Major-General," to arrest them, and it was done. The dismal and dingy walls of the old French Bastile, which, for four hundred years, was used for the ruin of all who happened to incur the resentment and jealousy of tyrannical French monarchs, could not reveal more shocking instances of outrage and cruelty, than have been practiced throughout most of the northern States by various officers in the confidence of the present Administration.

Members of the Abolition party proper, who for twenty-three years have counseled a division of the Northern and Southern States-who have advised resistance to the laws of Congress and the interpretations of the Supreme Court-now hold most of the important and lucrative offices within the gift of Mr. Lincoln. And these are the men who are the most implacable and cruel toward all who do not sustain their folly and madness. Why did not the President arrest members of this party as well as members of the Democratic party? In the beginning of his term of office they said more, and did more, to embarrass his Administration than Democrats did. Wendall Phillips at Washington, the capital of the nation, within the hearing of the President and his cabinet, boldly said, "I have labored for nineteen years to take nineteen States out of the Union. I cursed the Constitution and the

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Union, and endeavored to break it, and thank God it is broken." The President could not have been ignorant that he had uttered these monstrous words. The Speaker of the House of Representatives occupied a place on the platform where the speech was delivered. Senators, in the confidence of the National Executive, were present. Republican members of Congress by scores, and citizens by hundreds, were there. The newspapers were full of it. Mr. Lincoln can not possibly escape upon the plea of ignorance. And this is not all. The next day after this reviler of the Constitution, this advocate of sedition, had uttered these wicked words, he made his appearance upon the floor of the United States Senate, in that sanctuary of constitutional liberty, consecrated for the greatest and wisest of all human purposes, still glorious with the recollections of the magical eloquence of Clay, the stately and overwhelming arguments of Webster, the parliamentary gladiatute of Silas Wright, and Macy, and Hannegan, and Douglas-this leprous wretch presumed to go-and there, upon that sacred floor, the most illustrious theater the world has ever known-Wendall Phillips is greeted and formally welcomed by the Vice President of the United States, the second officer in position and honor in the

whole republic. Let the intemperate partisans and the crazy fanatics, who are so especially puffed up with patriotism and consistency, take this notorious fact, in connection with a thousand other similar cases, and explain it to the satisfaction of the people, who, in the end, will be the arbiter of all these great questions. The whole matter is transparent. This Administration, itself inaugurated upon revolutionary principles, has, from the first hour of its installment, attempted to enforce submission to its usurpations. The people, long inured to free thought and free expression of thought, can not be put down now. It is madness to attempt it. They have been deceived by those having the control of public affairs, and they have denounced them for it, and their condemnations will continue as long as the offenses continue. The last Congress has been a disgrace to this nation. Its members-most of them-seem to have done every thing they could to irritate the people, and to destroy their liberties.

When the nation was bleeding at every pore-when one million of our brothers were engaged in mortal strife—when hoof of fire and sword of flame were scourging the land and making our rivers run red and thick with blood, these remorseless plunderers and robbers were engaged in schemes of self-aggrandizement, and in devising measures to increase our distractions in the States not in rebellion. Behold their record! The accumulated evidence that has been piled up mountain high against the thieving and jobbing villains that continually hang over the fallen, bleeding, struggling form of our liberties, like birds of evil prey, day and night, seeking some new quarry they may pounce upon and devour. They seem not to be satisfied with the gigantic rebellion that the armies and navy of the nation have been struggling for two years to subdue in the insurgent States, but they must exasperate the people here by the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia -by the passage of a law permitting the testimony of negroes in certain cases against the whites-by the repeal of the law against the transportation of the mails by negroes-by the amendment of the law, so as to make it a high offense for an officer of the army to return a runaway slave to his master-by a refusal to make it an offense of like character for an officer to entice away a slave— by the passage of a law recognizing as our equals the negro governments of Liberia and Hayti-by the passage of a confiscation bill, aimed at slavery-by the passage of an act authorizing the President to call negroes into military service-by the passage of

a law postponing the investigation of frauds against the Government for two years-by the passage of an unconstitutional indemnification act-in short, by a persistent and unremitting course of legislation that the country does not need, does not ask for, that is now denounced every day, and that sooner or later the people will overwhelm by repudiation and repeal. And the programme has been that all these wrongs must be endured by the people, or they should be arrested and imprisoned for it. "Eternal vigilence is the price of liberty." Let those in authority recollect that the American people learned that precept from one of clean hands and pure heart, at the feet of the greatest political Gamaliel of his age. They will not forget it as a principle, and they will not surrender it as a right.

We will next notice the arrests of citizens of Switzerland county. With all the care we have been able to bestow upon these cases, we have been unable to discover any cause for the arrest. The parties themselves know of none, and only conjecture that they were arrested because they were "Democrats, and did not agree with the President in regard to the manner of prosecuting the war." Several private citizens were seized, abused by vile epithets, and maltreated in various ways, imprisoned and half starved for many days, without any known cause. Among these prisoners was one who had been honored by his fellow citizens with distinction. Yet they were carried beyond the State, without legal authority, and at last discharged without a hearing.

Whatever may be said or thought, by the friends of the Governor of the State, in reference to arrests made upon the supposition that the draft law had been, or was about to be obstructed, there can, it appears to us, be but one opinion about his duty in regard to the arrests now under consideration. His duties are defined in the Constitution of the State. Among other things it is declared by that instrument that "he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed."—Art. 5, sec. 16, Const. of Ind. That he would faithfully discharge that duty was a part of his oath of office. Art. 15, sect. 4, Const. of Ind. At that time we had on our statute book, (2 R. S., p. 400,) a section to the effect that it should be deemed a felony for any person "forcibly and unlawfully to arrest any person and carry such person to parts without the State of Indiana," and the punishment was fine and the penitentiary. Plainly and without cavil this law was in those instances violated. There was not even the poor plea of the tyrant

necessity, for the act. It was a palpable violation of the Constitution of the United States, fourth amendment, and that of Indiana, Art. 1, sec. 2, which were intended to secure the citizen against "unreasonable seizure."

In the face of all this, and of his sworn duty, the Governor did not move a finger to protect these citizens from arrest, or to obtain their release afterward. To the reverse the evidence tends to show that he was instrumental in procuring such arrests, upon the representations of a man of such bad character, that he could not obtain a license to sell whisky. We hope, for the dignity of the office Governor Morton accidentally fills, that there has been some misapprehension about this affair; but if the truth has been presented to us, into what a profound depth of infamy some men's partisan feelings will sink them.

Governor Morton has seen fit to pursue a very arbitrary and self-opinionated course in regard to the arrests made in Indiana. He has kept his lips sealed; but not one intelligent man, woman, or child in the State doubts that he has been the sole cause of every arrest that has been made-at all events, that he could have prevented every one of them, and had all violations of law, if any have been made, corrected by the Courts.

In an early period of the session of the Legislature, the following preamble and resolution was adopted:

"WHEREAS, The Secretary of War, in his last official report, has declared that the several arrests made throughout the various States were made by the advice and with the consent of the several Governors thereof; therefore, be it

"Resolved, That His Excellency, Governor O. P. Morton, be requested to furnish this House with the facts in regard to the arrests that have been made in the State of Indiana."

For sixty-one days the Legislature was in session, but not one word of reply did his Excellency, the Governor, ever make to the foregoing resolution. Who, then, has any doubt as to the cause of his silence?

We are unable to conjecture what kind of a defense the implicated parties will have to offer in answer to all this; but it will doubtless be the old plea of the tyrant-military necessity.

Republican journals, for the past year, have been crowded with allusions to the conduct of General. Jackson at New Orleans. When or how these gentlemen have consented to make a model of this great hero of popular rights, the Committee have been

unable to ascertain; doubtless, their enterprise commenced since the time they plastered every section corner-post of the land with the coffin handbills that were intended to cover his name and greatness with contumely and infamy.

But let us examine General Jackson's record a little, and see how far President Lincoln's case is similar to it. When General Jackson issued his proclamation in regard to the nullification of South Carolina, he also called the attention of Congress to the fact that South Carolina had sustained wrongs that must be cured. South Carolina complained of the tariff laws, and contended that they discriminated in favor of certain interests, prejudicial to her own, and upon this threatened nullification. General Jackson was equal to the emergency; but while he asserted the power of the Government to maintain its laws, he also recommended that the cause of complaint be eradicated. On the 4th day of December, 1832, he said: "What shall then be done? Large interests have grown up under the implied pledge of our national legislation, which it would seem a violation of public faith suddenly to abandon. Nothing could justify it but the public safety, which is the supreme law."

General Jackson desired to sustain the Government, and he did sustain it, but he told Congress it must be done upon just and equitable principles.

How is President Lincoln's record on this score? For two years the Government has been engaged in prosecuting a great war-for what purpose? Because certain States have nullified the laws of the Government. How is it with a portion of the Northern States, who, in the beginning, were the most opposed to compromise, and the most in favor of war and the shedding of fraternal blood? How is it with Massachusetts? Has she never nullified the laws, and set at naught the Constitution? If her laws are to be legitimately understood, is she not this very day in a state of nullification? On her statute book, page 741, sec. 60, we find the following law:

"No person, while holding any office of honor, trust, or emolument, under the laws of this State, shall, in any capacity, take cognizance of any case, issue any warrant or other process, or grant any certificate, under or by virtue of an act of Congress, approved the 12th day of February, 1793, entitled 'An Act respecting fugitives from justice, and persons escaping from the service of their masters,' or under or by virtue of an act of Congress, approved the