Columbia Democrat and Bloomsburg general advertiser. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1850-1866, 1861-08-10

duty to issue, the high perogotive writ of
haJeas coypUs-the great writ of right that
main bulwark of personal liberty, COM
manding the body of the accused to be
brought before him that justice and right
might be done by due course of law, and
without denial Or delay; the gates of the
fortress, its cannon turned towards, and in
plain sight Of the city where the court sat
and frowning from the rampart', were
closed against the officer of the law, and
the answer returned that the officer in
command has, by the authority of the
President, suspended the writ of haJcaS
corpus And thus it is, sir, that the ac.
cuscd has ever since been prisnoncr with
out due process of law without bail /;
without prcsentment by grand jury /;
without speedy or public trial by a petit
jury Of his own State or district, or any
trial at all without information Of the ma
ture and cause Of the accusation; with
out being confronted with the witnesses
against him; without compulsory process
to obtain witnesses in his favor; and with
out the assistance Of counsel for his defense
And this is our boastod American liberty
And thus it is, too, sir, that here, here in
America, in the seventy third year of the
Republic, that great writ and security of
personal freedom which it cost the patri.
OTIS and frcemcn of England six hundred
years of labor and toll and blood to ex-
tort and to hold fast from vcnal judges and
tyrant kings written in the great schar-
ter at Runnymede by the iron barons,
who made the simple Latin and uncouth
words Of the times, alul2as libeT honto, in
the language of Chatham worth all the
classics: recovered and confirmed hun.
drcd times afterwards, as often as violated
and stolen away, and finally and firmly
secured at last by the great act Of Charles
III and transferred thence to our own Con.
stitution and laws, has been wantonly and
ruthlessly tramplcd in the dust Ay, sir,
that great writ, bearing by special COM
mand of Parliament, those other uncouth
but magic words, per s'atutam t,icessin,o
primo Carol5 Secun6 regis which no Eng
lish minister, no king or queen of England
dare disobey; that writ brought over by
our faith ers apd cherished by thcm as
priceless Inheritance of liberty, an Ameri-
can President has contemptuousy set at
defiance. Nay, more, he has ordered his
subordinate military chiefs 10 suspend it at
their discretion And yet, after all this,
he coolly 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 this House and of the Senate and the
country their thanks for his usurpations Of
power; while outside Of this Capitol, his
myrmidons are clamoring for impeachment
of the Chief Justice, as engaged in a con-
spiracy to break down the Federal Govern
ment
Sir, however much necessity-tho ty-
rants plea-may be urged in extenuation
of the usurpations and infractions of the
President in regard to public liberty there
can be no such apology or defense for his
invasions of private right What over
ruling necessity required the violation of
tho sanctity of private property and pri-
vato cnfdence ? What great public danger
demanded the arrest and imprisonment,
without trial by common law, Of one single
private citizen, for an act done weeks be-
fore, openly and by authority of his State?
If guilty of treason, was not tho judicial
power ample enough and strong enough for
his conviction and punishment What,
then, was needed in his case, but the pre-
cedent under which other mon, in other
places, might become the victims of exc
cutive suspicion and pleasure !
As to the pretcnse, sir, that the Presi.
dent has the constitutional right to suspend
the writ of habeas corpuS, will not waste
time in arguing it. The case is as plain
as words can make it. 1t is a legislative
power; it is fouEd only in the legislative
article; it belongs to Congress only to do
it. Subordinate officers have disobcycd
it; General Wilkinson disoboyed it, but
he sent his prisoners on for judicial trial /;
General jackson disobeyed it, and was
reprimanded by James Madison; but no
President, no body but Congress, ever be.
fore assumed the right to suspend it.
And, SIR, that other pretensc, of necessity
/ repeat, cannot be allowed. 1t had no
existence in fact. Tho Constitution can
not be preserved by violating it. 1t is an