Staunton Spectator

In our last issue, we noticed the fact that the Richmond "ENQUIRER" not only advocated the policy of suspending the writ of Habeas Corpus but denounced it as the "criminal's writ." It seems from an article published a few days after, that the "Enquirer" is not only in favor of suspending the writ of Habeas Corpus, but also of "tearing up the Constitution as waste paper." The following are extracts from an editorial article in the "Enquirer" of January the 25th:

"In common with the people, we would sacrifice every right of person and of property, submit to the unrestricted use of any and every power, that can contribute to the overthrow of the enemy. The success of the cause is embarrassed by the trammels of a Constitution designed and constructed for the development of a people in times of peace, but which fetters the public arm in the present conflict of life and death. Nations, like athletes, must strip for the fight. The earnestness of the enemy, as well as their resolution, is exemplified in the manner in which they broke the fetters of their Constitution, and rushed to the conflict with limbs free from clogs of every kind. But in this conflict with a giant, the Confederacy often finds its hands tied by its own Constitution.

This tender regard for the constitution is very much like Mr. Pickwick in the Fleet--"on principle." But it won't drive back the enemy, and won't feed the army; it aids bad men in harboring desserters [sic], and protect traitors who won't plant, because the Confederate Government don't pay as much as the speculator. Speaking only for ourselves but firmly believing we represent the people, we boldly avow that we would tear up the Constitution as waste paper, rather than suffer it to impede the public defence, or embarrass the Government in the conflict for Independence.

In noticing the strange and startling sentiments expressed by the "Enquirer," the Petersburg "Express" inquires, "who would have thought three years, or two years, or one year ago, that any respectable Southern journal would come out and boldly propose to set aside the Constitution which the President and every officer of the government has solemnly sworn to support because "the success of the cause is embarrassed by its trammels?" Who would have dreamed that such a journal would have held up as worthy of imitation by our government the example of the Yankee Administration in breaking the fetters of their cons[t]itution that they might rush to the conflict with limbs free from clogs of every kind?" That it would ridicule "a tender regard for the constitution" as Pickwickian foolishness! And that, finally, speaking for itself, with the belief that in so speaking it was representing the people, it would "tear up the Constitution as waste paper rather than impede the public defence, or embarrass the government in the conflict for independence!"

The Constitution, it seems, was intended only to dispense its benefits in times of peace! This, to say the least of it, is a strange idea. There is nothing in the instrument itself that by the remotest & most arbitrary construction can be interpreted into such an intention, and certainly there is everything in the circumstances under which it was framed and adopted to indicate that it was designed to operate as well in times of war as in times of peace, for the country was on the very brink of war when it was framed and accepted as was well known at the time to its framers. When the Permanent Government was organized, of which the Constitution is the life and soul, the country was in the very midst of a war, which had already been waged on a gigantic scale for more than six months, and yet nothing was then said or thought about its being designed only for peaceful developments. The truth is, the Constitution and the Government (not the Administration of the Government) are synonymous things, if not terms, because the last is organized upon the platform of the first and derives from it all its vitality. There is not a power that it possesses that is not granted by the Constitution. The whole orbit in which it moves, and the movements themselves, are ordained and regulated by the Constitution, and the moment this connection between them ceases, the government, such as it now is, dies.

We do not--we cannot think that the people of the Confederate States are prepared as yet to give themselves up to the embraces of absolutism. They can conquer the enemy without the shadow of a necessity for resorting to this prodigious sacrifice. They can triumphantly bear themselves through the struggle, and preserve at the same time the Constitution, which is the charter of their rights."

Every man has his work to perform in carrying on the war. The farmer, the manufacturer, the mechanic, the editor, and numbers of others, if they faithfully discharge their duty, can render a far more valuable service to the army and country at home than they can with muskets on their shoulders in the field. In fact, it were impossible to conduct the war at all if a sufficient number of these, especially farmers, are not left at home to provide for the wants of the army. Bread and meat are to be made, clothing and other supplies of the army are to be manufactured, intelligence to be disseminated, the spirit of the people to be kept up and made equal to the necessities of the time, and their liberties guarded against encroachment--all this can be done only by those who remain at home, and they constitute as indispensable a class in time of war as the soldiers themselves.