty of the public, and of each individ- ual, against the oppression of those who govern.
10. No person can be accused, ar- rested, nor detained, but in cases de- termined by the law, and according to the forms which it prescribes. Every Citizen summoned or arrested under the authority of the law, ought immediately to obey ; he renders himself culpable by resistance.
11. Every act exercised against a man not within the cases determined by the law, or without the forms prescribed
by the same, is arbitrary and tyrannical ; the person against wnom it should be attempted to be executed by violence, has a right to repe] it by force.
12. Those who solicit, despatch, sign, execute, or cause to be executed, arbi- trary acts, are guilty, and ought to be punished.
13. Every man being supposed inno- cent until he has been declared guilty, if it is judged indispensable to arrest him, all rigor, not necessary to secure his person, ought to be severely repressed by the law.
14. No one ought to be judged nor punished but after having been heard or legally summoned, nor unless he comes under a law made public before the perpetration of the crime; a law which should punish ofTences committed before it existed would be tyrannical ; the retroactive effect given to a law would be a crime.
15. The law ought not to decree any punishments but such as are strictly and evidently necessary : the punishments ought to be proportioned to the crimes, and useful to Society.
16. The right of property is that right which belqngs to every Citizen of enjoy- ing, according to his pleasure, his goods, his revenues, the fruits of his labor and industry — and of disposing, according to his pleasure, of the same.
17. No kind of labor, culture or com- merce can be forbidden to the industri- ous Citizen.
IS. Every man may engage his ser- vices and his time ; but he can neither sell himself, nor be sold. His person is not alienable property. The law ac- knowledges no servitude ; there can ex- ist only an engagement to perform and to reward, between the man who works and the man who emplo3'S him.
19. No one can be deprived of the least portion of his property without his consent, except when the public neces- sity, legally ascertained, requires it, and on condition of a just and previous in- demnification.
20. No contribution can be enacted
REMARKS ON THE FRENCH DECLARATION OF RIGHTS.
31
but for general utility. All Citizens have a right to have a share in fixing the contributions, to watch over the use made of them, and to require an account of their expenditure.
21. Public succors are a sacred debt. -The Society owes subsistence to the Cit- izens that are unfortunate, both by fur- nishing them with work, and by secur- ing the means of existence to those who are unable to work.
22. Instruction is the want of all. The Society ought to favor with all its power the progress of public reason, and to place the means of instruction within the reach of every Citizen.
23. The social guarantee consists in the action of all to secure to each the enjoyment and preservation of his rights ; this guarantee rests on the national sov- ereignty.
24. The social guarantee cannot ex- ist if the limits of the public functions are not clearly defined by the law, and if the responsibility of all public func- tionaries is not well secured.
25. The sovereignty resides in the People. It is one and indivisible, im- prescriptible and unalienable.
26. No portion of the People can ex- ercise the power of the whole People ; but each section of the Sovereign as- sembled ought to enjoy the right of ex- pressing its will with entire liberty.
27. If any individual usurps the Sov- ereignty, let him be immediately put to death by freemen.
28. A People have always the right of revising, of reforming, and of chang- ing their constitution. One generation cannot subject to its laws future gener- ations.
29. Every citizen has an equal right to have a share in making the law, and in appointing his mandataries and agents.
30. Public functions are essentially temporary; they cannot be considered as distinctions nor as rewards, but as duties.
31. Crimes committed by the manda- taries and the agents of the people
ought never to remain unpunished. No one has a right to pretend to be more inviolable than other Citizens.
32. The right of presenting petitions to the depositaries of public authority [belongs to every individual. The ex- ercise of this right] can in no case be prohibited, suspended, or limited.
33. Resistance to oppression is the consequence of the other rights of Man.
34. Oppression is exercised against the Social Body, when even only one of its members is oppressed. Oppression is exercised against each member when • the Social Body is oppressed.
35. When the government violates the rights of the People, insurrection is, to the People and to every portion of the People, the most sacred of rights and the most indispensable of duties.
REMARKS. Dangers of Power.
Section 1. — The protection of the citi- zen against the oppression of'those who govern, is a vital object of constitutional law. It is one of the highest offices of constitutions to protect the rights and the liberty of the citizen. We may say that if a constitution fails in this, it fails in all. Under all forms of government the greatest danger to the citizen is from those who govern. In a republic like ours this danger is even greater than: in monarchies, whenever those who are entrusted with the administration of the laws refuse to keep strictly within the constitutional limitations ; for then anar- chy is sure to go hand in hand' with des- potism, so that the citizen Las the two greatest enemies of freedom to "contend with at the same time. The greatest foe 'to the State is not that which assails its external integrity, or territorial boundaries, but that which wars with the organic spirit or principle of the na- tion. Better to lose ten, or even twenty
32
REMARKS ON THE FRENCH DECLARATION OP RIGHTS.
States from the territorial lines of the Republic, than that the sacred principle on which the Government was founded should be marred in the slightest par- ticular. For this reason, secessionism, great as its crimes may be, is a less de- structive foe to our country than aboli- tionism. The one lops off a piece of our territory, runs away with a certain num- ber of our acres — the other crushes the life out of our national principle. The one mutilates the body, the other kills the soul. The one says we wish no lon- ger to enjoy liberty in the same temple with you — we will go by ourselves to be free in our own way — leave you to your- selves, to be free in your own way. The other says nobody shall have free- dom that we do not dictate the fashion of. No matter how. much you may be attached to your own domestic institu- tions, if they do not please us you shall not have them. You shall not govern yourselves ; we will do it for you. If the Constitution is in our way, there is a " necessity" for us to set it aside. If the Constitution does not give us all the power to abolish your institutions, then we must assume the power. This is the attitude of Mr. Lincoln and his party before the world at the present time. Those who have been appointed to be, pro tempore, the agents of the Govern- ment, have declared themselves the Gov- ernment itself. A President acts as though he were King. He is a usurper, and a tyrant, to the extent of his shallow ability. If the liberty of the people is not in great danger from his usurpation, it is because he is too weak and foolish a man to carry forward and consummate his crimes. But his attempts must be jebuked and punished. Let us believe
with Tacitus, that " Nee unquam satis fida poLntia ubi nimisest." — Power with- out control is never to be trusted. Par- ticularly power in the hands of a joking mountebank, buffoon, and fanatic, who is the tool of men of still worse passions than himself.
Duty of the People to stop Usurpation.
On section 2. — This proposition is a logical deduction from the American principle of Government, which asserts that men do not govern jure divino, but by human appointment. They are not rulers " by the grace of God," as old King-craft affirmed, but by the will of the people. They are elected, not to do their own will and pleasure, but to ad- minister the laws, which the people have ordained by their sovereign act. When these laws are violated by those who are elected to administer them ; and espe- cially when the laws are so set aside that the people cannot possibly obtain legal redress against the delinquent magistrates, then it is clearly the right and the duty of the people to rise in their sovereign majesty and repel by force the assaults upon their liberty. It is an old trick of usurpers and tyrants to en- force silence on their acts, and then urge that compulsory silence as a proof that the people do not complain of the Administration. It was by such prac- tices that the Decemvirs at Rome, who by the laws were to be elected annually, got their term extended to another year ; and in that interval they, by preventing the assembling of the Comitia, endeav- ored to perpetuate their power. That was a good while ago. But we have something like it going on in our midst at the present time. Do we not see
HEM ARES ON THE FRENCH DECLARATION OP RIGHTS.
33
Abraham Lincoln and his Congress plot- ting to prolong their power by bringing into that body creatures of their own, elected, or rather appointed, ♦ in viola- tion of the Constitution, and represent- ing no legally constituted constituency ? These tools of despotism will not be more legally members of Congress than a deputation of cannibals from the centre of Africa would be. Kegard for the laws, for our national honor, and for the preservation of our liberty demands that they shall be treated, by an outraged people, precisely as the same number of African cannibals would be who should attempt to squat in Congress. I know that this language will be called "ex- treme" by those who sympathize with this abolition rebellion against our Con- stitution and laws. Those who threw the tea over board, and burned up the British stamp paper at the dawn of the revolution, were called "extreme" by the traitors to liberty of that time. But call me extreme ; for in the defence of right and liberty I would be so. Call me any thing but a supporter of the Administration of Abraham Lincoln ! That ignominy — that impeachment of a man's reason and honor, could not be endured. But what will ye do, 0 most puissant modorados 1 — sit there in supine submission, dubitant of the propriety of tearing out and crushing the worm that bores at the heart of the Constitution? Then patriotism and courage are dead* Fanaticism or cowardice have killed them !
Executive Functions Limited by Law.
On Section 24. — Our own Constitution has so cautiously limited the Federal Government, and fenced it round with
restrictions, that there can never be the least danger, either to the States or to individuals, unless the Executive and Congress usurp powers that do not be- long to them. In order that the Federal Government should never have even the shadow of an excuse for mistaking its own powers or misunderstanding the rights of the States, the following clause was inserted in the Constitution : " The powers not delegated to the United States are reserved to the States res- pectively, or to the people." This leaves nothing to the mere discretion of the Federal Government. Its powers are limited and fixed by statute. It cannot, by the utmost stretch of the imagination, infer that it may assume to do whatever it believes would be useful to the nation, which is not expressly prohibited, for, if it is not clearly delegated to the general Government it is denied to it, and re- served to the States. The President has no right to assume anything. There is the Constitution — let him follow that, or be denounced as a usurper and a criminal. In this our fathers acted wisely. The history of nations shows that it is not possible to put those who are entrusted with power under too many restraints. They may use it well ; but those act most prudently who, im- agining that their rulers might abuse power, enclose them within certain bounds, beyond which they cannot law- fully go. Power is like fire — if it is not carefully watched and guarded it burns and destroys those it was intended to comfort and serve. The tendency of power ever is to break its bounds, and therefore a wise people leave nothing to chance or to the humors of men in authority. This great principle was
34
REMARKS ON THE FRENCH DECLARATION OF RIGHTS.
strongly intrenched in the Constitution of the United States just six years be- fore it was affirmed in the French De- claration of Eights. The French peo- ple afterwards lost their liberties by allowing those whom they had entrusted with authority to violate it with im- punity. There is no evil under the sun but what is to be dreaded from men who may do as they please, without the fear of punishment. The history of the world gives us many examples of na- tions allowing their rulers to raise, by their own authority, whatever money and soldiers they thought needful in cases of great necessity ; and every case afterwards was a " case of great necessity." Always afterwards the neces- sities multiplied so fast that the whole wealth and population of the country were swallowed up to supply them. Since the world began this has happen- ed in every land, where those who ask are suffered to judge what ought to be given. It has always ended in taking without asking.
Shall we add another to these dark examples of history ? No ! — rather let us hold Mr. Lincoln to a strict obser- vance of the constitution and laws of the land. If he asks for money and men for unlawful purposes, deny him. Deny him according to law. If he at- tempts to enforce an unlawful demand, resist it — not by unlawful deeds, but by the force which the constitution and laws place at our disposal. We must obey all the laws ourselves ; but we must not permit an ignoramus or a usurper to violate our laws and strip us of our rights.
Doty to Resist Arbitrary and Uncon- stitutional Deeds.
On Section 27. — This is a strong pro-
position— but it is, nevertheless, some- what based in natural justice and ne- cessity, The laws allow every man the right of killing his assailant in the de- fence of his own life. A usurping ruler — an Executive who breaks down the laws that have been established for the protection of the property, liberty and life of the people, sets on foot a train which is liable to end in the il- legal imprisonment and may be in the murder of thousands of citizens. The Executive who will usurp power to ille- gally imprison citizens, is on the high- way to finally put them to death for the same reason. The one is but the con- cluding act of the other. This, too, is confirmed by history. Even Nero lived for some time inoffensively, and reigned virtuously ; but finding, at last, that he might do whatever he pleased, he let loose his appetite for blood, and com- mitted such mighty, such monstrous, such unnatural slaughters and outrages as have appalled the imagination of man ever since. "Why," exclaimed a Roman patriot, " was not this monster killed when he took the first step of that despotism which has been allowed to go on until he has shed the blood of the best sons of Rome ?" The doom did overtake him at last. Of forty-three emperors of Rome, thirty-three died by the hand of violence. But, by all these assassinations, the people gained noth- ing, except to ewop one tyrant for another. When they allowed the first Caesar to suspend the laws of the com- monwealth, the whole mischief which precipitated itself upon future genera- tions of that nation was accomplished. Despotic power once achieved has rare- ly ever been broken by any after strug- gles of freedom. The map of the old
FAREWELL, SWEET LIBERTY?
35
world gives this lesson. It teaches us that, whenever usurpation and despot- ism are allowed to fasten themselves in power, there is no hope left for the peo- ple but to rid the nation and the world of the existence of the tyrant. And even this does not promise a return of their lost liberty. The revenge may be sweet, but it poorly atones for the loss of that peace and good order in which rational freedom alone can reside. If usurpation and despotism are ever crushed the work must be done at the start, before the guilty power is fully achieved— and, as much violence as is necessary to save the people's liberty from falling under the hand of usurped authority it is clearly the right and the duty of a virtuous people to use. It is no man's duty to be dragged to a dun- geon, in violation of his rights and of the laws of his country, without resist-
ing the despotic mandate by all the means in his power. Indeed it is his duty to resist, since ,the rights of every other citizen in the commonwealth are assailed by his illegal imprisonment, and the whole community would be en- dangered by his quiet submission to the lawless power. Every man who con- sents to aid in the illegal arrest of a citizen fairly puts his life into the scales against the liberty of the party assault- ed. Every good citizen will join for the defence of the Constitution and the laws of his country. Mr. Lincoln and his marshals, provost-marshals, or any other tools of his lawless deeds, should meet whatever fate may follow a just and manly resistance to a despotic and ille- gal assault upon the' rights of citizens. That is alike natural justice and consti- tutional law.
FAREWELL, SWEET LIBERTY!
Fumus Troes: fuit ilium, et ingens Gloria Teucrorum. — Yiitaii*
Farewell, sweet Liberty, farewell ! Thy soul of peace no more may dwell Where white men strive themselves to be Enslaved, to set the negro free ! *
But ere, sweet Liberty, we part, Accept this tribute of my heart ; A broken heart, that bleeds to see A nation fearing to be free ; Crouching beneath a feeble hand, Raised only for the "contraband"-— The white man's scorn — the negro's joy- Surplus of nature's weak alloy ! A dead activity of hate ! For war too quick ! for peace too late ! o. o. B.
ALARMING EVIDENCES OF DEMORALIZATION IN THE ARMY.
A soldier in Biirnside's army, under date of Jan. 3d, 1862, writes to a brother in this city as follows:
" You ought to be here to see how they treat negroes, and then see how they treat white men. The negroes have first rate tents with stoves in them — get soft bread to eat most of the time, and don't have to do night work. The white men have no stoves, have to eat hard tack, and do night work. The dif- ference is, that here negroes arc white men. and white men negroes. I do not believe we will have an abolitionist in our regiment when we go home, although there were plenty when we came here. A white man in this army cannot go anywhere, nor get anything, while a negro goes where he pleases, and gets whatever he wants, The negroes are paid every month, while there are plenty of regiments here which have not been paid a cent in six months."
A second lieut. in the army wrote home January 13th: "I see that the pa- pers represent that there is difficulty be- tween Gen. Burnside and his officers about another advance ; but this is not true, for the trouble is with the soldiers* thousands of whom openly swear that they will not bejed into another slaugh- ter pen for the glory of negroes. The whole truth is that the President's eman- cipation message has driven the con- viction into a large portion of the amy that henceforth we are fighting only for negroes. Unless there is some change for the better this army is pretty near done fighting. It is impossible to say what they would do if they were actually 36
in an engagement, but with the temper that at this moment prevails it will be difficult to get them into one. The news- paper correspondents who write that, " the army is impatient to advance " know that they lie like the devil, unless they mean that it is impatient to advance home. There is a man of company B in this regiment now in the lock-up for say- ing that he wished he could get South and do a little fighting against the abo- litionists and negroes, for he was tired of fighting for them."
A soldier in Gen. Grant's division writes to his sister in Williamsburg that: " God knows I am sick and ashamed of this army, if any such a mob of thieving marauding vagabonds ought to be called an army. You would blush for human nature if I could with decency tell you things which I have seen. I want you to see and get him to use his in- fluence with to procure me a fur
lough to go home long enough to recruit my health, for if I do not I shall die. If I was a negro I could go wherever I asked; but I am a wlrite man and must be left to die without pity. It serves me right, for a white man has no business here, stealing, burning
houses and fight-
ing for niggers.'
A correspondent of the Daily Times, writing from the Army of the Potomac, gives the following bad account:
"General feeling of despondency, re- sulting from mismanagement and our want of military success. Soldiers are severe critics, and are not to be bambooz- led. YTou may marshal your array of victories in glittering editorials — they
THE CRIME OP WAR.
37
smile sarcastically at them. You see men who tell you that they have been in a dozen battles and were licked and chased every time — they would like to chase once to see how it " feels. " This begins to tell painfully on them. Their splendid qualities — their patience, faith, hope, courage, are gradually oozing out. Certainly never were a graver, gloom- ier, more sober, sombre, serious and un- musical body of men than the Army of the Potomac at the present time. It is a saddening contrast with a year ago."
The same correspondent tells us that the " Administration looks with distrust on the Army of the Potomac," and that the army " looks with distrust on the Administration." He affirms that Gen. Halleck has declared that the army is " disaffected and dangerous, " and that " the army of the Potomac has ceased to exist." And again: " the animosity in Washington towards the army is amply repaid by the bitterness of the army towards the Cabinet."
This letter in the Times fully confirms
a remark made by a United States offi- cer of high grade that, " since the ab- olition proclamation Washington is quite as much in danger as Kichmond from our own army."
Now why do we publish these alarm- ing evidences of the disgust, discontent, and demoralization that prevail in the army ? Because it is time we ceased to delude ourselves with fabricated good news. It is time to stop lying. It is time to look the real condition of things in the face, and confront the stern facts which, sooner or later, must be met and dealt with fairly and truly. We do not deceive the South by our falsehoods, we only deceive and delude ourselves. The South knows our condition better, a good deal, than we are permitted to know it ourselves, Mr. Lincoln has de- moralized the very best portion of the army with his tender concern for ne- groes, and his unnatural indifference to the rights and dignity of white soldiers.
THE CRIME OF WAR.
If but some few life- drops Blush on the ground, for him whose impious hand The scanty purple sprinkled, a keen search Commences straight : but if a sea be spilt — But if a deluge spread its boundless stain, And fields be flooded from the veins of man — O'er the red plain no solemn coroner His inquisition holds. If but one corse, With murder'd sign upon it, meets the eye Of pale discovery in the lone recess, Justice begins the chase : when high are piled Mountains of slain, the large, enormous guilt, Safe in its size, too vast for laws to whip, Trembles before no bar.
BEECHER BLASPHEMY AND NEGRO PATRIOTISM.
Henry Ward Beecher utters himself after the following characteristic fashion in the columns of the Independent :
" The interval between the destruc- tion and the salvation of the Republic is measured by two steps : one is Eman- cipation ; the other Military Success. The first is taken ; the, other delays. How is it to be achieved ? There is but one answer : by the Negro !
"They (the negroes) are the forlorn hope of the Republic. They are the last safe-keepers of the good cause. We must make alliance with them, or our final success is imperiled.
Congress is in a dispute over a bill to arm and equip 150,000 negroes, to serve in the war. Let it stop the debate ! The case is settled ; the problem is solved ; the argument is done. Let the recruiting sergeants beat their drums ! The next Levy of Troops must not be made in the North, but on the Planta- tions. Marshal them into line by regi- ments and brigades ! The men that have picked cotton must now pick flints ! Gather the great Third Army ! For two years the Government has been searching in an enemy's country for a path to victory: only the Negro can find it ! Give him gun and bayonet, and let him point the way ! The future is fair : God and the Negro are to save the Republic r
This indecent amalgum of stupidity and blasphemy is entirely characteristic of the abolition party. Its leaders nev- er let an opportunity pass to show their contempt for white men in contrast with their admiration of negroes. In this particular Mri Beecher fairly represents his class. The President's emancipa- tion proclamation is proof that he has no hope of military success except through the negroes. We confess that 38
his attempts to subjugate the South by an army of white men has proved a failure. He now implores the negroes to come to his rescue. He abandons the hope of success for legitimate war- fare, and tries — thank God in vain — to stir the negroes up to insurrection and murder. The negroes as a class appear to have more sense or more humanity than their bloody and brutal allies, the abolitionists. The position at last as- sumed by the President and his party is one of hostility to every wish of restor- ing the Union under the Constitution as it is. The plan of subjugation means the destruction not only of the Union, but of the present constitutional form of our government. While we are will- ing to risk all for the salvation of our country — for the restoration of the Union — for the preservation of consti- tutional liberty — we pray God that this abolition scheme of subjugating the South, and holding them as a conquered people, may never succeed. We never wish to see one half of these States sub- jugated by the other half — held down as their vassals beneath the hand of des- potic power ! We shall never relinquish the hope of bringing the revolted States back in o the Union — back on the same principles and grounds of equality, on which they came in when the Union was formed — we want to see them back on no other terms. We never wish the in- voluntary system of Government, the despotism of the old world transplanted to the shores of new. We have not failed to denounce secession as an unjust and unauthorized remedy for the evils
BEECHER BLASPHEMY AND NEGRO PATRIOTISM.
39
which the abolitionists sought to inflict upon the southern people ; but, bad as it is, it is infinitely to be preferred t© the Lincoln-Sumner plan of redu- cing one half of the States to the condition of conquered colonies, and holding* them down by the power of standing armies- Perish the very name of Union rather than see it prostituted to the purposes of such a damnable des- potism ! However criminal secession- ism was in the beginning, abolitionism has eclipsed it by the blaze of its own crimes. Under this abolition rule the war is no longer for the enforcement of the laws of the Union, and therefore we are all absolved from any further sup- port of it — until the President returns to those objects for which the Constitu- tion permits him to call upon the States for their troops. Lincoln and his fellow traitors are striving to make the war a conflict between the whilje and black race. He may succeed sooner than he expects, for the way he and his Sumners and Beechers are going on, a storm may be awakened which will end in the ex- termination of the poor blacks on this continent. "When once the hitherto peaceable and harmless negroes shall be so far deluded by Lincoln and his fel- low assassins, as to begin the business of murdering white men and women, the work of their own extermination will be quick and terrible. The Beech- ers and Cheevers are preparing the way for a visitation of wrath and misery up- on the unfortunate blacks, which they would never experience in this country if the abolition assassins had never been born. How long will white men
sit still and hear these mad-men pro- claim that " the negroes are the forlorn hope of the Republic !" How long will the caucassian man allow this blasphe- my to go out to the nations that " God and the negro are to save the Eepublic !" Already have these ravings produced their effect upon the colored people here in the North. At a late gathering in Jersey city, one of the black Beechers boastingly declared that, "as the right General had not yet been found among the white folks, a black man may be selected to lead the army." Another ebony Reverend let forth a storm of abuse and threats against the State and people, of New Jersey. All the fruits of Lincoln's and Beecher's sowing. This gathering of Mr. Lincoln's black patri- ots wound up by proposing " three cheers for God!" which was following Beecher pretty literally. We wish that we might hope that the deluded blacks could escape the consequences of the delusions into which they are being driven by the ab- olitionists. We wish our unhappy coun- try were safe from the revolution and violence which these desperate fanatics are urging forward. We wish an en- treaty could prevail with the men of the South to return to the Union that their fathers and our fathers made, and help us to rescue our beloved country from the doom into which these blaspheming traitors are fast plunging it. We shall not cease to use every lawful, every honorable means to bring them back — ■ to restore our country to what it was before the Lincoln and Beecher worms had bored into its heart.
fHE HORRORS OF THE ABOLITION BASTILES.
[We give below Dr. Olds' statement of his arrest and incarceration in Fort Lafayette, as a fair and unexaggerated picture of the Bastiles into which Amer- ican freeman, charged with no crime, have Ijeen plunged by the party now in power at Washington. Future genera- tions of our children will read these things with amazement and shame. Dr. Olds is an ex-member of Congress from Ohio, and is at the present time a mem- ber of the Legislature of that State, a post to which he was elected by his fel- low-citizens while he was locked up in Lincoln's dungeons. He is a gentleman of estimable character, who will be re- spected by his countrymen when the name of Abraham Lincoln will be de- spised and laughed at as a weak imita- tion of the besotted tyrant Nero.]
" On the 12th of August last, after 10 ©'clock at night, my house was forcibly entered by three government ruffians, who with violence seized my person, and holding a revolver at my head, demanded my surrender.
When, after my capture, I demanded to know by what authority they had thus rudely broken into my room, and by what authority they had thus seized my person, they very grumblingly in- formed me that they were acting under authority of the War Department. I then demanded to be shown their war- rant. They informed me that I had no right to make any such demand — that the order which they held was for their protection,, and not for my gratification. They, however, permitted me to see it. The document was signed by the Assist- ant Secretary of War — was dated at Washington city, August 2, 1862. It was directed to W. H. Scott, and com- missioned him to take with him one as- 40
sistant, and to proceed to Lancaster, Ohio, and arrest Edson B. Olds, and to convey him to New York, and deliver him to the commanding officer of Fort Lafayette; and that if he was resisted in the execution of the order, he was directed to call upon Governor Tod, of Ohio, for such assistance as might be necessary. The order contained no in- timation of the " nature and cause " of the accusation against me; indeed, it charged me with the commission of no offence whatever ; and when I demanded of my captors to know what were the charges against me, they replied that they " did not know." Thus, my friends, was I dragged from a sick bed — for I was, at that time, and for many long and weary days and nights afterward, seriously afflicted with an attack of the bloody flux. In this condition I was hurried into a carriage, and during the remainder of the night driven to Colum- bus, and just at daylight placed upon the cars, and taken, in rny sick and ex- hausted condition,Bwithout a moment's delay, to Fort Lafayette. After this degrading operation had been per- formed, and before conducting me from the commandant's room to my dungeon, all the other prisoners about the Fort were locked into their rooms, that I might not be seen and recognized, lest, peradventure, information might be given to the world and my friends of my whereabouts, and the cruelties about to be practiced upon me. One of the prisoners having learned a few days afterwards, through the medium of the newspapers, who the mysterious stran- ger was, wrote to a friend of his "that Dr. Olds, of Ohio, had teen brought to Fort Lafayette, and placed in solitary confinement." His letter was returned to him by the commandant, requiring him to strike out so much of it as re- ferred to the case of Dr. Olds. Mydun- geon was on the ground, with a brick
HORRORS OP THE ABOLITION BASTILES.
41
pavement or floor over about the one- half of it ; and so great was the damp- ness, that in a very short time a mould would gather upon any article left upon the floor. My bed was an iron stretcher, with a very thin husk mattress upon it — so thin, indeed, that you could feel every iron slat in it the moment you lay down upon it. The brick floor, with all its dampness, would have been far more comfortable than this iron and husk bed, had it not been for the rats and the vermin that infested the room. I had also in my room a broken table and a chair ; a chunck of government bread, with an old,, stinking, rusty tin of Lin- coin coffee, with a slice of boiled salted pork, was my fare. My only drink, other than their nasty coffee, was rain- water. I was furnished with no towel, neither could any entreaty procure one for me. Neither could I induce my jail- ers to let me have a candle during my long, tedious sick nights. No entreaty could procure for me the return of the medicine which had been taken from me when I was searched. Again and again I begged for the little bit of opium to relieve my suffering, which had been taken out of my pocket with my other medicine, but all in vain. After ten days of such treatment and such suffer- ing, late one night the Serjeant of the guard brought me some medicine which, he informed me, the surgeon at Fort Hamilton had sent me. This surgeon knew nothing about my case, having never seen me, or been informed by me of my condition. With no light in my cell, with no one to give me even a drink of my rain-water, you can well imagine that I would not take the medicine. I did not know but that my jailers de- signed to poison me. Their previous treatment justified such an opinion. I made up my mind that if I died in Fort Lafayette, I would die a natural death, unless, indeed, Lincoln ordered me to be tried by a drum-head court-martial and shot, which I felt he had as much right to do, as he had to arrest and im- prison me in the manner he had done.
Under such treatment, and by this time, you may well imagine that I had got a " big mad " on me ; and this, I think, helped to save my life, for the truth is I had got to be too mad to die, and do thanks to Lincoln ; but, under a kind Providence, I began to get better from that time on. If anything could add to the cruelty inflicted upon me, during these long days and nights of my sick- ness and suffering, it was the refusal of the commandant to allow me the use of a Bible. Day after day I begged the Serjeant to procure one for me. His constant answer was, "the commanding officer says you shan't have one." I begged him to remind the commanding officer that we lived in a Christian, and not a heathen land — that 1 was an American citizen, and not a condemned felon. Still the answer was, "the com- manding officer says you shan't have one, and you need - not ask any more ;" and it was not until after sixteen days of such more than. heathenish treatment that Col. Burke, of Fort Hamilton, upon the importunity of my son, sent an order to the commandant of Fort Lafayette to let me have a Bible. It was upon the sixteenth day of my lonely imprison- ment, that my son, upon an order from the Secretary of War, was nermitted to see me, not in my lonely cell, but in the commandant's room and presence. It was with much difficulty that, even at that time, I was able to walk from my cell to the commandant's room. This was the first time during my imprison- ment that I was able to obtain an inter- view with the commandant. In his weekly inspection of the prisoners he had carefully avoided my dungeon. No kindly message of inquiry as to my wants and condition had ever reached me from him. I seized upon this oppor- tunity to let him know that I was a hu- man being, and, as such, entitled to hu- mane treatment ; that such a thing as refusing a prisoner a Bible was unknown in any civilized community. His an- swer was, that he was not permitted, under his orders, to let me have one. —
c-
42
HORRORS OP THE ABOLITION BASTILES.
1 had great reason to be thankful that my son's visit gave me an opportunity to see the commandant, for from that time, although kept in solitary confine- ment, my condition was made more comfortable. A better mattress was put upon my bed, occasionally a raw onion or a tomatoe was added to my dinner, and twice, I believe, some pickled beets were sent me from the cook room. My son was compelled to visit Wash- ington city, and obtain from the Secre- tary of War an order to that effect, be- fore he could see me. As soon as he learned how I had been treated, he re- turned immediately to Washington, and with the assistance of a very kind friend, procured an order from Secretary Stan- ton for my release from solitary confine- ment, and that I should have all the privileges accorded to the other prison- ers. And thus, after twenty-two days of this loathsome and worse than hea- thenish treatment, my dungeon door was unlocked, and I was -permitted to hold intercourse with my fellow-prison- ers. Such, my friends, is a plain state- ment of the manner of my arrest, and the treatment I received during the twenty-two days of my solitary confine- ment. If it affords any gratification to those Republicans who caused nry ar- rest, they are welcome to it. Their time will come some day. " The end is not yet" After my release from soli- tary confinement, I was put into a case- mate with eleven others, making twelve of us in a room measuring fifteen by twenty-five feet. In this room we slept, cooked and eat. In it were our beds, chairs, tables, trunks, cooking utensils, table furniture, &c. We were locked into our room at sundown, and unlocked again at sunrise. Through the day we were permitted to stand or sit in front of our cell inside the fort. We had, morning and evening, what was called a "walking hour." This hour was sometimes ten,' and sometimes thirty minutes long, just as suited the caprice or whim of the serjeant. Our walking ground was inside the fort. We were
permitted to walk backwards and for- wards across the area of the fort, which was perhaps a little larger than your City Hall. We were permitted, through the commanding officer, to supply and cook our own food. We were compelled to use rain water for all purposes — cooking, washing and drinking. Each and every time that we drew any from the cistern, we were required to first obtain permission from the serjeant of the guard. This, like all cistern water, was sometimes quite usable and some- times quite offensive. Mr. Childs, one of my mess, informed me that at one time during the latter part of last win- ter, in consequence of the accumulation of ice in the gutters, all the washings and scourings from the soldiers' quar- ters run into the cistern out of which the prisoners were compelled to draw the water which they used — that the water became so filthy that they had to boil it and skim off the filth before using it; and that notwithstanding they had three other cisterns inside the fort, full of comparatively clean water, yet the commanding officer compelled them to use this filthy washings from the sol- diers' quarters. I will, with 3-our per- mission, my friends, relate another inci- dent connected with Fort Lafayette, so monstrous, so heathenish as almost to challenge belief — giving the incident as related to me by an eye-witness, himself one of the prisoners referred to. There were at one time confined in one of the rooms of what is called the Battery, so accurately described in Governor More- head's narrative, some thirty prisoners. One of these poor fellows was prostrated with sickness, and near unto death. — Night came on, and it was thought that the poor fellow could not live until morning. The prisoners confined in the room with the dying man, begged that for that one night, at least, they might be permitted to have a light in their prison ; and, monstrous as it may -scorn, this request was refused ; and in this boasted land of liberty, civilization and Christianity, these prisoners were locked
._~
HON. C. L. VALLANDIGHAM.
43
up in their dark prison-house with the dying* man. During that long, dark night, they could hear his dying moans ; deeper and still deeper grew the death- rattles until near morning, when all be- came still and hushed ; and when morn- ing broke in upon that loathsome dun- geon, death had done his work. This poor victim of Lincoln's despotism had ceased to live ; his released spirit had gone to that world where the " weary are at rest, and the wicked cease from troubling." There is to-day confined in one of the cells of Fort Lafayette a poor prisoner, said to be partially deranged ; since last February he has been in soli- tary confinement. His cell is darkened ; a sentry marches night and day before his prison door ; he is permitted no in- tercourse— not even to see the other prisoners. You can well imagine how strict his confinement is, when I tell you that his aged and widowed mother, who for months has been seeking to obtain an interview with her son, at last hav- ing obtained the long sought-for per- mit, came one Sabbath day to visit him. Before this prisoner was taken from his dungeon to the commandant's room, in which his mother was permitted to see him, the other prisoners — myself among them — were all locked into their rooms ; a file of soldiers was detailed to guard
him from his cell — a double guard placed in the sally-port. And what suppose you was this man's offence, that for so many months he had been thus inhu- manly treated ? Why simply this — on one dark, stormy night, with a life-pre- server made out of oyster cans, he jumped into the sea and attempted to escape.
And in conclusion, my friends, permit me to say, that although I would not "take the oath," attempted again and again to be forced upon me by Mr. Lin- coln, as a condition to my release, yet, when in two weeks from this time, I take my seat as your representative in the Legislature, I shall most cheerfully take the oath of allegiance to both the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Ohiu. That oath," notwithstanding the exam- ples of both Lincoln and Tod to the contrary, I shall maintain inviolate. — All those sacred guarantees which both these constitutions throw around you, to protect you in your inalienable rights, I will endeavor to enforce to the utmost of my poor ability, in defiance of the despotism of both the President and the Governor, although by so doing I may be again returned to my lonely cell in Fort Lafayette."
HON. C. L. VALLANDIGHAM,
The fine engraving of Mr. Vallandig- ham which accompanies this number of The Old Guard, will, we have no doubt, be gratifying to our readers. O'Conner once said he had the honor of being the best abused person in the kingdom, of Great Britain. That honor is perhaps Mr. Vallandigham's in America. But the abuse is of a character and proceeds
from a source which renders it the high- est compliment to his character and pat- riotism. None but a man of intellect, character and patriotism, could have drawn upon himself such a bitter and persistant abuse from the disunion abo- lition traitors and fanatics as has been showered upon the head of Mr. Vallan- digham. The blows he has dealt against
44
HON. C. L. VALLANDIGHAM.
their constitution-despising, and law-de- fying schemes, must have hit home, to have aroused the whole pack to such a universal howl. The hatred of such men is a just measure of the virtue and pow- er of a man. Publius Cyrus said : "The opposition of bad men is the highest praise."
Clement Laird Vallandigham was born inNewLisbon. Columbiana County, Ohio, July 24th 1820. His father was a Presb3^terian clergyman, a native of Vir- ginia. His grandfather was also a Vir- ginian, and was born near the now clas- sic fields of " Bull Run." The name was originally Van Landegham, the family coming from French Flanders.
Mr. Vallandigham, we believe, com- pleted his education at Jefferson College, Pa. He was for some time Principal of •an Academy on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. He finally studied law and was admitted to the bar in his native county, in December 1842. He was ejected to represent that county in the Legislature of Ohio, in 1845, 1846-7. In that body he distinguished him- self by his opposition to the measures of the Wilmot proviso, and to all the schemes of the abolitionists and semi- abolitionisfs, who were then beginning to lift their hydra head throughout the country. The last year he was in the Ohio Legislature, a petition was intro- duced, asking that body to declare the Union dissolved, and to loithdraw our Senators and Representatives in Congress. Mr. Vallandigham of course, denounced the peition,and those who supported it. Those very traitors are now denouncing him for his faithful adherence to the Constitution and laws of our country. He is still standing where he then did, contending for the Union of our fathers,
and they are still battling to destroy it. In that same winter of 1847, Massachu- setts passed a secession resolution, which to this day, remains unrescinded upon its official records.
At the conclusion of his term in the Legislature of Ohio, Mr. Vallandigham removed to Dayton, and became the ed- itor of the Dayton Empire, in which po- sition he distinguished himself as a vig- orous and able journalist, and as a pat- riot, who sought to preserve the princi- ples of constitutional liberty which were born of our Revolution. He took a prom- inent part among the friends of the Un- ion in Ohio, in favor of the compromise measures of 1850, the work of Clay and Webster, and other true men and patri- ots, who then saved the ship of state from splitting on the rock of abolition- ism. In 1852, he was nominated by the democrats as the compromise candid- ate for Congress in the third district of Ohio, in opposition to Lewis D. Cambell, the candidate of the anti-com- promise or abolition party. Cambell was elected, which so rejoiced the old "liberty party" of Ohio, which run John P. Hale for President, that their state committee issued a circular, in which they said of Mr. Vallandigham — " In opposition to Mr. Cambell, the demo- cratic party had nominated C. L. Val- landigham, a lawyer of high standing, an eloquent and ready debater, of gen- tlemanly deportment and unblemished character, and untiring industry and energy. But he was known to all to be an ultra pro-slavery man, and he under- took with a relish to carry the load of the compromise measures, the fugitive slave law included, and he broke down under the burden.''
HON. C. L. VALLANDIGHAM.
45
In 1856, Mr, Vallandigham was again nominated by the democratic party for Congress, and was triumphantly elected. His friends went into the •campaign with the motto of " Yall and the Union" inscribed on their banner. The opposition denounced and sneered at him as a Union-saver" — the same pack of howlers that now call him a " secessionist," because he wants the Union as it was and the Constitution as it is, while his opponents were parading up and down with only sixteen stars on their flags, as the ensign of their prin- ciples, to drive all but the free States out of the Union- Mr. Yall and igliam has now served six years in Congress. His whole course there has been distin- guished by the conduct and manners of a patriot, a statesman and a gentleman. The cry of "traitor" which has been howled by the whole pack of abolition wolves from one end of the land to the other is, as we have already intimated, the very highest proof of his integrity, courage, and patriotism. We venture to affirm that one may look in vain in all his speeches in or out of Congress, for a single sentence or word which does not breathe an affectionate love of his country, and a lofty determination to stand by all the laws and institutions of the Union. He is one of the few men who have not deviated for a moment, from the principles which the democratic party has adhered to ever since its found- ation. If his doctrines are treasonous,
then the platform of every democratic national convention has been treasonous. If he is a traitor, then every democratic President, from Jefferson to Jackson, and from Jackson to Buchanan, was a traitor. The difference between him and some others, who call themselves democrats, is, that he has stood firm and undaunted on the time-honored platform of democracy, while some others have jumped off and have been drawn away by the prevailing madness of the hour. They now see their fatal mistake in giv- ing aid and encouragement to an ad- ministration which has utterly ruined the country. The administration has landed jus where Mr. Vallandigham, and those who have stood with him, fore-warned the people it would. He said the that war would not save the Union. He declar- ed, with the lamented Douglas, that " war is final and eternal separation." It was an unconstitutional remedy for an unconstitutional deed. It was as great a heresy as secession. Had Lin- coln confined his acts within constitu- tional limits, and attempted no deed not authorized by that sacred instrument, not only should we have been spared all this blood-shed and debt, but the Union would have been saved. The people are now getting their eyes open to this fact, and their second sober thought acknowledges the wisdom and patriot- ism of the party that has stood with Mr. Vallandigham through all this reign of terror and folly.
GOVERNOR PARKER'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
The Inaugural Address of Governor Parker, of New Jersej^, is received throughout the country with the strong- est expressions of approval by all true friends of the constitution . and laws. The abuse it receives from the abolition papers is another evidence that it is a statesman-like and patriotic document. In some respects it is a bolder and an abler paper than the message of Gov. Seymour, and places Gov. Parker in the front ranks of the strong, true men who are to stay the destructive sweep of revolution, and restore to the people the reign of constitutional and statute laws. We have seen no public docu- ment that goes more thoroughly to the root of the Executive usurpation and tyranny that have disgraced and justly alarmed the nation for the last two years. It is almost the first full and clear announcement of the time-honored principles of State-rights, which have been held as the palladium of liberty from the foundation of our government, that we have listened to since the dark hour that placed this abolition federal administration in power. Gov. Olden, although not the most rabid type of abolitionist, has permitted the Federal Government to override the Constitution and laws of the State of New Jersey. And even men who were elected to the last legislature as Democrats, officially reported that there was "no cause for action " in cases where the State laws had been stricken down, and the most sacred rights of our citizens trampled upon by the heel of federal power. Gov. Parker's address sets the seal of con- 46
demnation upon these dangerous and insulting wrongs. Under his adminis- tration New Jersey is to be a State again — it is to have rights, and her peo- ple are to enjoy the security and pro- tection which the laws and the Consti- tution throw around every citizen. With this return of law and order Gov. Parker will identify his name. His position as Governor of the only Northern State that did not cast its electoral vote for Lincoln will draw the attention of the nation to his administration, and will enable him to bear a leading part in the grand work of snatching the nation from the consuming fires of anarchy and revolution, in which Lincoln and his party are engulphing it. If his courage and firmness are equal to the great work before him, and which he has so happily begun, he will leave a name which will occupy one of the brightest pages in American history. The fame of saving one's country in the time of peril is often greater than the glory of establishing it. The deeds of Washing- ton and the heroes of the Revolution will slip into comparative oblivion, un- less the ship of State can be safely guided out of this all-devouring mael- strom of abolitionism. If this lawless and destructive spirit is not arrested, we shall break, not into one, but a dozen governments. No nation can long hold together with a dominant party teach- ing that there is a higher law than the constitution, and that compacts and laws are to be disregarded when they come in the way of their fancies and prejudices.
o iivn isr i tj :mi.
Did Lincoln steal the sense of Congress. ?
The President says he '• has taken the sense of th loyal members of Congress on all important ques- tions.t We knew that those rascals had been utterly without sense, but we did not know before, that Lin- coln was the robber who had taken it. Since this confession of the President, we fancy we hear that no. torious plagiarist and imitator of the style of great men addressing Lincoln thus :
"He that steals my purse steals trash; But he who filches from me my good sense, Robs me of that which I never had, And makes him poor indeed."
We wish that Mr. Sumner had always been as for- tunate in his plagiarisms from the orations of Demos- thenes, as he is in his quotations of Shakspeare.
Green-backs and yellow-bellies.
A scandalous " traitor" of an editor — democrat of course — calls attention to the fact that Mr. Lincoln draws his salary, not in good legal tender green-backs, but in hard yellow-bellies. Prudent man! For the yellow-bellies will ue worth their full face next year, whereas the Lord only knoweth what the green-backs will be worth then. Besides, at the present rates, the President's salary of $25,000 per annum, is worth ten thousand dollars ($10,000) more in Uncle Sam's old yellow-bellies than in Lincoin's green-backs. That would buy one of the best farms in Illinois. We heard a few weeks ago that Mrs. Lincoln had deposited $100,000 in green-backs with a banker in Washington for safe keeping. We suggest to the good lady, that the yellow-bellies, even less the 50 per cent, are a much safer keeping.
How Jack and Jake went up the lake.
New Jersey, gallant, glorious New Jersey, is still not without its " this world's cares," which too fre- quently, alas, she experiences from the bargains and intrigues of politicians. It turns out that a certain candidate for Congress had to purchase the support (which by the way he did not need) of a certain black republican democrat, a regular war-howler, by prom- ising to make him U. S. Senator. This bargain re- minds us of one which we all read about in our child, hood's days, in the following lines slightly altered to suit "the terrible necessities of the hour," a3 Mr. Lincoln says :
" Jack and Jake Went up the lake, To get a pail of water ; Jake fell down, And broke his crown, And Jack came tumbling after."
The words are awfully prophetic, as well as histor- ical. But it is, nevertheless, a victory for the chris-
tian virtue of forgiveness, to see these two gentlemen who so thoroughly hated each other, and whose po- litical principles are as wide apart as the poles, dwel- ling together in brotherly unity. British history alone furnishes us another such example, and that was the making up of the celebrated quarrel, and the estab- lishment of a coalition between Mr. Fox and Mr. Adam. The wits of that time have left us the following po- etical record of the event :
" Once Adam indignant, with valorous mind, To send Mr. Fox to the devil designed ; Now Adam and Fox. like birds of a feather, Most cordially go to the devil together.
McClellan disobeying the orders of Lincoln.
General Hitchcock has consented to aid the aboli- tionists a little, and stepped forward with a letter ac- cusing Gen. McClellan with disobedience to the Pre- sident's order last Spring. If he did so disobey, we venture to say that he saved the army from some crushing defeat by it. If Gen. McDowell had diso- beyed Mr. Lincoln's orders when he ordered him not to re-inforce McClellan, according to his plan, we should probably be in possession of Richmond to-day, and many thousands of brave men's lives would have been spared. We have great confidence in Mr. Lin- coln as a good story-teller, a* excellent joker, and a first class buffoon ; but no confidence in him whatever, as a military strategist. He will pardon us for this opinion we trust, since we so much admire his genius in that line in which he is evidently most ambitious to shine.
A General with good legs.
General B d has made a speech to some lucky
soldiers under his command, in which he wisely talk- ed entirely of himself, to give his men confidence in their leader. He thanked heaven for " a firm will to serve his country, and a vigorous constitution to en- dure fatigue." But he neglected to return thanks for what may prove the greatest blessing of all — a good pair of legs.
A new senatorial head for Seward's shoulders.
Mr. Seward's friends boast that the efforts of the " radicals" to drive him out of the cabinet, do not produce the slightest impression on the imperturable Secretary. Of course nothing can drive him out of office in Washington, unless he can jump into the va- cant U. S. Senatorship in New York. He is as tena- cious of official life, as Charles II. was in the quarrel between him and parliament, when he said: " I swear
47
J.I i7rni"9 UA**T
48
OMNIUM GATHERUM.
to God, they may knock out my brains, but they shall never cut off my head." The radicals will find it much easier to knock out Seward's brains than to cut off his official head, unless they could have tempted him to voluutarily lay his neck upon the block, for the purpose of getting in exchange the Senatorial head nowworn by that harmless fat boy, Preston King.
Plan to assassinate Jeff Davis.
The President's bull against the Comet not having the expected effect of arousing universal niggerdom to " strike down the rebellion with a single blow," the abolitionists have now another project, quite as wor- thy of their genius and Christianity as their scheme of setting the negroes to exterminate the white race in the South with fire and sword. They now propose to kill. Jeff Davis, and so cut off the head of the re- bellion. The highly civilized and truly pious plan is, for some philanthropic abolitionist, to get to Rich- mond as a deserter from our lines, obtain an audience with Jeff Davis, under the pretence of having impor- tant secrets to divulge, and to stab him to the heart. This noble undertaking probably originated with those worthy divines, Beecher, Cheever, Tyng and Bellows. It is fully up to the standard of their Sab- bath ministrations. They and their whole pack of kindred philanthropists will pursue it with as much intelligence and enthusiasm, as is possessed by those wild Indians, who believe that they inherit, not only the spoils, but the ability of any great enemy they have the luck to kill. If these sanctimonious assassins succeed in getting Davis' head, could' nt they contrive to stick it on Lincoln's shoulders.
The Church of the Holy Cannibals.
The Rey. Mr. Beilow3, a Unitarian minister of New York city, recently delivered himself of the following bit of religio-politico treason, to the great delight of the savages who reioice to sit under the drippings of such profane altars :
"It is no longer a war in defence of the Union, the Constitution and in maintainence ol the laws It is a war to be carried on no longer with the aim of re-estab- lishing the Union and the Constitution with all their old compromises. God means not to let us off with any half way work. I am now convinced, and I con- sider it the most humane, the most economical, and the most statesman-like policy, now to take the most radical policy, now to take the most radical ground prssible ; to assume that this is a war for the subju- gation, or the extermination, of all persons who wish to maintain th e slave power— a war to get rid of .slavery and of slaveholders, whether it be constitu- tional or not."
This Reverend gentleman would have made a brave loader of the black savages of San Domingo, when their victorious banner was the body of a white in- fant, impaled on a pole. He feeds his worse than can- nibal appetite on propositions to exterminate nil
who seek to preserve the Constitution and laws of their country. From the speckled outside of Bellows, church, it has been nick-name'd the "church of the holy zebra" — let it be re-christened the " church of the holy cannibals."
Lincoln's last great national question.
At a late Cabinet meeting, when there was a rather prolonged silence for the want of any new subject of debate, the President said, " Gentlemen, I have an important question for you to decide, which is, why is a tailor's iron called a goose ?" At last accounts the wisdom of the Cabinet was employed on this great and appropriate question — appropriate, because the attention of the Cabinet is well changed from negroes to geese, inasmuch as their gatherings for two yeara have more resembled a barn-yard conven- tion of geese, than the deliberative councils of states- men. Besides, they have picked the wool pretty well off of the poor negroes, and now by all means let them employ their wisdom on feathers— the contract- ors and the abolition members of Congress have well feathered their nests— let the Cabinet have a turn.
The National Card-Players.
England.
I wish I had not played that double game ; I have not got a trump now, yet I shuffled well. I hope 1 shall not be forced to play.
France. I can play, for I am strong in every suit ; besides, I know how to finess the cards, and value rnyself upon playing all the games. Russia. Some advise me to play, others to let it alone. What shall I do ? I'll e'en stand by 'till I see time to cut in. But I would like to take a game of cribbage with somebody to try if I can lurch him. Austria. I have no luck lately— would like to try a new pack, to see what that would do. This won't do, for I have nothing but a knave, without a single suit. Prussia. Oh, I pas3.
Spain. I have nothing but a Queen in my hand, so I will pass too ; or I will play any gentleman a quiet game of three up.
Holland. It is no use, I shan't get a trick. United States. I believe I shall lose the game; no, I will call a negro and let him take my hand — negroes, I am told, are great fellows at card:!.
Confederate States. I think I will play now, for I believe I have got the game in my hand— Lincoln, I see, throws up his hand, and lets a negro take it.
i
1i.wft.cft-
THE
A MONTHLY JOURNAL,
DEVOTED TO THE
Principles of 1776 and 1787
DESIGNED TO UNMASK THE
USURPATION, DESPOTISM AND CRIMES
ABOLITION ADMINISTRATION,
.A.nd to Defend, the Doctrines of State Rights and of
Constitutional Ijiberty as held by our
Revolutionary Fathers.
OOZNTTIEIlKrTVS :
A FINE STEEL ENGRAVING OF THE HON. 0. L. VAL LANDIGHAM.
FINANCIAL RUIN OF THE COUNTRY. THE HORRORS OF THE ABOLITION BASTILES. REMARKS ON THE FRENCH DECLARATION OF RIGITTr BEECHER, BLASPHEMY AND NEGRO PATRIOTISM. DUTY OF THE PEOPLE TO STOP USURPATION. GREEN BACKS AND YELLOW BELLIES. THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY CANNIBALS. LINCOLN'S LAST GREAT QUESTION, &c, fe
Published by ۥ Chauncey Burr & Co. at If 9 Nassau Slrert,
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