that dares to advocate a discontinuance of the war? and has not Congress placed the purse and sword of the nation under its complete control? The single consideration alluded to by Hanulton has disposed ourselves as well as every peaceable citizen ágainst such a Government."

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But we have other reasons equally powerful in favor of a discontinuance of the war. We entertain serious fears for the perpetuation of popular liberty. We behold growing up day by day a constantly increasing class, who find their interest in the present fratricidal conflict. We see springing up a so-called Loyal League, which, if not crushed out by public opinion, may be employed as a garrison in every city and town and village in the land, to tyrannize over the people, and to keep them down, as the Poles have been kept down by Russia, by the strong arm of despotic force. When we realize the immense moneyed power and influence in the control of the President, we fear for the future freedom of the people-that is, if the people are untrue to themselves. We fear that political corruption, through the ever-ready bribe of place or profit, may undermine the official integrity of our representatives in Congress, and render them the ready and willing tools of a debased and demoralized Administration. Let the people be warned in time. Let them assemble in mass meetings all over the country, and convey, through such mediums, their desires and their demands to their representatives. It is true that we will have a conservative majority in the next Congress; but let us take care that our representatives are not bought, as it is said was done with one of the members of our State Legislature. A shrewd but corrupt statesman once said that every man had his price. If this be so, let us ascertain how much it would cost the Administration to secure the vote of any purchasable member for the support of its Abolition policy. If by the expenditure of four or five millions of its eight millions secret fund it could buy a sufficient number of votes to give it a majority in Congress, what security would the people have against the establishment of a permanent military despotism-what security save through a successful and bloody revolution?

If the people are indifferent to their future rights and

liberties-if they are ready to yield the precious inheritance bequeathed to them by the patriots of the Revolution -then, indeed, it is a matter of utter indifference how their representatives may act in the next vital and important session of Congress. But if they would preserve their freedom and independence intact, they will, as we have said, assemble in mass meetings throughout the country, and instruct their representatives in such a manner as to leave no doubt whatever in regard to the course they are to pursue.

We sincerely trust that the next Congress will not adjourn until it shall have presented a bill of impeachment against the President for his repeated and flagrant violations of the Constitution.

We punish the burglar who enters our house at the dead hour of night and carries away our property. Why, then, should we allow the highest public official in the land, the chief servant of the people, who has stolen our liberties, or attempted to do so why should we allow him to escape? We inflict the severest penalty known to the law upon him who takes the life of his fellow-man. Shall the man whose policy has aimed a deadly blow at the national life escape the penalties imposed by the Constitution?

GROUNDS OF IMPEACHMENT OF THE PRESIDENT. (From the METROPOLITAN RECORD, April 11, 1863.)

THAT there are grounds for impeachment no one who has watched the course of the Executive can doubt. If the Constitution were so much waste paper, it could not have been more contemptuously thrown aside. Every provision which tended to secure individual liberty has been set at naught; the barriers which it erected against Federal usurpation have been trampled under foot; and the President of the United States possesses at the present moment as much power as the Autocrat of all the Russias. Possesses! but will hardly dare to use; for men

born to freedom and brought up in the exercise of citizen rights, can not with impunity be treated as serfs or even as subjects. The pliant Congress that manufactured a Dictator out of a Republican President made but sorry work of it when it omitted to transform citizens into slaves. The edifice of despotism, like every other edifice, is subject to architectural laws, and must be built up, not down. To be successful, they should have begun with the people, not the President. The people are still true to Republican principles, they love the Government which their fathers founded, they cling to the Constitution even as the shipwrecked mariner clings to his last chance of safety, and they glory in that majestic aggregate of free federated republics which we call the Union. The great heart of the people is sound at the core, as evidenced in the overwhelming conservative majorities returned against the Administration candidates in New York, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. The men thus returned are a living protest against the Administrationthey are the embodied rebuke of six sovereign States against the policy which has thus far governed the Chief Executive. These political victories prove the radical change that has taken place in public opinion since the previous elections; they indicate that the tide is on the turn whose refluent waves will sweep away the knaves and fools and fanatics who haye brought disgrace upon our proud Republic. These victories are the death-knell of the Abolition party, and they must strike upon the Presidential ear like an alarm-bell in the night.

Men returned upon this express issue of opposition to the Administration will not shrink from impeaching the President whenever it is deemed expedient to do so. Let us enumerate some of the grounds on which he is open to impeachment. The Constitution says:

Article 4. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated. And no warrant shall issue but upon probable causes, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the person or thing to be seized.

We will not insult our readers by proving that this ar ticle has been violated.

The Constitution says:

Art. 5. No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the mili tia, when in actual service in time of war or danger;

be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law. And this article has been violated.

The Constitution says:

nor

Art. 1, sec. 2. When vacancies happen in the representation from any State, the executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies.

And this has been violated.

The Constitution says:

Art. 1, sec. 9. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it.

And this has been again and again outrageously and flagrantly violated.

The Constitution says:

Art. 3, sec. 3. Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.

The very walls of the Government bastiles could testify to the violation of this article.

Under the same article and section we find that Congress has power to declare the punishment of treason; but mark what follows:

No attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture, except during the life of the person attainted.

Call to mind the emancipation proclamation, declaring negroes henceforth and forever free; and also the Confiscation Act, which is a gross violation of the Constitution. The Constitution says:

Art. 4, sec. 3. No new State shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other State without the consent of the Legislature of the State concerned as well as of the Congress.

Is not Kanawha an ever-present proof of a violated Constitution?

We come now to other articles of the Constitution, and we find the express declaration :

Congress shall make no law

speech or of the press.

abridging the freedom of

The suspension of conservative papers and the incarceration of outspoken men testifies, trumpet-tongued, to the violation of this fundamental right of freemen.

The Constitution says:

Art. 2. The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

This has also been violated.

Here, then, is matter for impeachment-here are express violations of the Constitution. But there are others not less serious, concerning which the Constitution is silent, and which are in direct opposition to the essence and spirit of that immortal document. The Constitution does not say expressly there must be no espionage exercised by Government over the citizens of the Republic. Military governors must not be appointed, test oaths, illegal and arbitrary, must not be prescribed, martial law must not be proclaimed over States not in rebellion, white men must not be taxed to purchase freedom for the negro; but these things were not forbidden, simply because they were not foreseen. Who doubts that they are in direct opposition to the spirit of the Constitution? If violations of the letter and spirit of the Constitution can be compassed with impunity, and that, too, by men bound by solemn obligations to support it-men who owe their continuance in office to the very instrument they violate-if such criminals 'scape "unwhipt of justice," then adieu to Liberty, and "farewell, a long farewell to all our greatness.

The impeachment of Abraham Lincoln would vindicate the majesty of the Constitution, and to the next Congress we look for that vindication. We shall conclude by giving the solemn oath which he took on the day of his inauguration:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.

How has this oath been kept?