, . . . . . , ; . t - .„ • . . , -... . , -'. ,_-; i 1 '' -.- , • ... . , .. . . . .. st.e * .e.• . ...- , , .... . • % , T i I ' . ; . ... 4 :7;. •—• '' -: I M sN-2.; •:. ti..., ..:., . r • . • - •. It ..... __ .....,....„0C ..... .„.?.........,:;, r ~ • .;••••• , , -...i N; .; ..; A. J. GERRITSON, Proprietor.i POll ERE MONTMOSE DEMOCRAT . .IEX lIS'VCO Xi "lir Of the Great Struggle between Liberty and Despotism for the last " Hundred Years. BY ?ass. L. C. SEARLE Ninety years ago there waved'on the soil of Virginia a dark and bloody banner of war, with an inscription written in large characters upon its folds, "Liberty to Slaves." " Freedom to all the black race who will join in reducing - the white people of this Colony to suubmission to the king." Submission to Great Britain, said the white race, is submission to slavery. "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery ? Are fleets and armies necessa ry to a work of love and reconciliation ? These are implements of subjugation sent over to rivet upon us the chains of slave ry, which the British ministry have been so long forging." The patriots of Massachusetts_declared unanimously that " A free-bora people are not required by the religion of Christ to submit to tyr anny, but may make use of such power as God has given them to recover and sup port their liberties." The lawyers in Massachnsetts said ; o " It is the first principle in civil society, founded in nature and reason, that no law of society can be binding on any individu al without his consent, given by himsef in person, or by his representative of his own free election." In speaking of the calse of the Ameri ca❑ revolution, an Abolition paper of ten years ago says: " The British government claimed the right to legislate for the Colonies in their internal affairs. The Colonies resisted on ;he ground that it is the' essence of tyranny .uhjeet men to laws in the enactment of which they had no voice. This principle lies at the root of all our free institutions." - The Colonies resisted;" the people of the thirteen American Colonies were- vic torious ; the " chains of slavery which the British government had been so long forging" were reserved for a more favora ble period for riveting them on the free born people of America. Their fleets and armies disappeared from all its shores, driven back by heroic bands of soldiers under their immortal leader, and that b:oody banner, with its motto of evil omen, "Liberty to Blacks," "Slavery to Whites," disappeared also from public view. But the King's flag, raised by Lord Dunmore, was never removed from American soil. It was retained in the hands of British tones, whose hearts were set on kingly government, to which the Southern people would not submit when the Union was formed—preferring free government, called a Democracy. That flag, with its motto, "Liberty to Negro Slaves," was the enchanted wand which they believed would sooner or la ter call back the armies of the King, with :heir implements of subjugation, ready to place the shackles upon the same proud race whose boast bad ever been that they were 4 ' born to the bright inheritance of freedom." That dark flag waver over the whole South to-day, and an army is dispersed through all those once free dominions to !oh the white race of their bright inheri tance of freedom; to rob them of the 7igt to frame their own forms of govern ment ; of making their own liws by 'Which they are to be governed; rights' secured to them by the most sacred charters for ilmost three hundred years; and bestow+ log these same rights upon a race which fur more than a thousand years were born 10 an inheritance of slavery. " Freedom to.blacks," "bondage to whites," is the kr, that has conquered at last, if this peat army returns victorious. What did the ring's flag,raised by the royal governor of Virginia mean by " lib- Tty to slaves" in 1775 ? It meant the Lime as when raised again in 1868. It tomtit a war of races ; a servile war ; a tar of the black - al:Ton the }whites ; an in larrectiott of , the slaves; a 'war upon wo men and children; an indiscriminate mas !acre and slaughter of the whole white race, such as occurred inSt. Domingo A . nt eiateen years thereafter.' And 'was great Britain so cruefand:'bttrbarous in' that enlightened age, trained to say, as 1 9 sanction such a war as thatl:But why "t? "Is it not lawful'," they said, " to a vail ourselves of all the means which GA a nd nature has put into our hands to crael, 1111 causeless rebellion? " The same "letion was repeated in 1863, and an swore by arm'tng 200,000 negro slaves against their masters. What did'the rebels of 1775 think about the arming of slaves against them ? Bancroft says : - "The first menace of Lord Dunmore to raise the standard of servile insurrection, and set the slaves against their masters with , British arms in their hands, filled the whole South with borron. and alarm. But the spirit of the people rose with the danger. Pinckney and Drayton of South Carolina, in their Assembly, condemned the . British Parliament . and their cruel statutes and sanguina ry measures. Their endeavors to engage barbarous nations to imbrue their hands .in the innocent blood of women and children, and the attempts .to make ignorant domestic slaves subser vient to the most wicked purposes, are acts at. which, humanity must revolt. But although a superior force 'bay lay waste our towns, and ravage our country, it can never eradicate from the breasts of free men those principles of liberty. which are engrafted in their very nature." "The men," says Bancroft, "to whose passior.s Lord' -Dunmore appealed, were either criminals, bound to labor in expia tion, of their misdeeds, or barbarians, some of them freshly imported from Africa, ,with tropical passions .seething in their veins, and frames rendered strong by abundant food and out of door toil ; they formed the majority of the population on tide-water, and were distributed on the /timely plantations so that danger lurked in every home;" Danger of what ? Danger that father, mother, parent and child, brother, sister and ffiend inightte slaughtered by these African barbarians, and with their &see and homes be buried in one common ru in. The patriots of Virginia were victo rious over the royal governor and his ne gro brigades, and the danger passed away. But England's hatred of America and her free institutions didpass away. In loss than twenty-6v earsaf ter the Constitution of the United States was formed, her fleets and armies again appeared 4 upon our shores. And who were ready then to 'welcome them back instead of driving them away. The Federalists of New England—John Ilolmes, a Member of the Legislature of Massa chusetts, denounced that party in 1814 in the following „I.tognage: " Here is amongst up a daring and am bitious faction, who, I do not hesitate to proclaim prefer the British government„, monarchy and all." The British army appeared at New Or leans, and Gen. Jackson saved the people of the South from another invasion and another invitation to slaves to rise against the white race. He conquered the flower of the British army, and the Federalists ahirays hated him therefor. The victory of New Orleans compelled Great Britain to sign articles of peace with America, and she promised to let her remain in her quietude and rest. In less than three.years from signing a treaty of peace, the hero of New Orleans, while engaged in a war with the Semin oles, detected British agents or spies in citing large bands of runaway negroes and Indians to murder whole families of white people. he hung two of these British agents—Arbuthnot and Ambris ter—and the rage of the New England Federalists knew no bounds. When the Democratic party nominated the old hero ,for President, the Federalists printed handbills with the • pictures of the coffins of these two British spies, and held up Gen. Jackson :as the greatest military despot that ever lived. This party that has placed ten millions of people under the rule of military officers, were ready to faint away at the mention of martial law, and the suspension of the sacred writ of habeas corpus. They were frightened al most out of their senses for fear our gov- ' ernmetit - might be overthrown and a mili tary despotisni established on its ruins,. because Gen. Jackson hung two incendia ries without a trial; before a civil court.— Their own arguments against the acts of the hero. of New Orleans convicts them not only of gross hypocrisy, but of being themselves the greatest despots that have arisen.on the earth for hundreds of years. The difference in the two cases is this: These British agents who were inciting Indians and negroes to murder the people of tbe SoUtb were their friends; and were engaged in a work that was pleasing to them, for these people were . their politi cal enemies, and theitianted them exter minated. The Southern people were Gen. "Tackson's filen& ;they were 'of his own race, and be loved tyem better than ho did the liiidiantrind 'Negroes who wire killing thekt. He says, ‘i my God would MONTROSE, PA., TUESDAY, JULY 30, 1567. not have Smiled on me had I punished on ly the poor ignorant savages, and spared the white men who set them on." Many years after this event, a states man in Congress made the following dec laration : " If I were to declare an opinion as to the horrors and cruelty of all our Indian wars, I would unhesitatingly say that to British agents all is attributable. Child ren at school, in the hours of play, were butchered at the instigation of these agents; murder on every road; death in every path. Even at this day the name of British agent or trader will create a sudden start of horror f in the widowed mother of a family, mitt tears open all the sluices of her griec. which time had soothed but could not destroy. The child ren were hushed to silence by the terri ble names of Simon Girty and McKee, and could those incendiaries have been taken in those days, every voice would have pronounced their doom. Not only individuals, but whole families were swept away; many who rendered bril liant services to their country, are now only known to those who feel a kindred sorrow." And yet the Federalists of New Eng land took the side of Arbuthnot and Am brister, and were as much enrageeivhen they- were hung for murdering Southern people as they were when John Brown was hung for attempting the same crime. Two years later Thos. Jefferson, alarmed at the conduct of the Federalists in Con gress, exclaims, " Are our slaves to be presented with their freedom and a dag ger?" In 1829 the same Puritan party • tried to incite the Indians of Georgia to massacre the white 'people them. The In dians being removed, in 1831 the flag of Lord Dunmore was sent from Massachu setts to the South through the mails.— This dark flag bore the inscription of "The Liberator," and it produced the same " thrill ofhorror all over the South" that it did when it was raised by Lord Dunmore in,1775. The. people there ap plied to the old hero of New Orleans for protection from massacre by their slaves. The hero, being then in the Presidential chair, could not gird on his sword and Fight in their defence, but he called the attention of Congress to the painful ex citement produced in the South by in flammatory appeals addressed to the pas sions of the slaves, calculated toistimulate them to insurrection and produce all the horrors of a servile war." At this time the British agent, Geo. Thompson, who had come over with the editor of the Lib erator, was in Massachusetts for the pur pose of sending the flags of Lord Dun more all over the South. Gen. Jackson denounced him for "daring to inter fere with the slaves of the South."— Gee. Thompson was as much a British Agent as Arbuthnot and Ambrister, who were hung for doing in the South what he was doing among his friends in Massa setts, where the South could not reach him. The abolitionists declared that Gen. Jackson accused them of murder, and this history will prove that the party now in power are not only linked directly with Dunmore's invitation to slaves to rise and murder the white race, but with the mas sacre of St. Domingo ;land that, they have conspired against the whole white race in America who refuse to aid in establishing Negro government, in order to perpetu ate their own despotic power, and en throne a Cromwell, a George 111., or a Robespierre,qn the place first, occupied by Washington. —Of course our late Minister to Hayti was a graduate of Oberlin College, in .Ohio, where according to the late Arte rims Ward, the negroes' are fed first, and what they leave suffers a boarding-house change into some hash for the whites. —Mistakes are said to be fregnent in the catalogne,of painting in the Paris Es position. A correspondent says the por trait of Lincoln, according to the number, is called in the -catalogue, "The Rainy Sewn in the Tropics." - - - , tie Mexican folly has cost France an enormous sum. The losses in material alone, for 1864, are estimated at 22,500, 000 francs, including the expense of 'bringing home the troops. —Prentice says it is a pity the elections at the South cannot take place at this time, for although the negroes there are strong now, they will be stronger in the dog days. —Judge. Sbarswood is very popular among all parties and classes of people in Philadelphia. It is firmly believed that he will receive at least five thousand majori ty, in that city. negrO party chartered a boat at St. Lonis,.ort the 4th, and in cele brating the day a. serious riot oceiirred among themeelyes, in which -one nigger was killed, and several wounded.fLet 'cm vote. Veto of the Reconstruction Bill. WASHINGTON, July 18. To the Houle of Representatives of the Unit ed States: I return herewith the bill entitled " An act supplementary to an act: entitled an act to provide for the more efficient gov ernment of the rebel States,". passed on the 2d day of March, 1867, and the act supplementary thereto, passed on the 23d day of March, 1867, and will state, as briefly as possible, some of the reasons Which prevent me from giiieig it my ap proval. This is one of a Series of measures pass ed by Congress during the last, four months on the subject. of reconstruction. The message returning the act of the 2d of March last states at length my objections to the passage of that, measure; they ap- ply equally well to the bill now before me, and I am content merely to refer to them and to reiterate my convictions that they are sound and unanswerable. There are some points peculiar to' this bill which I will proceed at once to consider. The first section purports to declare the true intent and meaning, in some particn lars,of the prior acts upon this subject. It is declared that the intent of those acts was, first, "That the existing gorern rnents in the ten rebel States" were not legal State governments ; and seccnd, "That hereafter said governments, if con tinued, were to be continued subject in all respects _to the military commanders of the respective districts and to the para mount authority of Congress." Congress may, by a declaratory act, fix upon an act a construction 'altoe . ether at variance with its appearent meaning, and from the time at least when such construction lis fixed the original act will be construed to mean exactly what it is stated to mean by the declaratory etata te. There will be, then from the time this bill may become a law, no doubt ,no question as to the relation in which the existing governments in those States, called in the original act "provis ional governments," stand toward the military authority. As their relation stood, hefore the declaratory net, these " governments," if it is true, were made subject, to absolute military authority in many important respects, but not in all, the language of the act being "subject to the atittionty of the United States as here inafter presented." By the sixth section of the original act these governments were made "in all re spects subject to the paramount authority of the United States." Now, by this de claratory act it , appears that Congress did not, by the original act, intend to limit, the military authority to any particulars or subjects therein " prescribed," but went to make it universal. Thus, over all these ten States, this military government is declared to have unlimited authority.— It is no longer confined to the preserva tion of the public peace, the administra tion of criminal . law, the registration of voters, and the superintendence of elec tions, but in all respects is aserted to be paramount to the existing civil govern ments. It is impossible to conceive any state of society more intolerable than this, and yet it. is to this that twelve millions of American citizen are reduced by the Congress of the United States. Over ev ery foot of the immense territory occupi ed by these American citizens, the Con stitution of the United States thoretically is in full operation. it binds all the people there,and should prprotect them; yet they are denied every one of its sacred guaran tees. Of what avail will it be to any one of these Southrern people, when seized by a file of soldiers, to ask for the cause of the arrest or for the production of the war rant ? Of what avail to ask for the priv ilege of bail when in military custody, which knows no such thing as bail ? Of what avail to demand a trial by jury, pro cess fur witnesses, a copy of the instru ment, the privilege of counsel, or that greater privilege,the writ of habeas corpus? The veto of the original bill of the 2nd of March was based on two distinct grounds, "the interference of congress in matters strictly appertaining to the reserv ed powers of the State, and the establish ment of military tribunals for the trial of citizens ih time of,peace.",. The impartial reader of that message will understand that all it contains with respect to milita ry despotism and martial law has refer ence especially to the fearful power con ferred on the district commanders to dis place the criminal courts and assume jurisdiction to try and to punish by mil-, itary boards; that potentially the suspen sion of the habeas corpus was martial law and military despotism. The act now be fore me . not only declares that the intent was to confer 'such military authority, but altio to confer unlimited military au thority over all the other courts of the State, nd over all the officers of the State, legislative, executive, and judicial. Not Content, with the general grant of power, Congres/in the second section of this bill apeciffiW-gives to each military com manders•the right to "suspend or remove,, from office, or -from the performance - of official duties and the exercise of official .power,.any officer or person . holding or exercising, or professing to hold or exer cise any civil or military office or duty in such diatriet.under any power; eleetiony • appointment, .erc.uuthority -derived from or granted. by or claimed under any so- , called State, or the government thereof, I or any muncipal or other division therof," a power that hitherto all the departments of the, Federal government, acting in con cert or seperately, have not dared to ex ercise, is here •attempted to conferred on a subordinate military officer. To him,as a military officer of the Federal govvn meat, is given the power, supported by "a sufficient military force," to remove every civil officer of the State. What next? • The direct commander, who has thus displaced the civil officer, is author ized to fill the vacancy by the detail of an officer or soldier of the army, or by the ap pointment of some other person. This military appointee, whether an officer or a solder, or some other person, is to per form the duties of such officer or person so suspended or removed. In other words, an officer or soldier of the army is thus transformed into a civil officer. lie may be made a governor, a legisla ture, a Judge. ' , However unfit he may deem himself' for such civil duties he must obey the order. The officer must, if detail. ed, go upon the supreme bench of the State with the same prompt obedience as if he were detailed to go upon a court martial. The soldier, if detailed to act as a justice of the peace, most obey as quick ly as if he were detailed for picket duty. What is the character of such a military civil officer? This bill declares that ho shall perform the duties of the civil office to which he is detailed. It is clear, how ever, that he does not lose his position in the military service. He is stilt an officer or soldier of the army. He is still subject to the rules and regulations which govern, it., and must yield due deferenCe, respect, and obedience towards his superiors. The clear intent of this section is that the of ficer or soldier detailed to fill a civil office must execute its laws according to the laws of the State. If he is appointed a Governor of a State he is to execute the duties as provided by the laws of thit State, .and for the time being his military character is to be suspended in his new civil capacity. If he is appointed a State Treasurer he must at once assume the custody and disbursment of the funds of the State, and must perform these duties precisely according to the laws yof the State,for he is entrusted with no other of ficial duty or oflioial power. Holding the office of treasurer, and intrusted with funds, it happens that he is required by the State laws to enter into bonds with se curity, and to take an oath of office; yet from the besining of the bill to the end there is no provision for any bond or oath of office, or for any single qualificatien re quired under the State law, such as resi dence, citizenship, or anything else. The only oath is that provided for in the ninth section, by the terms of which every one detailed or appointed to any civil office in the State is required "to take and to sub scribe the oath of office prescribed by law for the officers of the United States." Thus an officer of the United States, de tailed to fill a civil office in one of these States, gives no official bond and takes no official oath for the performance of his new duties, but as a civil officer of the State, only takes the same oath which ho had already taken as a military officer of the United States. He is at last a milita ry officer performing civil duties, and the authority under which he acts is Federal authority only, and the inevitable result is that the Federal government by the agen cy of its owiksworn officers, in effect, as sumes the civil government of the State. A singular contradiction is apparent hero. Congress declares these local State governments to be illegal governments, and then provides that the illegal govern ments are to be carried on by Federal of ficers, who are to perform the very duties imposed on its own officers by this illegal State authority. It would be a novel spectacle if Congress should attempt to carry on a legal State government by the agency of its officers. It is yet more strange that Congress attempts to sustain and carry on an illegal State government by the same Fed al agency. In this connection 1 must call attention to the tenth and eleventh sections of the bill which provides that none of the offi cers or appointees of military command ers " shall be bound in their action by any opinion of any civil officer of the United States, and that all the provissons of the act shall be Construed liberally, to the cud thas all the idtents thereof may be fully and perfectly carried out." It seems Con gress supposed that this bill might require construction, and they fix, therefore, the rule to be applied. But where is the con struction to come from ? Certainly no one can be more in want of instruction than a soldier or officer of the army detail ed for a civil service perhaps the most im portant in a State, with the duties of which, he is altogether unfamiliar. This bill says he shall not bubound in his action by the opinion of any civil officer of the , United States. The duties of the office aro altogether civil, but when he iskslor an opinion he can only ask the opluiott of another tuili tory officer, who perhaps understands as little of his duties as ho does himself; and asto his "action" he is unanswerable to the military authority, , anal to the militnry authority alone. Strictly, no:opinion of "any eiVil officer, other.than a juage,.l44 'a binding force ; but these. inillitary ap= pointees would not be bound, even by a {VOLUME xxly, NIIMB . En 31. judicial opinion. They might very well say, even when their action is in conflict with the Supreme - Court of the United States, " that Court is composted-of civil officers of the United States, and wearil not bound to conform our actioh to any opinion of any such authority." This bill, and the acts to which it is supplementaq, are all founded upon the assumption that these ten communities are not States, and that their existing governments are not Thtoughout the legislation upon this subject, they are called rebel States. And in this particular bill they aredenom inated " so called States," and the vice of illegality is declared to pervade all of them. The obligations of consistency bind a legimate body as well as the individuals who compose it. It is now too late to say that these ten political corn munities are not States of the Union. Dec larations to the contrary of these acts are contradicted again and again by reputed acts of legislation enacted by Congress from the year 1861 to the year 1867. Dar ing that period, whilst theie'States were in actual rebellion, and after that rebellion was brought to a close, they have again and again been recognized as States of the Union. Representation has been ap pointed to them as Sates. They have been divided into judicial districts for the holding of district and circuit courts of the United States, and States can only be districted. The last act on this subject was passed July 23, 1866, by which eve ry one of these ten States was arrfaged into districts and circuits; they havti o been called upon by Congres to act through their Legi-latnres upon at least two amend ments to the Constitution of the 'United States; as States they have 'ratified one amendment, which= required the vote of twenty-seven States of the thirty-six then composing the Union. When the requi site twenty-seven votes were giVen in fa vour of that amendment, seven of which votes were given by seven of these ten States, it was proclaimed to be a part of the Constitution of the United States,and slavery was declared no longer to exsist within the United States, or any pbtao subject to their jurisdiction. If these seven States were not legal States of the, Union, it follows, as an inevitable cense queues, that slavery yet exists. It does not, exist in these seven States, for they ' have abolished it also in their own State Constitutions, but Kentucky not having clone so, it would still remain in that State. But, in truth, if this assumption that these States have no legal State gov ernments be true, then the abolition of slavery by these illegal governments binds no one, for Congress now denies to these States the power to abolish slavery by de nying to them the power to elect a legal Legislature, or to - frame a constitution for any purpose, even such a purpose as the abolition of slavery. As to the other constitutional amend ments, having reference to suffrage, it happens that these States have not accept ed itssThe consequence is that it has nev er been proclaimed or understood even by Congress to be a part of the Con stitnton of the United States. The Sen ate of the United States has repeatedly given its sanction to the appointment of judges, district attorneys, and marshalls, for every one of these States, and yet if they are not legal States not one of these judges is authorized to hold a court. So too both houses of Congress have passed appropriation bills to pay all these judges, — ' attorneys, and officers of .:the United' Sthtes for exercising their functions in these States. Again, in the machinery of the internal revenue laws, all these States are districted not as territories, brit as States. So much for continuous legisla tive recognition. The instances city,how ever, fall far short of all that might be enumerated. Executiue reeognition,as is well known, has been , frequent and un waveing. The same .may be said as to judicial re-' cognition through the Supreme Cerut of the United States. That august tribunal, from first to last, in7the administration of its duties, in bane and upon the circuit, has never failed to recognize these ten communities as legal States of the Union. The cases depending in that court. appeal upon and writ of eror from these States when the rebellion began,have not been dismissed upon an idea of the cessa tion of Jurisdiction. They were carefully continued• from term to term until the rebellion was en tirely subdued and peace re-established, and then they were called fur argument •and consideration as if no insurrection had intervened. New cases occurring since the rebellion have come frod these States before that court by writ of error and appeal, and even by - original suit where only a State can bring such a snit. These cases are entertained by that tribu nal in the exercise of its acknowleddedja risdiction, which could not attach to them . if they had cotue from any political body other than a State of the Union. Finally, in the allotment of their.cir. emits made. by the judges at the Deoem.. ber term, 1865, every one of these States is pnt on the same footing oflegality with all the other States of the ..Union. Vir ginia and North Carolina being a part of, the fourth ,circuit, are allottU_ to the ; Chief Justice. South Carolina ? Georgia; Alabama, Mississippi and Florida. consti tute the fifth circuit, are allotted to the