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-
G^^^^^^Xt*^
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.
30
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
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