The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-02 00:00:00

PERSONAL LIBER7Y m 21-17 Z FEDERAL
STATES.

(From the 11,etv York World of Nov. 12.)
Whoever has a sister, a -wife, or a daughter, and
desires to know what pangs may come to him
through those tender ties ; whoever would learn
(beyond what Naples and the Inquisition can teach)
to what outrageous lengths the unbridled, un-
punished exercise of unlawful, despotic power will
run, may learn from the correspondence in the case
of Mrs. Brinsmade which we publish this morning.
Mrs. Brinsmade, a young and beautiful woman,
hardly oat of her teens, possessing therefore neither
the self-restraint which comes with years nor the
cautious reticence of the other sex, two months ago
came North, under a pass from General Butler, in
the New Orleans steamer, in order to spend the
winter with her relatives in Washington and Troy.
Arrived in the former city, she is arrested without
warrant, imprisoned without trial, denied commu-
nication with her friends, kept closely guarded, at
length brought on to this city and thrown into
prison in the Forty-seventh-street station-house.
Through a hackman employed by the officer in
charge of her, her friends in this city learn of the
outrage; they apply civilly to the infamous Ken-'
nedy, who made the arrest, to know its cause. They
are assailed with imprecations and threats that they
too shall be locked up if the inquiry is repeated.
Assured by a deputy that the prisoner is to be sent
to her father in New Orleans by the next steamer,
her friends content themselves with the hope that,
although every form of law, every guarantee of
civil and personal liberty has been violated by one
of their appointed custodians, the sufferer had at least
escaped without loss of life or of that which is dearer.
But her wrongs were not yet ended. They did
not know the Kennedy. Perhaps they had never
heard of cell No. 4. 35 days afterwards a letter was
received by one of her friends, from which it was
learnt that she was a close prisoner in the Forty-
seventh-street station-house, waited upon only by
male attendants, fed with prisoner's fare, a part of
the time prostrated by illness as well as grief, every
instinct of decency thus violated as well as every
form of law.

Two ladies then apply to the Kennedy for permis-
sion to see their friend. It is denied. They ask what
are the charges and who the accusers. " I, the Ken-
nedy, am the accuser ; I arrested her. I put her and
keep her where she is, and she ought to be hanged."
Hopeless of redress from the brute whom this
infamy blasts up and down through all his lineage
and all in his posterity, Mrs. Brinsmade's friends
applied to Provost Marshal Gen. Draper (Mr. Dra-
per promptly addressed himself to the Judge Advo•
cate General, who said that he knew nothing of the
case) : to Mr. Kennedy, who replied that she was
held by order of Colonel Baker, Provost Marshal of
Washington ; to Colonel Baker and the Assistant
Secretary of War, who replied (proving that Ken-
nedy of course had lied) that the arrest had been
made by one of Mr. Kennedy's officers, and that
Mrs. Brinsmade was detained by him without any
authority whatever from the War Department ;
whereupon Mr. Draper got from the Kennedy an
order for the lady's release, went in person and
executed it, and left her in the charge of her friends.
It is but justice to say that the War Department
is no further responsible for this particular outrage
than as responsibility as implied in its having been
guilty of similar ones, in its having committed
despotic and illegal power into the hands of a petty
Caligula, and in its having hitherto connived at
every license to which the itchings of a paltry police
despot and the instincts of a brute had goaded him
On.

Of Mr. Draper it only needs to be said, to those
who do not know him, that his humanity and his
sense of justice needed no- second or lorg appeal,
and that the functions of an office which never
ought to have been created are redeemed from utter
detestation in the character of a gentleman by
whom it never ought to have been assumed.
Bat of the Kennedy, whose own peculiar and un-
divided crime this is—a crime of which the War
Department denies knowledge and responsibility—
what can be said that will not insult by its tame-
ness every citizen who has thought himself under
free government, protected in his liberty and per-
sonal rights by laws and penalties, by humane
rulers, and all the environments of an advanced
civilization, what can be said that will not shock by
its feebleness whoever has a young daughter, sister,
or wife, to-day as liable as this fair lady was to be

incarcerated in her helplessness, to be subjected to
the will of a man whom laws only protect in the
exercise of unlawful power, whom the guardians of
law neither punish nor remove, from whom fear
neither extorts rude justice, nor youth, nor beauty,
nor innocence persuades to compassion ?
There are fools and fanatics who will say that
this young woman, this child, for trolling a Secesh
song and for wearing the garments of her sex, in
which quinine may be more easily concealed than
in dress coats and white cravats, is doubtless a spy,
and, as the Kennedy says, •' ought to be hung." To
them we confidently look for such patriotic displays
as idiots are capable of, and the charges of treason
which have been so common against all who be-
lieve that it is not worth while to lose our liberties
in the effort to save them.
But to the loyal and intelligent men, to the
patriotic and noble women of this city and of the
country, with the facts above admitted by the War
Department, and endorsed by theProvost-Marshal-
General, we confidently appeal, and ask if a help-
less woman shall thus suffer. To the custodians
and interpreters of law we appeal, who know that
law is in its nature sovereign, and that its restraints
are just as obligatory upon the rulers who admini-
ster it as upon the people who obey it ; who are in-
structed in its binding sanctions and know the
dangers of their disregard; them we ask if such
outrages against every law shall go unpunished.
To the Government we appeal, and ask if the
usurpations which it has permitted, which Forts
Lafayette and Warren to-day perpetuate and hide,
must be overtopped by these outrages which it dist'

claims.

We ask it President Lewin must be

posted in the contempt of the world—must the un-
jawfuj power which he still persists in using be
consigned to men who make it more than lawless,
and whose instincts would cover what is shameless

with shame.
To the Grand Jury now in session we appeal, and
demand that they lose no time in indicting this
Kennedy, the disgrace of the city, the country, and
his sex. There must be somewhere justice ard law
for a helpless woman, and retribution for a Kennedy.

The following correspondence between the coun-
sel. of Mrs. Brinsmade and Simeon Draper, Esq.,
Provost•Marsbal General, is published by request
of her friends :

"TO SIMEON DRAPER, ESQ.
"Once of Bowdoin, Larocques, and Barlow, No. 45,

~ . William-street, New York, Nov. 8.
Dear
s w
__The friends of Mrs, Brinsmade, late of New
with her arrest and
les.ted me to ascertain the facts connected
.mprisonment. I believe they are sub-
stantially as fathwe
"About two months since Mrs. Brinsmade, the wife of
Dr. Brinsmade, e yo,
g lady about 20 years of age, having
A pass from Gen,
Orleans, having been Butler,vi arrived in this city from New
aced by her father Mr. Theodore
A. James, a highly
respectable
the charge of Dr. Phelps, one of
of that city, in
surgeons of the
steamer upon which he had secured
the d
" She brought letters from her father passage.
J. D.
Scott and Co. and other gentlemen of thri to
Rouse by
arrival here she was accompanied to the 4;4. Upon her
to protect
the
an invalid naval officer, who had been reo?,v
neareneudttrst d
by
north
hist her.
Com-
modore Morris, at New Orleans,
6 Mrs. Brinsmade's object in visiting
wßtht:
reside with her uncles, one of them in Washington,
She remained a few days in this,it
other in Troy.
Brooklyn and then went to Washington, where, aftyer 1. ande
wining four days, she was arrested by Marshal Baker, who
kept her a close prisoner for four days, carefully guarded.
0 Some ten days after she left this. city. far Wa.hington a
one of her friends in New York, and
hackman called on
said that a lady was brought in en the train of the previous
gton, and conveyed to the
night by a Detective fromVirashin
Forty-seventh-Areet police station, and that her name was
Mrs. Brinsmade.
"An immediate applicationto see her.
was made. to bin Kennedy
for the cause of her arrest and for permission
This was rudely refused by Mr. Kennedy, who threatened
to lock up the applicant if the inquiry was repeated,depu ty-
"Another friend of Mrs. Brinsmade then saw a
seen b
marshal, and was informed that she could only be
Cony
permission of Mr. Kennedy. He stated that she was
fined in the Forty-seventh-street station-house ; that she
was a giddy, foolish, secesh woman, who had been singing 4

secesh songs ; that it was thought best to send her home to
her father at New Orleans, and that she would p.,il in a day
or two, but that no one would be allowed to se her.
" With this assurance her friends were obliged to be con-
tented.
"Thirty-five days afterwards a letter was ceived by one
of her friends, stating that she was still a c' ose prisoner in
the Forty 4seventh-street station-house.
"Application was at once made to you. Her friends
were informed that you knew nothing of her case, that you
would at once address the proper authority at Washington
for information, and if in your power would release her.
"Pending this correspondence two ladies, the wives of
two of our most reputable merchants, who had been for
many years the neighbours and friends of Mrs. 13rinsmade,
called upon Mr. Kennedy for permission to see her.
" They asked What were the charges against her, and
who were her accusers ?'
" Mr. Kennedy, in his usual manner, answered, I,
madam, am her accuser ; she is a general spy ; from the
moment she set her foot in this city my presence over-
shadowed her. I did not leave her for a moment. She went
to Brooklyn to visit her friends ; I watched her, and when
she returned to the Everett House I watched her there. She
went to Washington, and when I got her in the right place
I arrested her and brought her back here and put her where
she is.'
" In reply to the inquiry if there was no more proper
place for the confinement of this lady than a police-station,
he said,—' No, that was the place for her. That her whole
conduct on board ship indicated that she was a spy, and that
she ought to be hung—that a thoughtless, giddy thing like
her and the one who was arrested a few days since in Wash-
ington, who was making a waggon of herself, carrying
quinine to the rebels, were the very ones to be employed as
spies, and that they all ought to be hung.'
." In reply to the inquiry as to whether she was to be kept
shut up where she then was and had been for five weeks,
and her friends unable to see her or know where she was,
he replied, ' That is with the department.'
" Through your kind intervention, after this long confine-
ment, this lady on Monday was restored to her friends.
"I learn that she was arrested without the authority of
any one in Washington ; that the fact of her arrest was
never reported by Mr. Kennedy to any department of the
Government ; that no charges had ever been filed, and that
even her name was unknown at the War Department ; that
so soon as you were enabled to learn the facts you obtained
from Mr. Kennedy her release.

" Will you be so kind as to examine the facts as I have
related them, and inform me whether or not they are cor-
rectly stated, so far as they have come to your knowledge ?
"Yours very truly,
"SAMUEL L. M. BARLOW."
" TO SAMUEL L. M. BARLOW, ESQ., NEW YORK.

"Office of the Provost-Marshal-General of the War
Department, New York, Nov. 10.

"Dear Sir,—In reply to yours of the Bth inst. I can only
state that up to the 20th ult. I had no knowledge whatever
with regard to Mrs. Brinsmade's case. On that day Mrs.
Elliott called and informed me that she was under arrest,
and inquired what was the cause.
" I on the same day wrote to Washington, directing in-
quiry to be made of the Judge-Advocate-General.
" On the let inst. I was informed that the Judge-Advo-
cate-General knew nothing about the case.

"Upon this I asked Mr. Kennedy by what authority he
held her as a prisoner; he replied that she was arrested and
held by order of Colonel Baker, the Provost-Marshal of
Washington. This I forwarded to Washington, and on the
3d inst. received from Colonel Baker and ihe Assistant
Secretary of War information by telegraph to the effect

that the arrest had been made by one of Mr. Kennedy's
officers, and Mrs. Brinsmade was detained by him without
authority from the War Department.
" I then called upon Mr. Kennedy, received from him an
order directing Mrs. Brinsmade's release, and went with it
to the station•house, took her from it and placed her in
charge of her friends.

"The foregoing is all the information that I can give
bearing on the subject.
"Your obedient servant,
" S. DRAPER, Provost-Marshal-General."