Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1861-07-19
OF IT, Memphis Appeal.
LITTLE ADAa LANE.

Of the future. For one, sir, l raise my voice
beforehand against the unauthorized employ
ment OF military power, and against SUPER
seding the authority Of the laws, By an armed
force under pretense of putting down nuilih
cation. The president has no authority TO
blockade Charleston
Jackson! JACKSON, sirl the great Jackson!
did not dare to do it without authority of con-
gress; but our jackson OF to-day, the little
Jackson at be other end Of the avenue, and
The mimic Jacksons around him, do blockade,
not only Charle-to9 haTb T, but the whole
southern coast, three thousand miles in eX-
tent, by a single stroke Of the pen.
"Tbe president has no authority to employ
military force till be shall be duly required"
Mark the word:
"reqBiTed so to do by law and the civil author
titles. HIS du'v is to cause he laws to be eX-
eeuted. His duty is to support the civil GHthoT-
ity"
As in the Merryman case, fOrsoOth; but l
shall recur to that hereafter:
CHS duty ia, If the laws be resisted, to EN-
plov the military force Of the country, if neces-
sarv, for their support and execution; but 10 do
all this i compliance only with lar Gad tOith de-
cisiops Of the tribunals. If, by any ingenious
devices, those who resist the laws escape from
the reach OF judicial authority, as it is now
provided to he exercised, it is entirely comDe-
tent to Congress to make such ne provisions
as the exigeDcy Of the case may demand"
Treason, sir, rank treason, all this today.
And yet, thirty years ago. 1t was true union
patriotism and sound constitutional law! Sir,
/ prefer the wisdom and stern fidelity to prin-
cipie Of the fathers.
Sach was the voice Of Webster, and such,
too, let me add, tie voice, in his last great
speech in he senate, If the Douglas whose
death the land now mourHs.
Next after the blockade, sir, in the catalogue
Of daring executive usurpations, comes the
proclaim alton Of the 81 OF May, and the orders
Of The war and navy departm ments in pursuance
OF it--a proclamation and usurUation which
would have cost anv English sovereign his
head at any time within the las two hundred
years. S T, the constitution not only confines
to con'TeEs the right TO declare war, but ex
pressy provides that " congress (not the pres
iden') shall have power to raise and support
armies :" and to "provide and mainta
navy" In pursuance IF this authority, con-
gress, years ago, had fixed the number of Off
GERS, and Of the regiments, of the different
| kinds Of service; and alec the number of
ships, officers, marines and seamsn which
should compose the navy. Not only that,
but congress has repeatedly, within the
last five years, refused TO increase the
regular army. More than that still: in Feb
ruary and March last. the house, upon
several test votes, repeatedly and expressly re-
I O.
services Of volunteers for the very purpose Of
protecting the public property, enforcing the
laws, and collecting the revenue. And vet the
president, or his own mere will and authority,
and in violation OF the constitution, has pro-
ceeded TO increase, and has increased, the
standing army by twenty five thousand men
the navy BY eighteen thousand and has called
for and accepted the services Of forty Tegi-
ments OF volunteers for three wears, numbering
forty-two thousand men, and making thus a
grand army Of military fore, raised by exec
utive proclamation alone, wthOus sane
ton Of congress, without warrant Of law,
and in direct violation of the constitution
and of his oath Of Office, of eighty-fve thou
sand soldiers enlisted for three and five
years, and already in The field. And vet the
resident now asks US to support the army
which he has lhus raised; to ratify bis usurpa
/ tons by law sr post fGct0, and TINS to make
ourselves parties to our own degradation, and
his iDfracticns Of the constitution. Mean
while, however, he has taken good care, lot
only TO enlist the men, organize the regiments,
and muster them i>to service, but to provide in
advance for q horde Of forloTn, woTnout, and
| broken down politicians Of bis own partv, by
sFpointng, either by himself or through the
governors Of States, IN Ior-generals, brigadjer-
generals, colonies, eutenant colonsls, majors,
captains, lieu-enaHts, adjntants, quartermast-
ers, and surgeons, without any limit as to
numbers, and without so mach as once saying
10 congress-"BY your leave, gentlemen "
Beginning with this wide brsach.of The con
stitu-i0n, this enormous usurpation OF the most
! dangerous Of all powers-the power of the
sw0Td-other iGfgactjons and assumptions
were easy; and after public liberty, private
right soon fell. Tie privacy Of the teIsgr ph
was invaded in the search after treason and
I traitors; although If turns cut, significantly
enough, t5a tie -alv vi--im, so far, IS uue Of
/ the appointees and especial pets OF he admin
/ is'raion The tslegraphic dispatches, pre-
| served under every pledge Of secrecy for the
/ protection and safety Of The telegraph coEna-
! MES, were seized and carried away with
/ out search warrant, without probable
/ cause, without oa'h, and without descrip-
4 tion Of the places TO Be searched or Of the
/ things to be seized, and in plain violation Of
The right Of the people to be secnrs in
| t1siT houses, persons, papers, and eff cts,
| against unreasonable searches and seizures
! OHa step more, sir, will bring upon Us search
I and seizure of the public mails; and finally,
! as in the worst days of English oppTessi 1n-as
/ in the times Of the Russells and the SVdneys
| Of English martyrdom-of the TraWer5 and
secretaries of the private citizens; though
even then tyrants had the grace to look TO the
forms Of the law, and the eXecu ion was indi-
cial murder, not military slaughter. But who
| shall say that the future TheTius OF America
shall have the modestv Of his Roman prede-
eessor, in extenustion OF whose character IT is
written by the great historian aUertH occuIos,
jussitique scelerd non speciaVit.
Sir, the rights Of property having been thus
wantonly violated, it needed but Ii tie stretch
of usuTpation to invade the sanctitY of the
person; and a victim was not long wanting
| A private citizen Of Maryland, not subject to
! the rules and articles OF waT-nOt in case
arising in the land or naval forces, nor in the
MALTA when in actual service-is seized in
his house, in the dead hoGr Of night not
by any civil officer, nor upon any civil process,
but BY band of armed soldiers, under the
verbal orders OF military chief, and Is ruth
essly torn from his wife and bis children, and
buried of to a fortress of the United States
and that fortress, as in mockery, the very one
over whose ramparts had foated that star
spangled banner immortaized in song by the
patriot prisoner, who
"By the dawn's early Ight,'
saw its folds cleaning amid the wreck of bat
tie, and invoked the blessings of heaven upon
it, and prayed that it might long wave
"Oer the land Of the free and the home Of the brave
And, sir, when the highest judicial officer
Of the land, tic chief justice Of the supreme
court, upon whose shoulders, when the judicial
srmine fell, it touched nothing not as spotless
as ITSELF the aged. the venerable the gentle and
]
fore bad administered to the president the oath
to preserve the constitution and TO execute the
laws, issued, as by law it was bis sworn duty to
issue, the high pTerOgative writ Of hd6eas corpus
that great writ of right, that main bull
wark of personal liberty, commanding the
body Of the accused to be brought before
the court that Justice might be done by
due course OF law, and without denial OF
delay the Lales Of the fortress, its cannon
| turned fOwardg ? nd in DIaiD aipht ~ tba cit,,
where the court sat, and frawDing from the
rampNrts, were closed against the officers of
) the lsW, and the answer returned that the off,
Ger in command has, by the authority Of the
president, suspended the writ Of habsas corpus.
and thus It is sir, that the accused has ever
since been held prisoner without due process
OF law without bail; without prssantment by
a grand Jury; without speedy OF public trial bV
| a petit i1rY oe his own Safe or district. or
any trial at all without information of the
nature apd cause OF the accusation without
being confronted with the witnesses against
him; without compulsory Dracsss to obtain
witnesses 10 his avoT and without the
assistance OF counsel for his defense.
And this is our boosted American lib
erty? Anc thus it is, sir, that here, in Ameri-
ca, in the seventy third year Of the republic,
that great writ and secBritY Of personal free
dom which it cost tbe patriots and fraeme1 Of
England siy hundred years Of labor and toll
and blood to eXtOTt and TO hold fast from venal
Judges and JJant kings written in the great
| charter at kuGGeYmede by be iron baFons.
who made The simple Latin and uErauth words
Of the times, nlllIJs Hbey homo, in +he LANGUAGE
of Chatham, worth all he classics: recovered
and confirmed a hundred times afterward,
as often as violated aud stolen away. and
finally and frnly secured st last by the
great act Of Charles II, and transferred
! thence n Our nun consfFtutior l..