The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1861-02-24

Seixure OF Arms for the South-Gcorgia
Reprisals.
We are informed, by telegraph from
Savannah, that, in consequence of the refu-
sal of the police authorities Of New York to
give up the eight cases of mukets illegally
taken from vessel lying in this port and
bound for Georgia, Governor Brown Of that
State, has seized several New York ships and
detained them in the harbor of Savannah, to
the great damage of their owners.
AS matter of course, the republican
presses will make great TRADE against
Governor Brown, but it is not easy to
see how he could have pursued any course
other than that which he has adopted. The
action of the police of New York was alto
gether unjustiiable, and the refusal of the
General Superintendent to give up the arms
is fragrant abuse of power. We take it for
granted that whatever may be the case at the
South, the North is still at peace with all man
kind No foreign Power menaces us, and it is not
presumed that the Southern people are COM
ing here to fight with us any more than that we
are going there to whip them. Under such cir
cumstances, we all have certain rights which
cannot be infringed. One of these is the right
to keep and bear arms; another, to be secure
in our persons, houses and effects against un-
reasonable searches and seizures-all searches
and seizures to be made by virtue of warrant
issued upon probable cause, supported by oath
or affirmation, and particularly describing the
place to be searched and the person or things
to be searched. We have been careful to quote
here the exact words of the organic law of the
land, as the republicans claim that they will
support the constitution as it is. Under that
constitution the Police Commissioners have
been guilty of an offence which can only be
properly named by the use of very disa-
greeable term-to wit, piracy. We are
told that the Governor of the State
disavows all connection with the mat
ter, and throws the blame upon the
Police Commissioners. Kennedy, the Superin-
tendent has been very oficious in this affair,
but his motive probably is to curry favor with
the Commissioners, whose plant tool he is.
They (the Commissioners), in the absence of
any declaration Of war, had no more right to
seize upon the arms and declare them contra
band than they would have to enter the house
of private citizen and take away his fowling
piece or revolver. Latterly, the Metropolitan
Police seem to have assumed despotic flnc-
tons, and to have instituted sort of martial
law over all of u.s. They seem to forget that
there are any such things as laws, and ignore
altogether the Bill of Rights. They assume
powers which even the Paris police, the most
arbitrary in the world, never pretended to have,
except in revolutionary times. In the South
there is revolutionary movement, sane
toned by the popular voice; but the
people Of this Metropolitan Police district
have not declared themselves as opposed to
the laws of the land. This is the whole gist of
the matter:-The powers of the police do not
extend beyond this district; they are strictly
defined by law, and they have no more right
to 60 one step beyond them than the President
has to declare war against England tomorrow.
So far as local matters are concerned, the
conduct of the police, the favoritism and cor
ruption in the department, the rudeness and
brutality of the pets of the Commissioners,
have made it sufficiently unpopular without
this last and most outrageous step. Not only
do we have to pay an immense sum for
VIGOROUSLY ineficiek, lazy and impertinent
body of men, who are secure in their berths,
and who snap their fingers at public opinion,
but it appears that our intercourse with
Southern ports is to be suspended, in order to
make little capital for the republicans in the
rural districts.
Now, the duty of the Police Commissioners
clearly is TO compel Kennedy to subside, to
restore the arms to their rightful owners, and
to stop the dsgraceful and unlawful espionage
over vessels bound for the Southern ports.
We believe that there is still United States
government quite capable of exercising all
proper powers and duties under the constitu-
tion-a document which we recommend to the
especial attention of the Police Commissioners
II they do not understand their duty, Cover
nor Morgan, who appointed them, may as well
fill their places with men who have not hidden
an eternal farewell to the first principles of
common sense, equity, justice and law.