Columbia Democrat and Bloomsburg general advertiser. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1850-1866, 1862-04-26
Pierce Buffers Prosecution of
Ex-Secretary Cameron.

We had only space to announce the ar.
rest Of SIMON CAMERON, by PIERCE BUT
LER, in the last Columbia Democrat
Justice, though sometimes slow, is always
sure, and so the great Russian Bear" will
doubtless discover to his sorrow. We leave
the further discussion of his question, for
the present, to the Editors of the New
York WorH, Republican Administration
paper, and invite the attention of all can
did people to its careful consideration.
The World says:
"Thc suit which has been commenced
in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
against the Hon. SIMON CAMERON for as.
sauIt and battery and false Imprisonment,
will ultimately bring the question of the
extraordinary arrests, M ade since the COM
mencement Of the war, before the only
tribunal comp etent to give an authoritative
and binding decision. No matter what
may be the judgment Of the Pennsylvania
court, the case will, in all likelihood, be
carried up by appeal to the Supreme Court
of the United States, when the decision
will turn on the authority Of the executive
to suspend the ordinary process Of law, in
times of public danger. If that tribunal
shall decde.-as there is little reason to
doubt it will-that an executive officer has
no such authority unless it be conferred
by an act of Congress, the way will be
open for multitude of similar SUITS
Every officer who has caused arrests and
imprisonments of the character alluded to
will be liable in damages for false impris.
onment, and also to a penal indictment for
assault and battery, in as many separate
suits as he may have caused separate ar
rests. Each case will have to be tried on
its merits, inasmuch as the amount of
damages and the severity of the penalty
must depend on the amount of loss and
suffering, and on the circumstances of
aggravatlon or cxtenuation peculiar to
each instance Of illegal incarceration.
While we entertain no doubt that the
arrests in question were unconstitutional,
we believe that some of these violations
of that Constitution were more than JUS
tifable, that they were demanded by
high considerations of public duty. In
times of imminent danger, a public officer
must sometimes incur personal risk in or
der to promote the public safety. He is
no patriot if he will not consent to peril
his property or his life, or, what is often
dearcr than both, his reputation and pop
ularity, if he is clearly of opinion that the
safety Of the country requires the sacri-
fee. But in all such proceedings the
majesty of the law must not be affronted
by weak and false pretense that its pen.
alties are suspended and that it no longer
in force. The transgressing officers must
stand ready to suffer like men, and not
in a selfish desire to screen themselves
from penalties, deprive innocence of its
protection and the injury of their means
of redress.
Mr.. CAMERON and Secretary SEWARD
will find their safety, in the numerou.
prosecutions to which they have made
themselves liable, in the fact that every suit
must be tried by an impartial jury oftheir
countrymen. If, in particular cases, they
are able to show, by competent evidence,
that the Imprisonment was wise measure
of precaution for the public safety, the
jury will award to the plaintiff only nom
inal damages. If e0ery case of illegal ar
rest and detention should prove to be oi
this description, they will not suffer much
either in property or reputation. But il
there be cases where, on insufficient
grounds, they have imprisoned innocent
parties, these innocent parties are entitled
to redress, and impartial juries, instructed
by an independent court, will no doubt
give it to them. If the officers who ordered
the imprisonment suffer, it will be due tc
their own imprudence in too lightly as
Stunning the responsibility of trampling OIL
the laws.
1t does not follow that because some
extraordinary arrests were justifable per-
sons in power could imprison, with impu
nifty, whomsoever they pleased, and detair
them in custody as long as they pleased
on any grounds, or no grounds, precisely
as they saw fit. A desperate disease may
sometimes justify desperate remedies; but
our political doctors must not, even il
times of public danger, make the extreme
medicine of the body polite its daily food
A skillful physician may sometimes ad.
minister poisons with good effect; but the
fact that he is a physician does not free
hm from the penalty of the law if he
should give arsenic or strychnine to people
in health, or who are afflicted only with
slight ailments"