The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-05-28

The proceedings of yesterday, in the Circuit
Court of The United States, in the haJeqs corpus
case Of JOHN MERgYMAN, Esq, illegally impri-
soned at Fort MclIenry, will of course command the
attention of the whole country, as they have al
ready produced the most profound sensation in
our own community. The letter of General CAD
wALADER to Chief Justice TANEY, not only de-
clning to obey ting writ of ha5eas corpus, but an
nouncing that he has been authorized by the
President of the United States to suspend it, in his
discretion, will sartle every man, from end TO
the other of the land, who has not wholly parted
with the merest instincts of freeman. Arbitrary
and illegal the course of the Administration
has shown ITSELF in every movement connected
with the unholy war which it is wagng and
spectators as we have been, of its advancing
march from one usurpation to another, we still
needed this official proclamation to convince US,
that Mr.. LINCOLN was prepared openly to avow
the establishment of military despotism, upon
the ruins of the free institutions committed to his
care. That avowal, however, is before the world,
distinct, unequivocal and atrocious, aud it re-
mains only TO be seen, whether there is vitality
and force enough in the Constitution and the
laws, and devotion enough in the Republic, to
Ine pTluCipitS bl IlBul HeeuOlu, W IeDOullu
from the parrcidal blow. So far the majesty
ofpubc justice and the sacredness of individual
liberty can be vindicated, by judicial frmness and
authority, they may be safely trusted to the brave
and venerable magistrate who has been called to
their rescue. Whatever can be DONE by the reso-
lutte assertion of right against wrong and of law
against usurpaton, we have implicit confidence
will be done without regard to personal conse-
quences. But the hand of the law is unarmed,
and its voice, however august, may be powerless.
If so, there is one issue more made up between
liberty and oppresson-one more record written
for Judgment and retrbution.
1t out of place, pending the determination
of the legal questions by the competent tribunal,
to make them the subject of discussion 1t is suf-
fcient to repeat, what has already been demon
strated in our columns and is admitted by every
lawyer in the land, that the power of suspending
the hdbeas corpus is entrusted by the Constitution
TO Congress alone; that the President has no more
right to suspend it than he has to declare war,
abolish the courts, seize on the treasury, sit on
the Supreme Bench, or take possession of the pub
lie lands; and that if he had the right to
suspend it himself he could no more delegate that
right TO military officer or any other person, than
he could transfer the veto or the pardoning power,
or any other trust imposed upon him by the Con-
stiuton. In Great Britain ministry could not
live an hour which would assert such preroga-
tive; and all the affection of the British people
for their Queen would not make her palace her
sanctuary for a day, if it were known that she
countenanced such an usurpaton The atrocity
is made doubly objectionable here by the fact
that it is launched upon a community, in which
the process of the Federal tribunals has never
been interrupted for an hour, save by the contu-
macy of the military officers of the Government |
itself-sworn, as they now are, by double oath, |
to support and defend the Constitution.