The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1861-07-08

! large addition TO the regular army anu
navy. These measures, whether strictly
legal or not, were entered upon under what
appeared 10 be a popular demand ana pun
lie necessity, trusting then, as now, that
Congress would readily ratify them. II IS
believed that nothing has been done beyond
the constitutional competency of Congress.
Soon after the first call for militia it was
considered duty To authorize the COM
manding general in proper cases, according
TO his discretion, to suspend the privilege of
the writ of habeas corpus, or in other words
to arrest and detain, without resort to
! the ordinary processes and forms OF law,
such individuals as he might deem danger
/ Gus to the public safety. This authority
| has purDosely been exercised but very spar
/ ingly; nevertheless the legality and pro-
priety of what has been done under it are
questioned, and the attention of the country
| has been called TO the proposition that one
who is sworn to take care that the laws be
| faithfully executed, should not himself
violate them. OF course, some consideration
was given to the questions of power and
propriety Before this matter was acted
| upon, the whole of the laws which were
required to be faithfully executed We're
being resisted, and failing of execution in
nearly one-thlrd of the States, must they
be allowed to finally fail of execution,
even had it been perfectly clear that by
the use of the means necessary to their
execution, some single law made in such ex-
IRENE tenderness of the citizens liberty,
that practically it relieves more of the
guilty than of the innocent, should to a
very limited extent be violated
To state the question more directly, are
all the laws but one to go unexecuted, and
Government itself to go to pieces lest that
one be violated Even in such a case,
would not the official oath be broken if the
Government should be overthrown, when it
was believed that disregarding the
single law would tend to preserve it.
Bus it was not believed that this ques-
ton was presented it was not believed
that any law was violated. The provisions
of the Constitution, that the privilege of
the writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be sus-
pended, unless when, in cases of rebellion
or invasion the public safety may require
| tits equivalent to a provision that such priv
ilege may be suspended when in cases of re-
bellion or invasion the public safety requires
it. 1t was decided, that we have case of
rebellion, and that the public safety does
require the qualified suspension of the priv
ilege of the writ, which was authorized to
be made. Now it is insisted that Congress,
and not the Executive, is vested with this
power but the Constitution itself is silent
as to which, or who, is to exercise the pow
er and as the provision was plainly made
for a dangerous emergency, it cannot be be-
leved that the trainers of the instrument
intended that in every case the danger
should run its course until Congress should
be called together, the very assembling of
which might be prevented, as was intended
in this case, by the rebellion. No more eX-
tended argument is now offered as an opin-
ion at some length will probably be pre-
scented by the Attorney General, whether
there shall be any legislation upon the sub
ject, and if any, what, is submitted entirely
to the better judgment of Congress.
The forbearance of this Government had
been so extraordinary and so long continued
as to lead some foreign nations to shape
their action as if they supposed the early
dissolution of our National Union was
probable. While this, on discovery, gave
the Executive some concern, he is now hap
by to say that the sovereignty and rights of
/ the United States are now everywhere prac-
tically respected by foreign powers and
general sympathy with the country is man
! Tested throughout the world. The Secre-
taries of the Treasury, War, and the Navy,
! will give the information in detail deemed
/ necessary and convenient for your delibera-
! ton and action, while the Executive and all
! the Departments will stand ready to supply
omissions or to communicate new facts con-
sdered important for you to know. 1t is
now recommended that you give the legal
means for making this contest a short and
| decisive one e; that you may place at the
| control of the Government for the work at
least four hundred thousand men and four
hundred millions of dollars. That number
of men, about one-tenth of those of proper
ages within the regions where apparently
all are willing to engage, and the sum IS
less than a twenty-third part of the money
value owned by the men, who feel ready to
| devote the whole amount of six hundred
millions of dollars now, is a less sum per
head than was the debt of our Revolution,
| when we came out of that struggle, and the
money value IN the country now bears even
| a greater proportion to what it was then,
than does the population. Surely each man
has as strong a motive now to preserve our
liberties as each had then to establish
them-a right result at this time will be
| worth more to the world than ten times the
men and ten times the money. The evil
dence reaching MS from the country leaves
no doubt that the material for the work is
abundant, and that it needs only the hand
of legislation to give it legal sanction, and
the hand of the Executive to give it practi-
cal shape and efficiency.
One of the greatest perplexities of the
Government is to avoid receiving troops
faster than provision can be made for them;
in word, the people will save their Gov
eminent if the Government itself will do its
part only indifferently WELL 1t might seem
at first thought ofbut little difference wheth-
er the present movement at the South be
called secession or rebellion the movers,
however, well understood the difference at
the beginning. They knew they could never
raise their treason to any respectable magni-
tude by any name which implies violation
of law. They knew their people possessed
as much moral sense, as much pride and
reverence for the history and government OF
their common country as any other civilized
and patriotic people. They knew they
could make no advancement directly in the
teeth of these strong and noble sentiments.
Accordingly they commenced by an insidi-
Gus debauchery of the public mind they
united an ingenious sophism, which if con-
. i cnded fOlIOwed he nprfactlV LOGICAL