MUST READ ARTICLE from May 27, 1861: "It can never be necessary or proper to break the law for the purpose of maintaining it—to commit a crime in order to prevent one.”

The Daily Exchange, “we have been, in effect, told that we are not a free State— that we shall not have a militia unless a federal General approves of it, and that if we dare attempt to “keep and bear arms,” it will be treated as an act of hostility against the general government. . . . The outrages upon us are justified by the plea of public necessity, to which tyrants always resort . . . Constitutions were made for our protection against precisely such dangers as now threaten us. They were intended for our security at such moments as these, when popular passion is let loose, and power assails us on the ground of military necessity. It can never be necessary or proper to break the law for the purpose of maintaining it—to commit a crime in order to prevent one.”, May 27, 1861