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A Mass Meeting of the Democracy of Illinois.
It is in contemplation by the democratic state committee, we understand, to call a mass meeting at Springfield, to be held speedily, of the democracy and all other people of Illinois who feel alrrm at the revolutionary condut of the administration at Washington, and who appreciate that "the price of liberty is eternal vigilance." There has never been anything plainer to the comprehension of any people than to the comprehension of any people than to the comprehension of the people of this country now, that whether their civil liberties shall be preserved or lost depends wholly upon themselves. They are in imminent danger of loss. They are lost already unless the administration shall be arrested in its career of usurpation and compelled to go back to obedience to the constitution and laws. It is a fact that to-day not one citizen of the democratic faith in this broad land is secure against a repetition in his own person of the proceedings which as to Mr. Vallandigham, have resulted in his banishment from his home. There are hundreds of thousands of democrats who hold and daily express sentiments similar to those for the expression of which Mr. Vallandigham has been seized and tried by a drum-head court martial. Whether they be wise or unwise sentiments is not for a moment the question. They are the honest, sincere, patriotic sentiments of those who hold them, and the question is, SHALL THE RIGHT TO EXPRESS THEM BE SURRENDERED? This is the question which we put to the democracy of Illinois, and it is this they will answer when they shall have met together at Springfield some two or three weeks hence.
The meeting should be, and we believe will be, the grandest outpouring of the people ever known in the state. Illinois must not be, and will not be, behind in her duty in this crisis not only in the life of the nation, but in the life of those principles of human freedom alone by the preservation of which the life of the nation itself is worth preserving. Illinois should be, and will be, among the foremost in this contest which has now to be tried on this continent, as it was tried in England in the sixteenth century. Indiana has spoken through her democracy, Ohio is about to speak, and Illinois will not speak with less emphasis than they in response to the significant and indignant protest of the governor of New York.
The democracy await the call of the democratic state committee.
We indorse, to the full, the above suggestion from the Chicago Times. We understand that the sanction of a majority of the central committee has been given to the idea proposed, and that the call for the meeting will be issued about the 1st prox. It will probably be held on the 17th of June. Let it be the largest assemblage of democrats ever witnessed in the Prairie State.