The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1862-11-07

unQor ana SuDlecG 10 the constitution. and
to every restriction therein contained, and
to every law enacted by its authority, as
completely and clearly as the private in
his ranks.
He is general-in-chief; but can a gene
ral-in-chief disObey any lao Of his oac,,
| country? When he can, he superadds
to his rights as commander the po1ceys of
usurper; and that is military depotism.
In the noise of arms have we become deaf
to the warning voices of our fathers, to
take care that the military shall always be
subservient to the civil powers? Instead of
listening to these voices, some persons now
seem to think that it is enough to silence
objection, to say, true enough. there is no
civil right to do this or that, but it is mill
tary act. They seem to have forgotten
that every military act is to be tested by
the Constitution and laws of the country
under whose authority it is done. And
that under the Constitution and laws of
the United States, no more than under the
government of Great Britain, or under
any free or any settled government, the
mere authority to command an army. is
not an authority to disobey the laws of the
country.
The trainers Of the Constitution thought
it wise that the powers of the commander
in-chief of the military forces of the United
States should be placed in the hands of the
chief civil magistrate. But the powers of
COMMUNICATIVE are in no degree en-
HANGED or varied by being conferred up
Oh the same officer who has important
civil functions. If the Constitution had
provided that a cOmmander-in-chiefs should
be appointed by Congress, his pow
ers would have been the same as the mill
tary powers Of the President now are.
And what would be thought by the Amer
lean people of an attempt by the general
in-chief, to legislate by his DEGREES for the
people and the States?
Besides, all the powers of the President
are executive merely. He cannot make
law. He cannot repeal one. He can only
execute the laws He can neither make,
nor suspend, nor alter them He cannot
even make an article of war He may
govern the army, either by general or spe-
cial orders, but only in subordination TO
the Constitution and laws of the United
States, and the articles of war enacted by
the legislative power.
The time has certainly come when the
| people of the United States must under
stand, and must apply those great rules of
civil liberty, which have been arrived at by
the self-devoted efforts of thought and ac-
ton OF their ancestors, during seven hun
dred years of struggle against arbitrary
power. If they fail to understand and APP
ply them, if they fail to hold every branch
OF their government steadily to them, who
can imagine what is to come out of this
great and desperate struggle? The mill
tary power OF eleven of these States being
destroyed-what then? What is to be
their condition? What is to be arr CON
dition?
Are the great principles of free govern
| ment to be used and consumed as means of
war? Are we not wise enough and strong
| enOcgh to carry on this war to successful
military end, without submitting to the
loss OF any one great principle of liberty?
We are strong enough. Ne are rise
cnou.Jh, if the people and their servants
will but understand and observe the Just
| limits of military power
What, then, are those limits: They are
these. There is military law: there is
martial law. JLHh0y law is that system
of laws enacted for the government Of the
army and navy Of the United States, and
Of the militia when called into the actual
service of the United States. It has no
| control whatever over any person or any
property of any citizen 1t could not even
apply to the teamsters Of an army, save
by force Of express provisions Of the laws
OF Congress, making such persons amen
able thereto. The persons and the prop
erty of private citizens Of the United
States, are as absolutely exempted from
the control Of military law as they are ex-
empted from the control of the laws of
Great Britain.
But there is also Mt3fjM lar. What is
this p 1t is the will Of Il military COM
mander operating without any restraint,
save his Judgment, upon the lives, upon
| the property, upon the entire social and
individual condition Of all over whom this
law extends. But, under the Constitution
of the United States, ore,' arhom docs
S,tch tar ertenI?
Will any one be bold enough to say, in
view of the history Of our ancestors and
ourselves, that the President of the Unit
ed States can extend such laws as that
cNtl tIlc Siltllo COuillly. VI ONcI any Ut
fined geographical part thereof, save in
connection with some particular military
operations which he is carrying on there?
Since Charles l. lost his head, there has
been no king in England who could make
such law, in that realm. And where is
there to be found, in our history, or our
constitutions, either State or national, any
warrant for saying, that a President ofthe
United States has been empowered by the
Constitution to extend martial law over
the whole country, and to subject thereby
to his military power, every right of every
| citizen? He has no such authority.
In time of war, military commander,
| whether he be the commander-in-chiet, or
one of his subordinates, must possess and
exercise powers both over the persons and
the property of citizens which do not exist
in time of peace. But he possesses and
exercises such powers, not IN spite Of the
Constitution and la,rs ot'the United States,
or Interrogation from their authority, but
in ri,aue thereof, and in strict subordin-
| ntjon HeyetO. The general who moves his