whose name will be infamous throughout all coming time, and whose death was a fitting termination to a life of the blackest crime.

Never had a legislative body such a glorious opportunity of saving the life of a nation and the liberties of a people, as that which the last Congress was presented; but instead of using its power and its influence in the form of mild and conciliatory measures to win back the love of the Southern people to the Union, it did all in its power to render the very name of Union hateful to them by the adoption of a policy which has resulted in uniting the whole South in one compact confederacy, with a thoroughly organized Government, with an army whose bravery and heroism can not be doubted, and with statesmen at its head to whom the petty politicians at Washington are pigmies in comparison. The people do not forget that it was through the compulsory influence exercised by this Congress upon the Administration, that General McClellan was removed, and it was also through its sectional and abolition legislation that a wide-spread discontent has been created in the Union army. They know, also, that it was in compliance with its demands the President issued his last proclamation, and we think they are by this time convinced that they will be satisfied with no other submission on the part of the South than that which would lay her prostrate and bleeding at the feet of the newly-created American despot. If this is the union in which this war is to terminate, then farewell to the liberty of the people. The once free, happy, and prosperous nation known as the United States will pass away as did the republics of ancient Greece -flashing like a meteor across the sky of time, and lighting up with a dazzling brilliancy the surrounding nations that gazed with wonder on the startling phenomenon. Is this really to be the fate of the great Republic? The people alone can answer that question, and upon their answer depends the future destiny of the New World.

We know there are men in our midst, for we lately had disgraceful evidence of the fact, who would aid the newly constituted tyranny at Washington in riveting its fetters upon the people. Such men assume to be the mouthpieces of the conservative masses, but they will find, when too

late, that the trickery of the demagogue to which they have resorted will not save them from the judgment of an incensed and outraged people. Such men may imagine that the liberty of a nation is a thing of trifling value; but as long as the great heart of the people is right, their intrigues in the interest of American autocracy will prove a wretched failure. These are the energies against which the great statesmen of the Republic have warned us again and again; it is they who are ready to assist in undoing the work of the patriots of the Revolution by ignoring the Constitution, and handing over the rights of the people to a military dictator to put under bolt and bar. Such men can see no harm in the suspension of the habeas corpus, in the suppression of the liberty of the press, in the overthrow of State sovereignty, in the arbitrary arrest and incarceration in government dungeons of loyal citizens, in proclamations placing loyal and sovereign States under martial law, and in investing the so-called President of the United States with supreme power above the Constitution, above State rights, above all law, over the personal liberty of the citizen. Such things, in their estimation, are a mere bagatelle. The liberty for which the infant Republic waged a seven-years' war against Great Britain is to be bartered away, and for what? A military despotism-not even such a despotism as they have in some parts of Europe-but a despotism directed by men who have proved themselves weak in everything else but the will to destroy. They are ready to carry out the conscription; but so long as they are the owners of three hundred dollars, not one of them, we venture to say, will take the field. They will leave that for the poor man, whose family is dependent upon him for support. They are the heroes of the rostrum, and not of the battle-field, whose dangers they are satisfied to view at a safe distance. They are the men who will "look into Catholicity when slavery is disposed of," for to them religious freedom is of still less importance than civil rights.

But they must be blind to the evidence, which is growing stronger day by day, that the people are opposed to a war waged for emancipation-to a war which, if successful in that object, will flood the labor markets of the North

with black competitors against the interests of the white industrial classes, or dot our Northern land with poorhouses for the support of an indigent negro population either unwilling or unable to work.

Despite of all this, however, their voice is still for war, but while they talk of the carnage of the battle they act peace. They urge others into the field, but they are content to stay at home that they may add new force to the blow that is aimed at the liberty of the people. They. accuse the advocates of peace with treason, while they act treason by declining to fight. They can see no danger to popular liberty by intrusting the President with supreme control over the sword and purse of the nation. They approve the act of Congress by which nearly two billion three hundred millions of dollars are put at the disposal of the Chief Executive-a sum more than half the national debt of England. Do they expect to be paid a portion of it for their support of a centralized despotism?

In this State, however, we need have no fear of the result, so far as the rights of the citizen are concerned, for we have a Chief Magistrate who has pledged himself to their defense and support, and whose inaugural message contains the following solemn guarantee against the encroachments of arbitrary power:

While our soldiers (says he) are periling their lives to uphold the Constitution and to restore the Union, we owe to them who have shown an endurance and patriotism unsurpassed in the history of the world, that we emulate their devotion in our field of duty. We are to take care, when they come back, that their home rights are not impaired, that they shall not find when they return to the duties of civil life that the SECURITY OF THEIR PERSONS, THE SANCTITY OF THEIR HOMES, OR THE PROTECTION OF THEIR PROPERTY have been lost by us while they were battling for the national interest in a distant field of duty.

The following extracts from the same important document are particularly applicable at the present time, and in view of the unconstitutional course of Congress, and the violation of the supreme law of the land by the socalled President, we submit them to the consideration of our readers:

The rights of States were reserved, and the powers of the General Government were limited to protect the people in their persons, property, and consciences in times of danger and civil commotion. There is little to fear in

periods of peace and prosperity. If we are not protected when there are popular excitements and convulsions, our government is a failure. If presidential proclamations are above the decisions of the courts and the restraints of the Constitution, then that Constitution is a mockery. If it has not the authority to keep the Executive within its restraints, then it can not retain States within the Union. Those who hold that there is no sanctity in the Constitution must equally hold that there is no guilt in the rebellion.

We can not be silent and allow these practices to become precedents. They are as much in violation of our Constitution as the rebellion itself, and more dangerous to our liberties. They hold out to the Executive every temptation of ambition to make and prolong war. They offer despotic power as a price for preventing peace. They are inducements to each administration to procure discord and incite armed resistance to law, by declaring that the condition of war removes all constitutional restraints. They call about the national capital hordes of unprincipled men, who find in the wreck of their country the opportunity to gratify avarice and ambition, or personal or political resentments. This theory makes the passion and ambition of an administration antagonistic to the interest and happiness of the people. It makes the restoration of peace the abdication of more than regal authority in the hands of those to whom is confided the government of the country.

After perusing the foregoing, our readers will, we think, agree with us that liberty of speech and of the press are secure under a Governor who appreciates his position and is determined to maintain the sovereignty of the great State at the head of which he has been placed, not by a minority, but by a majority of its citizens. We believe that our right as a journalist to utter, and print, and circulate freely and without danger of arbitrary arrest and incarceration, whatever we find to criticise in the acts of the Administration-we believe that our right to do this will be maintained by the Chief Executive of the Empire State, and it is in this belief that we now exercise that Constitutional right, despite of the threats of a military despotism, and its base and venal adherents.

If the people are not fully aroused to the dangers by which their liberties, not to speak of their sovereignty, are beset, they may soon lose both the opportunity and the power to preserve those priceless boons for which such great sacrifices were made.

CAN A DISUNION ADMINISTRATION RESTORE

THE UNION?

FACTS THAT CAN NOT BE CONTROVERTED, AND THAT EVERY AMERICAN SHOULD KNOW AND UNDERSTAND.

(From the METROPOLITAN RECORD of March 28, 1863.)

WE believe that all unbiased and candid minds will agree with us, that the Union might and could have been restored by any other Administration than that whose term of service will unfortunately not expire for two years longer, but whose exit from office would be the greatest benefit that could be conferred upon the country. We are aware that this assertion will be combated most vigorously by those who sustain and advocate the policy of the so-called national Administration; but we shall appeal to their sense of impartiality and justice while we present for their consideration a few facts and observations on the course which it has pursued since the commencement of our present fratricidal, unnecessary, inhuman, and abolition war.

Our jocular and anecdotal Chief Magistrate, in that extraordinary advance of his from Springfield to Washington two years ago, made quite a number of humorous little. speeches, in one of which he pleasantly informed the public that "nobody was hurt."

His entrée into Washington, it will be remembered, was made in disguise-a Scotch cap and military cloak being used on the occasion for the better concealment of the newly-elected magistrate of the great Republic. It was a mean disguise, unworthy of the Executive of a free people; it was like the manner in which Kossuth left this country, under a false exterior.

This was a bad beginning; slight as the incident may appear, it wore a bad aspect. Why should the President of thirty millions of freemen slink into the capital of the country in a manner that was calculated only to excite contempt and ridicule? Why did he not boldly and fearlessly proceed on his journey as if he had nothing to dread: from his fellow-citizens as if he had a full reliance on their