The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1861-07-20

Il srodbled y she Constitalosd ssiclsof IL
4 M. vslxoH, Je1erson county, M J
~ Is n g Il ss's June 5, 1861.
* Ips. GAxErfRs-Iw would like to have you. q,
some6ody else, answer the folleWiue Quesaions
1se 5Has tie President OF the United States the
right to saspsnd the writ Of Aabeas cospwsi "A,
Does mot The Constitution aay that the writ q
hooeas corpus shall not be suspended except BIZ
act o. Oo0gressf I'd. Has The President III
/ power 70 declare var without the consent Of
Ceaessf 4sh. Has not the President yiolated
sne Ocnstitutson By calling out volunteers and
raising armies Without The consent Of Congress!
The above questions are continually sounded
n the ears Of those who profess TO Be loyal to
ne Govsrnment, for no other purpose than "a
chill the efforts Of the friends Of the Union II
this part Of the country. did NOT vote for Mr..
Lincoln, yet Am willing to stand BY him and
his Administration % long a. be keeps within
the limits Of the Constitution. II the above
questions were satisfactorily answered, II would
relieve the minds Of many ". w. R.
we have elaborated on sbs habeas corpus part
OF these questions before. but a. il u our office
70 give line upon line and precept upon preeept,
and - the enemy, with the propensity which he
has had ever since he deluded our irss mother.
to take any shape but his own, now chiefly a..
ssmes this disguise 70 oppose the enforcement
of the laws, We will briefly state what We sun.
pose to be Law and reason on this and the other
question:
The vrit Of Aa6eas corpus il simply TO give
force to the right to liberty 1t was held to be
an inaiienabie right in England, from whence No
imported it. Our Consultation docs not author
ne IL suspension. Il recognizes the writ a. an
inalienable right and provides that it shall not
be inffinged. The exception Of cases Of rebel.
lion or invasion 10 merely . recognition that the
laws Of war necessarily suspend civil processes
of all kinds. "as the public safety may require
it, II not, the killing Of men in battle would
be murder and liable TO the penalty of the law.
II not, prisoners of war might be taken out Of
the hands Of our troops BY habeas corpus; and if
domestic enemies could be 70 liberated, foreign
enemies taken prisoners could be set free by the
same writ
The Consultation recognizes the inherent right
to liberty, and declares that no man shall be de.
prived Of il except BY due course of law. Yet
men are taken prisoners of war without any pro-
cess of civil Law. And yet the Constitution is
not violated, for military law is a we'll defined
code, which the Constitution recognizes and
which existed long before Constitutions. So
the Consultation provides that 1.-THE privilege of
the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended"
and then it recognizes that q state of war does
suspend it, and it excerpts that condition.
IUc uCtUlUR OF ptlSOucTB Oh war IN Oeu4nCe OF
the writ of Gbeas corpus is not violation of the
Constitutional provision, because that reeog-
nizes that war suspends "the privilege of the
writ"
As the Constitution does not authorize any.
body to suspend the writ, but recognizes that it
may be suspended by war, the question is, who
shall suspend its In the first place, the Consti-
tuition recognizes the suspension as necessarily
following a state of war, or as suspended by acts
of war. In the second place, war suspends the
writ whether there is any formal declaration or
not; else if we had Judge who was traitor
enough, he could follow our army after its bat
ties and release every prisoner of war as fast az
they we're taken. Nobody pretends that the
commanding officer would be compelled to sub.
nit TO this, would violate the Constitution by
refusing to obey such writ. Yet his holding
these prisoners of war against such treasona.
BILE writ, would be suspension of s'the privi-
lege of the writ" and, We take it, just such
suspension as the Constitution recognizes as |
necessity of war.
The President as COMMUNICATIVE Chief of the |
army, can hardly have less power to refuse to |
obey this writ than his subordinate officers have. !
Congress never yet suspended the writ. Gen.
Jackson suspended it in New, Orleans by declar-
ing martial law, which suspended all civil pro-
cesses. Congress justified him in. it. That IL
the only precedent we have in this Government
for the suspension Of the writ. 1t will hardly be
pretended that the Commander.in Chief cannot |
suspen the writ, if his subordinate officer can.
Furthermore, this is the safest place to have this
power. The President, in exercising it, may be |
made accountable to Congress by impeachment,
and may be controlled by the power of Congress
over the supplies. No President would dare use
this power oppressivey On the contrary, if
Congress should exercise it, it might suspend the
writ over the whole nation, FIRST declaring it in
rebellion; and it may be remembered that the |
declarations Of Congress have not always been
restricted to the truth.
Suppose we take those who attack the Pres. |
dent for exercising this power, and who insist |
that it is solely in Congress- in the trap into |
which they would run. Then they would put it in
the power Of partizan majority in Congress at
this time, consttutionally to suspend the writ of
ha6eas corpus over this whole nation, for such |
length OF time as they chose, and with it to sus-
pend all laws and Constitutions, and establish |
military despotism, for without any protection |
against Imprisonment without warrant of law, |
how could any legal or constitutional rights ex-
let And from this there would be no appeal |
or redress ,4
The President 10 not authorized to declare
war, and has not but he is authorized to resist
war upon the nation, and he has done it. The |
President is required ito take that the laws
uC luiSuiuuy cAcCuSeu3 auu uc Nus uOuc uO UOTc |
than was required to execute this duty. He is |
authorized to call out troops to repel invasion
and suppress insurrection, and he has called no |
more than were absolutely needed
He has the right to preserve the Government |
from being overthrow, either by foreign inva |
sion or civil war, to the extent of calling ont |
every able bodied man and every dollar in the
country. The public safety is the supreme law.
Constitutions are made only to promote the safe.
A., ~f q ka L. r Al
Of the impending invasion Of Louisiana, General
Jackson declared martial law and held every
man and all the property subject to the public
defense. In case of q foreign invasion, threat
ening the destruction of this nation before the |
regular course of legislation could provide for
the defense, the President would have the same
right to put this whole nation under martial law,
and hold its property and every man subject to
tie public defense. Suppose foreign invasion,
or a domestic rebellion, should seize all the Of
fcers of our Government, and hold them prison.
ers Of war, would the people thereby be depriv.
ed of power to act for their defense Would |
they have to surrender because the Constitution |
or laws did not specify rules for such case p
On the contrary, all Constitutions contemplate |
the public safety as the supreme law, and every |
act necessary for the national defense would be |
constitutional. soy sa
Had the President allowed Washington to be |
taken by the rebels while he was waiting for
Congress to authorize the raising of troops he
would nave deserved to be hung as traitor
There are certain restrictions upon the call for
troops to suppress instruction, but there is a
well-deined distinction between instruction and
a civil war which threatens the existence of the
Government. Then the Government has all the
belligerent rights that would belong to it in case
the enemy were foreign one; and the first right
and first duty is the preservation of the nation,
and that, like all other belligerent rights is
strictly Observation-Disclosures Gazette.
EFFECT OF THE DEArH OF C0UNr CAvoCR ON
THE FUTURE OF IrALY-A London correspondent
Of the New York Evening Post says:
CAvour's death has not led to any disastrous
results; in fact it is even said to have been pro-
ductive Of good. The great Minister is sue.
ceeded at the head of the Council and in the For
eign Department BY Baron Ricasoli, who was
Governor General Of Tuscany during the provis-
ional state of things in 1859 and who gained the
good opinion Of all moderate politicians by the