"they were guilty of almost every of offence for the commission of which our fathers declared their independence"

 (The above logo was in the front page heading of the newspaper quoted from. Sic Semper Tyrannis is a Latin phrase meaning "thus always to tyrants.")

A Vigorous Assault upon the Leaders of the Radical Party, and their Measures and Policy.

[Extract from Senator Saulsbury's Speech.)

   The Republican party waged three wars at one and the same time. A war against the Southern States, a war against their political opponents, and a war against the Constitution of the United States. In the prosecution of these wars they were guilty of almost every of offence for the commission of which our fathers declared their independence of the British Crown and made war to secure that independence. I will say nothing of their action in respect to the people of the South. Against those who adhered to the Union, and who were much more devoted to the Constitution and Government of the United States than they were themselves, they were guilty of the following offences charged in the Declaration
of Independence:

   1st. They dissolved Legislatures for opposing with manly firmness their invasions on the rights of the people. 2d. They obstructed the administration of justice by imprisoning judges and officers of the law. 3d. They attempted to make judges dependent on their will alone for the tenure of their offices and the payment of their salaries. 4th. They erected a multitude of new offices and sent among them swarms of officers to harrass the people and eat out their substance. 5th. They kept among the people, who were at peace among themselves, standing armies, without the consent of their legislatures. 6th. They rendered the military independent of and superior to the civil power. 7th. They subjected the people to a jurisdiction foreign to their constitutions and unacknowledged by their laws. 8th. They quartered large bodies of armed troops among them. 9th. They protected officers and troops from punishment for murders and other crimes committed by them.—-10th. They cut off the trade of the people among themselves and with other parts of the world. 11th. They deprived the people in many cases of the benefits of the trial by jury. 12th. Without authority of law their President exercised the following powers which belong exclusively to Congress, and was thereby guilty of usurpation, which usurpation was approved by the Republican party, and thus it became their acts: 1, he increased the army; 2, he increased the navy; 3, he appropriated the public money; 4, he regulated commerce with foreign nations; 5, he regulated commerce between the States; 6, he contracted debts on behalf of the nation; 7, he suspended the writ of habeas corpus. 13. The following powers, denied both to Congress and the President, their President exercised, which exercise of unauthorized power they approved, and thereby are guilty as a party of the usurpation themselves: 1, he proclaimed martial law; 2, he arrested without legal warrant; 3, imprisoned and punished without conviction and legal trial, 4, punished under ex post facto or non existing law; 5, introduced letters de cachet, bastiles and the midnight secret proceedings of the Inquisition ; 6, interdicted reports; 7, favored some ports to the prejudice of others; 8, regulated the commerce of a State within its own bounds; 9, impaired the freedom of speech and of the press; 10, infringed the people's right to keep and bear arms; 11, made unreasonable searches and seizures; 12 prohibited emigration and required passports 13, dismissed the police of cities in States not proclaimed in insurrection and appointed others in their place; 14, interfered by the military force with the freedom of elections in the States; 15, took private property for public use without just compensation. 14th. The party has conferred the elective franchise upon the negroes, in the District of Columbia against the will of the people. 15th. They have placed Governors over the people against their will and in violations of their laws, by military force. 16th. They have caused pretended Legislatures to be selected in the States against the will of the people by the same means. 17th. They have by the same means appointed pretended conventions to reform and revise the constitutions of the States. 18th. They have forced illegal State constitutions upon the people against their wills. 19th. They have appropriated money out of the public Treasury for the support of negroes living in idleness, and have levied taxes upon the white citizens for that purpose. 20th. They have attempted to deprive the people of the States of the power to determine evidence and regulate the judicial proceedings of their own courts, in violation of their laws and constitutions. 21st. They have deprived the State courts of the jurisdiction to hear and determine questions regulating to the right of persons, liberty and property within the State, and to pass and determine upon the guilt or innocence of those accused of crimes committed within the State. 22nd. They have authorized the arrest and punishment of judges for deciding questions of law against their enactment. 23rd. They have annulled the constitutional authority and prerogatives of the Executive of the United States. 24th. They have banished citizens from family and home without trial. 25th. They have violated every one of the twelve amendments to the constitution designed to protect the people in the enjoyment of their rights of person, liberty and property. 26th. They have sacrificed the lives of half a million of men in a war which they might have easily averted, and have burdened the industry of the people by the creation of a debt amounting to billions of dollars.

   And yet, Mr. President, this Republican party, with this record, instead of calling upon the rocks and mountains to hide them from the face of an outraged and indignant people, cooly charge the members of the Democratic party with being disloyal and with being unfaithful to the Constitution and laws of their, country!

O shame, where is thy blush!

- Staunton spectator, Staunton, VA. Tuesday, March 24, 1868. Volume XLV. Number XXIX. Pg. 1.

   So then, I guess the democrats decided it fair play to turn around and do the very same things they used to whine about? Tyranny is tyranny, and usurpation is usurpation - regardless of party. Both the bloated elephants and the braying jackasses need to be herded back within the confines of We The People's Constitution. And We The People better get it done soon, for the sake of ourselves and our posterity.