The Plymouth Weekly Democrat

WHAT NEXT?

In the name of the shattered remains of American liberty, we ask what next?—What new development of tyranny and usurpation by the petty military despots who at present bear rule over the oppressed and down-trodden millions of loyal citizens of this Republic, will next make its appearance in the seething cauldron of absolutism? The writ of Habeas corpus, the right of trial by jury, in the State where offenses are committed—the right of free speech and a free press, have some time since been "numbered with the things that were, and are not"—and now we hear that numbers of loyal citizens, for the crime(!) of exercising the right of petitioning for the removal of Gen. Wool, have been arrested and confined in a military prison, one of those American Bastiles lately grown so numerous in this country.

True they have since been released, without trial, and permitted to wend their way homeward as best they might, but the outrage upon their rights, and through theirs upon the rights of every citizen of this land, is none the less atrocious. We may ourself be arrested and imprisoned as others have been, whose only offence has been a too devoted attachment to the principles of liberty, and the preservation of those God given rights so clearly set forth in the constitution of our country: but we shall nevertheless, "while we have liberty to write; write for liberty."

But the question may arise—What is liberty? The language of another, answers "Liberty consists in security against bad laws, and oppressive acts." The next question is: What security have the American people against such laws and acts? The answer, and the only answer that can be given is—THE CONSTITUTION.—Take away that, and we have no security left: without that, our rulers are absolute: as much so as the most absolute despots of the Old World.

Blackstone Book 1., page 136, says.—"To bereave a man of life, or by violence to confiscate his estate, without accusation or trial, would be so gross and notorious an act of despotism, as must at once convey the alarm of tyranny throughout the whole kingdom; but confinement of the person, by secretly hurrying him to jail, where his sufferings are unknown or forgotten, is a less public, a less striking and THEREFORE A MORE DANGEROUS FORM OF ARBITRARY GOVERNMENT."

And yet these things have been done—are still being perpetrated in free republican America, and the civil tribunals are powerless to resist the encroachments.—There is no practice of arbitrary and despotic governments, which has called forth a greater degree of indignation, or a more daring resistance, than such imprisonment of the citizens. We do not cite you to the hackneyed example of King John and the Barons of Runnymede. If you will examine the first pages of Thierry's French Revolution you will find even under the despotic rule of Louis XVI., the Parliament of Paris holding language like this: After conceding certain rights to the crown, the Parliament thus asserts the rights of citizens:

6. The right of each citizen never in any manner to be delivered up to any other than his natural judges, which are those appointed by law: and 7th [Mark the WORDS THAT RIGHT WITHOUT WHICH ALL OTHERS, ARE USELESS,] of every individual, not to be arrested whatever the order be, unless for the purpose of being committed without delay, to the custody of judges exercising a competent jurisdiction."

One military commander dressed in a little brief authority, strikes down one right—another, another right, dear to the people, until one after another those rights which constitute the very basis of all liberty have been overridden, and the very vestiges of freedom are so covered up with the rubbish of absolutism, and military dictation that they are well nigh hidden from the anxious sight of the people.—

With a loyal yet sorrowful heart, we still trust that the unwarranted invasion upon the clearly defined constitutional rights of the people, may prove but a passing cloud, to be followed soon by the sunshine of peace and prosperity—the restoration of the whole Union—and the re-establishment on an immovable basis of the constitution, and the laws of our distracted country.

We would not unnecessarily alarm the fears of our readers, but as a watchman on the walls of our political Zion, we should prove recreant to the trust reposed in us, if we should fail to apprise the people of threatening danger. "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty."