Columbia Democrat and Bloomsburg general advertiser. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1850-1866, 1862-09-13
Miscellaneous.
The Case Of Lewis Ballard.

The Case Of Lewis Ballard
Imprisoned without guilt, held without
trial, liberated without eparation-that
is the damuiug record which Lewis Bal
lard must write; an honest and loyal man,
imprisoned in Fort Lafayette by Provost
Mnr.hal Kennedy, under orders from Sec
retary Stanton, for having been engaged
in the substitute agency business only that
and nothing more. A policeman, whose
badge was concealed, stepped into Mr..
Ballards Office, where he was transacting
business not yet prohibited or proclaim.
ed crime; his honesty guaranteed by
such men as Belmont & Co., Hoyt,
Spragues & Co., and Daniel Drew, his
loyalty proven by the whole course of bis
life. The policeman purchases an obliga-
ton to provide him with substitute if
drafted (such are the arts by which JUS
tice must reach its cnds), then shows his
shield and takes Mr.. Ballard prisoner to
the head quarters of Mr. Kennedy. The
| Provost Marshal refuses to receive bail, +,
sends his prisoner to the Fifteenth ward
station house-even denies him permission
to visit first his own residence. Not mere.
ly was no trial granted--no warrant was
shown by the Provost Marshal. 70 q
citizen of New York, one of the states of o
constitutional Union, the oral statement of
an insolent and arbitrary officer was deem.
ed quite enough ground for consigning
him to the walls Of a Blstile and the COM
pauionship of traitors. He lies there for
days, and at last is released uncondition-
ally, without information as to the estimate
Of his guilt, without bonds, without oath
given or required-indebtcd, perhaps, to
the Intervention of powerful friends with a
member of the cabinet for the liberation
which, ifbc was guilty, was not this due
and if he was guiltess was, in its mnnner
I insult added to outrage. This befel in
New York-the chief city of the nation
the very core Of its loyal heart.
The stones Of the streets of a city Of
cravens should cry out at such scorn of hel
honor, her loyalty and her citizen ght<
Imprisoned without guilt, for an act ye
t to be pronounced crime, arrested with
: out warrant, .incarcerated without trial
liberated without reparation. In what
r other terms than these do we phrase the
0 high handed ordainngs of despotism? L
there any other language for the deeds o.
tyrants? Yet this is q republic, and these
. are the men of the nations choice.
! There are none to plead the cause of tn
s oppressed. The bar Of New York is 81
! lent. A phantom Provost Marshal open
9 and shuts the doors of the harbor fort, an
:. they are dumb. The fort is named for hin
= who gave to the father of his Country th
e key of Bastilc which has perished bu
It the omen is naught. The blood in thei
" veins is milk.
e The days 90 on The administratio
- permits this monument of its shame to b
hcapcd higher Of dead civil rights an
o OF throttled Liberties, Every hour offer
" it the chance of attonius for the past an
d of establi shug impre9nable what only
[ an hour of national peril could have III
'e dermined. But every hour the shaft
n driven deeper The crime is even cline
" ~ ed. For he who is liberated goes frt
o, neither because he is confessed guitles
a nor because he has been proved guilty
OF and the prisoners who remain, guilty
" guiltless as he not more, not less-r
,, main it would seem, that the spotle
~ ~ majesty Of Law may be sullied by evel
ne offen:e.-N. !. UOrld