U.C. BERKELEY LIBRARIES 
 
 University of California Berkeley 
 
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 (FROM THE EASTON ARGUS.) 
 
 EXTRACT FROM THE CHARGE OF JUDGE MAYNARD TO THE 
 GRAND JURY OF NORTHAMPTON COUNTY, AT THE OPEN- 
 ING OF THE COURT, JANUARY TERM, 1863. 
 
 ALLEGIANCE to the Government of the United States is the 
 first and highest political duty of every citizen. It is therefore 
 the duty of all to unite as the heart of one man, with unalterable 
 purpose, and nerved with the physical energy of the nation, to 
 put down and crush out this wicked rebellion against our 
 Government. It is for this purpose and this alone, that the 
 war should be prosecuted with unabated vigor. A fearful 
 responsibility rests upon our Government and upon our people. 
 The eyes of the world are upon us. Free institutions have 
 their all staked on this issue. The friends of civil and religious 
 liberty everywhere hold their breath while we struggle. Let 
 us not disappoint the faith which enlightened Christendom has 
 placed in a Government, based upon the will of the people. 
 If we fail, our national epitaph will be written as surely as 
 with the finger of the Almighty, " Man is incapable of self- 
 government." If we do our duty the cheek of posterity will 
 not blush with shame to own us as their ancestors, and while 
 living, we shall escape the consuming flame of self-reproach. 
 We have State pride; we glory in the proud title of "The 
 Keystone State," but let it never be forgotten that the only 
 safety for ourselves and our institutions is found in the Union. 
 Pennsylvania has not the attributes or elements of national 
 sovereignty, to stand alone and maintain an equality among 
 the nations of the earth. In that capacity we have no con- 
 nection with the outside world. We have neither sea-coast 
 
nor navy, and are therefore externally powerless. We can 
 neither control other states or nations, nor protect or preserve 
 our own Government and institutions. But thanks to the 
 wisdom of our fathers, who framed, ordained, and established 
 the Constitution of the United States, we have a rock of 
 defence, and it is indeed to all the States, and all the people 
 thereof, "like the shadow of a great rock," where all might 
 repose in safety, and breathe freely as we read this sacred 
 guaranty thereon inscribed, " The United States shall guar- 
 antee to every State in this Union a republican form of 
 government, and shall protect each of them against invasion, 
 and on the application of the Legislature or of the Executive, 
 (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic 
 violence." 
 
 This Constitution is our safety in the present, as well as in 
 the impending storm. A republican government cannot be 
 administered without a Constitution in which the rights and 
 liberties of the people are declared, and secured. It has been 
 well said that " the price of liberty is eternal vigilance," arid 
 if this wise maxim had been properly heeded, this rebellion 
 would have been crushed in the bud, when the little cloud 
 appeared in our southern horizon, in size like that seen by the 
 servant of the prophet, not larger than a man's hand, and 
 from which a few murmuring voices were then heard, like the 
 faint mutterings of distant thunder ; but we heeded not the 
 portents of the threatening storm until the whole southern sky 
 was overcast. The fury of that storm now shakes, not only 
 this continent, threatening to ingulf our institutions, but 
 agitates the nations of Europe, and threatens to overthrow and 
 destroy the peaceful and commercial relations of the world. 
 Let us bear in mind, that successful rebellion is dissolution, 
 that republics are founded upon the will of the majority, and 
 that that will is capable of revolution at all times. Rebellion 
 can be put down, only by physical force, " the last argument 
 of kings." If therefore the will, and the united energies of 
 ,the loyal heart of this nation, prove inadequate to conquer the 
 
rebellion, to save the Constitution, and restore peace, it will 
 then be time to sheathe the sword, for God and man will say 
 that the lintels and door-posts of our dwellings have been 
 sufficiently sprinkled with fraternal blood, to stay the hand of 
 the destroying angel, that we be not swallowed up in that 
 bottomless pit of anarchy and woe from which issue the horrid 
 spectres that beget our fears, the grave of the Constitution 
 and Union. A Government like ours, based upon the united 
 will of a free and intelligent people, is the strongest Govern- 
 ment on earth. But divided as we now are, it is not a solecism 
 to say our strength is our weakness, because that strength is 
 used to sever and destroy the bonds, both national and political, 
 which make us one people. There is but one human power 
 which can overcome and destroy us ; that is our own. It is the 
 power of self destruction, used only by the suicide. This 
 nation stands on the verge of an awful abyss. The impassable 
 gulf is yawning before us. The warning voice of history, in 
 clarion tones calls upon us to pause, in our career of madness. 
 That history unrolls to our view in panorama, the voyage of 
 departed nations and governments, while the immovable finger 
 of truth points to the rocks and shoals on which they wrecked 
 and stranded. Let us be wise, and heed the admonitions of 
 history, and not only pause, but retrace our steps, until we 
 strike the beaten path made by our fathers, which leads to 
 peace, prosperity, and happiness. The path is the great high- 
 way of constitutional liberty. My faith though shaken, is still 
 strong in the wisdom, the intelligence, and patriotism of the 
 people, and I turn with hope from these gloomy forebodings, 
 that our glorious Union, under the blessing of God, is to be 
 perpetual. " That when this young and wide-extending 
 republic shall feel the slow decay which fleeting years reveal, 
 Philosophy will still smile in the sky of our Franklin, and 
 glory will burn o'er the tomb of Washington/' 
 
(FROM THE WORLD, NEW YORK, APRIL 11, 1863.) 
 
 POSITION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 
 
 The good results of the Democratic opposition are apparent in the fact, that 
 the Republican party has been driven by it to a pretended recognition of the 
 true principles on which the war should be conducted. Previous to the ani- 
 mated discussions and great Democratic triumphs in the fall elections, the 
 administration party insisted on the wildest methods for putting down the re- 
 bellion. The chief of these was the emancipation of the slaves, and the 
 confiscation of all property belonging to southern owners. ***** 
 
 The Democratic party understands the difference between a patriotic and a 
 factious opposition. It will never be found favoring any course that tends to 
 put the country in the power of its enemies. No rule can be laid down, that 
 shall in all cases, mark the exact dividing line between praiseworthy and repre- 
 hensible opposition ; but there are some cases where the duty to oppose is so 
 plain and imperative as to preclude all doubt. ******** 
 
 When the acts and measures resorted to by the government in war time are 
 not deemed unconstitutional, but only inexpedient, the limits of allowable op- 
 position cannot always be clearly marked ; but even here, patriotic intention 
 can never go far wrong. Even if the war be thought impolitic and unwise, or 
 even unjust, if it nevertheless constitutionally exists, it can be opposed only by 
 constitutional methods. One party can make war 7 but it requires two to make 
 peace ; and while our country is exposed to the depredations of active hostile 
 armies, no good citizen will knowingly do anything to put it at the mercy of 
 the enemy. No matter whether the war is just or unjust, while the enemy 
 does not choose to make peace, we have no choice but to continue the war ; 
 and any war which is not prosecuted with spirit and energy dishonors the 
 national character. It is for the interest of a nation to be at war as seldom 
 as possible. It is, therefore, for the national advantage that every war it 
 undertakes shall be prosecuted with such vigor, force, and spirit, that every 
 other nation, as well as the immediate enemy, shall take warning from its pluck 
 and determination, and become convinced that war with it, by whomsoever 
 undertaken, will prove anything but child's play. If we are defeated, we must 
 of course make peace ; but even then the more formidable, our attitude of re- 
 sistance, the better the terms likely to be obtained from the victorious party. 
 When we have gained some great advantage over the enemy, we can honorably 
 offer him terms of peace. But so long as he neither sues for peace, nor will 
 accept of it, there is nothing to do but to fight him. 
 
 For our part, we have no desire to repress the growth of the small wing of 
 the Democratic party that has declared for peace. Whatever may be the 
 result of the war, the time will sooner or later come when a peace party will 
 be one of the chief needs of the country. If not already needed as a counter- 
 poise to the host of men who grow rich by the war, it at least is not dangerous. 
 But a majority of the Democratic party are resolutely opposed to peace, until 
 they can see that peace is consistent with the restoration of the Union. The 
 South will not at present treat on any other basis than its independence, and 
 the Democratic party will not consent to peace on such terms. So long as the 
 North will not listen to peace and separation, and the South will not listen to 
 peace and reunion, there is nothing for negotiation to stand upon and peace is 
 impracticable. 
 
 While things remain in such a posture that^here is no alternative but war, 
 the chief duty of the opposition is resistance to unconstitutional measures, to 
 the peculation and abuses that prevail in most departments of the public ser- 
 vice, and to the scandalous attempts to pervert the vast patronage created by 
 the war into an engine for corrupting the people and controlling the next 
 Presidential election. But as soon as the South will signify a willingness to 
 treat for peace on the basis of reunion, the Democratic party will be as resolute 
 for an armistice and the immediate call of a convention, as it was for the 
 prosecution of the war. And GOD grant that that auspicious day is near at 
 hand!