The Daily Clarion

From the Nashville Democrat.

The Case of Mr. Davis.

Another step in the process of events has been taken at last. Mr. Davis has been removed from a military prison, and is now in the hands of the judiciary. The trial, if it is ever held, will be one of intense interest, owing to the judicial questions that will be brought up and that must be decided. It is most likely, however, that there will only be some skirmishing, the prisoner released on bail, to be followed by postponements indefinite, and end in nothing at last.

We don't think any judge will be ambitious to be tried on all the questions that will be brought up, if he has any reputation to lose; and, perhaps, no point will be settled after it is decided, and, maybe, it is just as well to leave some points unsettled.

After the expulsion of James II. from the English throne, and the inauguration of William and Mary, a zealous loyalist proposed to make it a condition of settlement that resistance to the royal prerogative by force of arms was never allowable. It was a propitious time to settle such a point. But Parliament would not entertain the question. They would not affirm nor deny.

Now, as we have declared before the world, that when a government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, what shall we say if eight or ten millions of people acted on this declaration? We must concede to these people the right to be their own judges, otherwise our declaration would amount to nothing.

The rest of the people who adhered to the government had a right to their judgment, and a right to put down the attempt at revolution; but when it is over, how can we treat the eight or ten millions as traitors or criminals, unless we publish to the world that our declaration was all demagoguery; that we will not stand up to it.