Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1861-07-21


army or military force, rail by tive procla-
nation alone without saDet on Of Congress- without
warrant of law, and in direct violation Of the Con
shtution and of his oath of Office, of egh;y-fiTe
thousand soldiers enlisted for three and five years,
and already in the field. And yet the President
asks us to support the Army which he has thus
raised; to ratify his usurpations by a law post
fdcto and thus to make ourselves parties to our
own depreciation and to his infractions of the Con
sttutiOn. Mean while, however, he has taken good
care not only TO enlist the men, organize the Fegi-
ments and muster them into service, but TO provide
in advance for a horde Of foTlorn, wOrnOut, and
broken lown politicians of his own party. by Ep-
pointing, either fy hilu CT r. through the Cover.
of states, MAJOR generals, brIgadIer generals,
colonies, lieutenant colonies, majors, captains, leu
tensnts, adjutaAts, quartermssters, and surgeons,
without any limit as TO numbers, and without 50
much as once saying to Ccngress-"By your leave,
gentlemen"
Beginning with this wide breach of the Constitu-
ton, this enormous uzuFpatiOh of the most danger
Gus of eli p0wers-the power OF the swOrd-other
1nfrsctions and assumptions were easy; and after
public liberty, private right soon fell The privacy
Of the telegraph was invaded in the search after
treason and traitors although 1t turns out, signf
cantly enough. that the only victim far. is one
of the appOlntees and especial pets of the Admins
tration. The telegraphie dispatches, preserved I'M
der every pledge Of secrecy for the protection anu
safety of the telegraph companies, seized and
carried away without search warrant, without
probable cause, without oath. and without de-
serIption OF the places to be searched or of the
things to be seizsd and in plain violation Of the
right of the people to be secure in their houses per
sons, papers, and effects, against unreasonable
searches and seizures. One step more, sir, viii
bring upon us search and seizure of the public
mails; and finally, as IN the worst days of English
oppressiOn-as in the times of the RUssells and the
Sydneys Of English martyrdOm-of the drawers and
secretaries of private ctzens though even then ty
rants had the grace to look to the forms of the law
and the execution was judicial murder, not militia
ry slaughter But who shall say that the future
Tiberius Of America shall have the mOdesty Of his
Roman predecessor, iE extenuatiOn of whose char
aeter it is written by the great historian dUsrt
ctiOs, j,tsstiqle SceleTd non spectaUH.
Sir, the rights of property having been thus wan
tOnly violated, it needed but little stretch of
patton 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
war-nOt in arising in the land or naval for
ces nor in the militia when in actual servlce-is
seized in his own house. in the dead hour of night,
not by any civil officer, upon any civil process,
but by a band of armed soldiers, uRder the verbal
orders of a military chief, and is ruthlessy torn
from his wife and his children, and hurried of to
fortress of the United Statesand that fortress, as
if in moclzery, the very over whose ramparts
had fOated that star spanged banner immortalZed
in song by the patriot prisoner who,
''By the davn's early Hgh.,"
saw its folds cleaning amid the wreck of battle and
that it might long wave
'Oer the land or the free and the home Of the brave
And. sir. when the highest judicial officer Of the
land, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court upon
whose shoulders, when the judicial engine fell it
touched nothing not spOtless itself. the aged
the venerable, the gentle, the pure minded fancy,
who but a little while before had administered to
the President the oath to preserve the Constitution
and to execute the laws issued, by law 1t his
sworn duty to issue, the high prerOgatye writ of
h1bedS cOrp3ts-that great writ of right, that main
bulwark Of personal liberty, commanding the body
of the accused to be brought before that justice
might be done by due course of law, and without
denial delays the gates of the fortress its
turned towards and in plain sight Of the city where
the court sat, and frOwnlng from the ramparts
closed against the officer of the law, and the
returned that the officer in command has by the
thOrity of the President. suspended the writ Of hG
bsqs corpus. And thus it is sir, that the accused
has ever since been held prisoner without due pro-
cess Of law; without bail; without presentment by
a grand jury; without speedy or public trial by
a petit jury of his own State or district,
any trial at ALL without information of the nature
and cause Of the accusation; without being con-
frOnted with the witnesses against him; without
compulsory process to obtain witnesses IN his favor;
and without the assistance of counsel for his defense
And this is our boosted American liberty? And
thus it is sir that here in America in the seventy
third year of the Republic, that great writ and
curity of personal freedom which it costs the
patriots and 1Peemen OF England SIX hundred years
of labor and toll and blood to eXtOrt and to hold
fast frem venal judges and tyrant kings written in
the great charter st Runneymede by tie iron
barOns, who made the simple Latin and unCouth
wordg of the times, 1ttuS Lber homo in the language
of Chatham, worth all the classics; recovered and
confirmed hundred times afterwards, often as
violated and stolen away, and finally and firmly
secured st last by the great act Of Charles IL, and
transferred thence to our own Constitution and
laws has been wantOnly and ruthleSsly trsmpled in
the dust. Ay, sir, that great writ bearing, by
special command of Parliament those other IN
cOuth but magic words, per StdtHl tTceSSiHO primo
Carroll secU9i regis which no English judge, no En-
glish minister, no king or queen of England, dare
disObey; that writ brought over by our fathers and
cherished by them as q priceless inheritance of
liberty, an American President has contemptuously
set at defiance. Nay, more, be has ordered his SUBJ
ordinate military chiefs TO suspend it at their dis
cretion! And yet, after all this, he cOoly comes
before this House and the Senate and the country,
and pleads that he is only preserving and protecting
the Constitution: and demands and expects of tn
House and of the Senate and the country their
thanks for his usurpatlons of power; while outside
of this Capitol, his myFmidOns are clamOring fer
impeachment Of the Chief Justice. as engaged in a
conspiracy to break down the Federal Govern
ment
Sir, however much necessity-the tyrant's plea
may be urged in extenuatOn Of the usurpations and
attractions Of the President in regard to public bN
erty, there can be such apology or defense for
his invasion of private rights What overriding
necessity required the violation Of the sancuty of
private property and private confidence What
great public danger demanded the arrest aud i'm
prisonment, without trial by common law, Of one
single citizen, for an act done weeks before, openly
and by authority of his State? If guilty Of treason
was not the judicial power ample enough and strong
enough for his conviction and punishment What
then was needed il his case, but the precedent I'M
der which other men, in other places, might become
the victims of executive suspicion and dlspeas-
ure
As to the pretense, sir that the President has the
constitutional right to suspend the writ Of hdbeGS
corpus, will not waste time or breath IN arguing
il. The case is plain words can make it. IL
is legislative power it is found only in the legis-
lative article; it belongs to Congress only to do It.
Subordinate officers have disObeyed it; General
Wilkinson disObeyed it, but he sent his prisoners
for judicial trial; General Jackson disObeYed it,
and was reprimanded by James Madison; but no
President no body but Congress, ever before
ed the right suspend it. And, sir, that other pre-
tense, of necessity, repeat cannot be allowed. 1t
had no existence in fact. The Constitution cannot
be preserved by violating it. 1t is an offence 10
the intelligence of this House and of the country,
to pretend that all this and the other gross and
multiplied nfractOns of the Constitution and UsUr-
pations of power were done by the President and
his advisers of pure love and devotion to the Con
stitutiOn. But if so, sir, then they have but one
step farther to take and declare, in the language
of Sir BOYLE Roche in the Irish House of Commons,
that such is the depth of their attachment to it,
that they are prepared to give up, not merely
part but the whole of the Constitution, to preserve
he remainder. And, sir, if indeed this pretext of
necessity be well founded, then let me say, that
a cause which demands the sacrifice of the Const-
- r.