The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-08-16

Government knownto and created by the Constitute
must end with it. What remains is revolution in Il
garb Of government and depending for its Iegitma
upon oayonets The tate whose inst tutions the
are litted, is longer State the Union, in edeC
whatever she may be in name She has Constituto
no government, In laws that she call her 81
no longer free.
With respect to the individual cases of our feoy
CITIZENS, whose Memorial is before the principles
constitutional right equally positive and clear
me charges of General Banks against the Marshal
foiice amount to anything and well founded, the
constitute case Of treason msprsion of treason cog
zbie under the laws and furnishing
riai by the competent tribunals. Against Commi
sloners there is nothing aleg d. in either prOc anna toi
upon which a warrant could be lawfully issued, or a
indictment found and they but state in their Memoir;
10 congress- what every welliaformed citizen
nlze as obvlousthat legal tribunal would hcstat
to discharge them, if brought before it, upon swor
allegations so simply frivolous and futile. But
the Government thought otherwise--if its hig
officers were really persuaded, that in the nineteent
century, and under the free institutions Of Il,
rreest nation upon earth, it lawful and i'm
prison men of high character and rreproachable integr
g.or any other men.npon the mere suspicion of thei
entertaining purposes which were admitted TO be 'no
known to the Government; while they were alleged
the same breath, to he Inconsistent its peace
security surely the courts of Justice which open
unobstruced end active were the rghtful tribunals
pass upon the matter. The Commissioners, as well a
the Marshal, either char crime or thew
not ii they were not, it henous crime to arres
and lmprison them. II they were their rights and tn
demands OF public Justice required mperavey that they
| should ne dealt with according to law
70 refer to the constitutional provisions in wbcI
principles so vital embodied appears like seeking
ter proof that we by Gods sunlight, or have on
breath from His mir THE right of the people, saws Tho
4th Amendment to the Constitutions "to be secure in the
persons houses, papers and effects against unreasonable
searches and seizures SGH be rioE1ted and no war
rants shall issue but probable cause supported by
oath or ailrmation and particularly describing the place
TO he searched and the persons things to he seized
| NO person. says the 5h Amendment "shalI he held
to answer for capital otherwise Infamous crime nm
less prese or indictment of Grand Jnrv ex
| nd f,rr
militia, when il actual service in time war or publir
danger 'In criminal prosecutions saws Article VI
of same thc accused shall enjoy the right to snced,
and public trial, by impartial Jury
District wherein the crime shall have been committed
which District shall have been previously
law and to be informed of the ma and cause of the
accusalon-to be confronted with the witnesses against
m-to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses
| his defense "
These provisions the fundamental law of the land
law 70 The Government as well as to the peopea cove
nant OF right and liberty and limitation upon power
They are an essential and ndeeasibe portion of the com
pact which created the Union the conditions upon
which alone the people Of Maryland apd Of all the States
consented to abide by it. Without them everything else
IN the Government is worthless for they represent and
guard the great principles of human freedom which the
Union was fram.d to perpetuate, ard compared with
which all governmental fnrms-al names and svubnls
| all institutions, and traditions, and men-sfrink awaY
| into dust and nothinGness
OF these provisions there is rot single one which has
not been tramped upon in the cases before US Them
selves arrested and their papers seized without
or oath of probable causeheld to answer only with
jury had taiIed to ndIc or preSent-denied speedy
and public tria-indeed. refused the privilege Of
siar @ at9sGinefacarred @ away by force, from the
state and DIstrct where any onensc alleged against
them must have been committed, If at aI-no informa
safcd to themthe President of the United States mon
the contrary, refusing to communicate such
even to Congress on the ground that to do so would
be Incompatible with the public terest5,
with no witnesses against them-allowcd call no wit
nesses in their defenceseparaed from their counsel as
from their homes and friends-the Maryland Commission
imprisoned La Fayp
llving testimonial of the overthrow within their State
OF every barrier erected hY the Constitution between the
freedom Of the citizen and the onslaught of rhitrar
power Let it be to their honor and the honor Of
land that they have not suilcd her theirs by
unmany submission compliance 1t will he tho
eternal shame OF the whole nation if its peopIe as ono
man, do not demand and compel their deliverance
Upon the ground of military necessityn already dis
cuSsed in another point of view there no doubt that
defence WILDE made fo the Government against the grave
responsibilities which these acts of individual on
preston must entail.
But the Committee, now, before, rely upon the Con.
stltutlon OF the United States as bar to all such
tempted justification There is no foundation
what for it in history institutions nor is it
any part Of our Auglo-SaXon Inheritance No mode of
reasoning is more false than that which appeals to what
are called general principles of Government to deter
mine the powers of the particular Government under
which we live 1t is Government s;,i 1sue;e. to ba
construed according to its peculiar principles and
none other 1t is Government of meraed and dele
gated powers framed expressly upon theory that it
shall exercise no powers except those which dele
gated and enumerated Where it finds no prerogatives
in the Constitution, it not he clothed with
them. There are no inherent attributes about
This principle recognized by ali Courts of the land is
insisted upon strenuousy and more releaedy no
where than in the Courts of the Northern and Eastern
States. The written Constitution of the Union as al!
readers of history know expressly devised to get rid
of differences and implications of all sorts from general
principles and abstract reasoning No ether
is like in this and the anaoges of no other Govern
ment apply to it To insist therefore that it has the
right preserve itself by any and all means wbeber
constitutional Observation-Disclosures other gov
ernments, which have written constitutions and M
limitations of power have adopted the rne to Ken o
. kent md tbrpn fb
by which they can retain it's to an anao
testify false to conclusion which is subversive of our
institutions
This Government not intended to be kent to ether
by through the exercise of any powers by
the application of principles, except those of its own
constitutional providing To attempt preserve it. in
name the expense of the Constitution to destroy IL
in theory and fact Once let necessity of any sort
he recognized above the Constitution and our sys
ten is any thing and every thing which it NAV be
found necessary to make it. As necessity'' has no
law so it has no limit. The same logic by which il
justes the suspension of constitutional PROVISION
will Justify in like the overthrow of ALL The same
pretext which it nvokes suppress the functions of the
judiciary, may call for the suppression Congress as
well 1t may demand limited monarchy to-day, and by
the same process of reasoning may egtmizc an abso
lutte monarchy, dictatorship tomorrow Italready
finds the liberty OF citizens in its way-whati is to pre-
vent it from finding their lives equally So a month
hence? If hjustifes imprsoning them in violation of
law and CONSTITUTIONS it will equally justify their
sassnation. Concedc that it has ghtfuly suppressed
the authority of MAJ yiand in Baltimore and it may at
any time. as righfuy abolish the whole State Govern
meut. 1t is tine yrant's plea" and constitutional free
dom dies with its Prcdominance.
l military necessity had hcsn contemplated by those
who framed the Constitution as justification for sus
pending or invading its guarantees would they have
id They provided by special clause for
the suspension of the iabeas corpusSwonld thr ba
paused at the enumeration of single case in which
the laws and the Constitution might be tsmnorariIv
slence6, if they had intended that the Fxecntiyc n
Congress might sts all the voices of constuonaI Iih
crty at the sound Of the trumpet Wbv snacif t,i %
limits Of military necessity, in the isolated case
il they meant it to cover all cases. Men who honestly
to the conclusions of the Administration upon
the point in question: to labor under the deuson
that the trainers of the Constitution techni.
cal men of law and peace, who had never known
its terrible cXgcnces, and did not its contingen
ccs with their forecast, when they laying the ouu
daons of mighty nation. They seem to forget that
the who sat in the Convention, the men who
had planned the Revolution and had just from
its trumphS heroes and saRes who had grapped with
and its necessities i'll field aud can and council
free men, who knew, from experience what oppres,on
hold men, who had smitcn arbitrary power and alb.
horred it, and meant to build huiwar against it, in war
as well peace, for evermore.
When such men, in the charter of their Government
fenced round the freedom Of the citizen with the guaran
tees which have been cited and to military power
privilege to overl de them because they meant
the citizen to be free and resolved that military
force should he kept in perpetual subordnation to the
law They knew that in peace there is small danger to
civil liberty and they meant to rescue their priceless
heritage from the chances and ambitions of war They
had entered upon the Revolution with the Declaration
OF Independence before them charging these among the
expressions OF the British King =
HE has kept among us, in times of peace, standing
armies without the consent of our Legislature
'e has affected to render the miifQYv indrDeuderf of
and superior to the ciriL po,gcr"
They believed these to be grievances and took up arms
redress and not to reestahish them They had nassed
through the trials and needs Of the struggle themselves
therefore, without once overurning the laws land
they were beratng. When the Father of his country
their champion aud leader, had delivered up to Congress
his shcathed and honorcd sword they had listened
with PRIDE and his venerable form had bent acknowl
edsment as the President addressed him these
words:
Called upon by your country to defend its invaded
rights you accepted the sacred charge before it had
ed alliances, and whilst 1t was without funds govern
ment to support you. You HAVE CONDUCTED THE GREAT
MILITARY CONTEST WITH WISDOM AND FoETITUDE,
REGARDING The RIGHTS CIVIL POWER,
THROUGH ALL DISASTERS AND CHANGES -
They had felt this to be s highest praise and theirs
and wheu, in the first of his administration and
with his sanction and approval they amended the work
of the Convention by adding to the Constitution the
comprehensive safeguards of civil liberty which have
referred to- it is mid summer madness
his mind theirs leave still military dis
creon caprice the nestimable privileges thus fortified
When they declared that "the right of the people
he in their persons &c, shall not be rioated
they had mental military reservation in favor of
such violation. They meant what they said and thus
and there stands the Constitution as they made it-and
a others have broken it
Our own immediate ancestors when they framed the
Constitution of Maryland l776, embodied their De-
claraon of Rights two principles from which they never
departed allowed departure and which they trans
mted 10 for equal reverence and observance They
the ID and 9th Articles of the Declaration which is
pefixed to existing Constitution and they were
part of the fundamental law of the State when she adopt
ed the Constitution of the Union Their language is
follows
7hat he psopIe Of MS sate ought to have the sole and
erclusre right Of regulating the internal government and
police herecf and-"ThG in all cases and at all times
the military ought to be under strict Subordnation TO- and
control Of, .he ciru i1oper.'
With this authoritative announcement before us, of
rights which the citizens of Maryland have at time
surrendered, consent recognize in the
walton of the wrongit is meant to justify. Neither
fail without disgrace to denounce usurpation and
outrage, the overthrow o. our domestic authorities and
institutions the assumption of internal government
cltlZens-by the