Miscellaneous Back Matter [pp. 472A-RD06]

THE BASTILE.
apothegm, "inter arma silent leges." This is just the same as
if one should endeavor to justify the crime of murder by the
doctrine of original sin. They pretend that the necessities of
the times require the overthrow of the laws. It is a poor Government which only can confer liberty on its citizens when all
the elements are at a calm, and which becomes a despotism
when a storm arises. Our enemies seem to think themselves
superior to us in power and resources. Yet, in the Confederate
States, although our land is invaded, no necessity is foiund to
exist which requires the overthrow of free government and
the destruction of the liberties of the people.
A superficial observer might incline to think that, when the
present war shall have ended, the Government of the United
States, as it existed a year ago, will be re-established. It may
be so; but such are not the teachings of history. There is not
an instance on record of despotism ever having voluntarily
released its grasp. The history of despotic government is well
illustrated in the Arabian story of the old man of the sea, who
got on -the shoulders of every new comer to his island and
rode him to death, until, finally, one more daring than his
predecessors managed to throw him off and to kill him. Thus
it is that despotism rides down successive generations, until by
braver men in better times, for the destiny of the human race,
it is destroyed and freedom is restored. Only the dagger of
Brutus could destroy tyranny in Rome; only the halber(ls of
Cromwell, and the falchion of William of Orange, could extinguish the oppression of the Stuarts; only the pikes of the
Jacobins overthrew the iron rule of the Bourbons. D)own to
the latest Italian revolution, history renews the lesson that despotismn dies hard. The president who has extended his powers
in such a remarkable manner, can just as easily extend his
term of office. With an army at hand and the Bastile not far
off, he has but to proclaim that the exigencies of the hour require that no new elections shall be held. Hle need not want
for excuses, and cannot want for precedents. Like Richard
Cromwell, he may be too imbecile to perpetuate the power
which he holds. But if so, some one else with enough of amnbition and courage will be found to take the reins which he may
drop, and to continue the present Government of the United
States, which does not depend on constitutions, on written
laws or on judicial decisions, but alone on the will of the ruler.
"I," said LIouis XIV, "am the State."
It were vain to speculate as to how long the people will submit to this kind of rule. They have consented that the chain
should be riveted upon them, and they and their children, in all
probability, must mourn that infatuation for the age that is yet
to come. Meanwhile, it is for us as a free people to rejoice that
those liberties which have been ripening to us from remote
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