The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1862-11-07


Constitution shall be preserved and the coun-
try saved in an unconstitutional way. The re-
| spect they have for law is only equalled by
their love of liberty. Morning,noon and night
they cry and din into the ears of the patriot
President, "The Constitution, the Constitu-
tion!' and every pulsation IF his heart throb-
bingly answers, "The country. the country ~
God bless Abraham Lincoln!
Let us very briefly consider this question of
the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus.
That 1t may be suspended in cases of rebellion
or invasion, where the public safety requires
it,is provided by the Constitution ITSELF Which
OF the departments of the Government is
charged with the power of suspending the
writ Is the question OF embarrassment and
doubt. Conflicting opinions as to it are enter
tanned by men Of equal learning and intel-
gence, and there is no determination of the
Supreme Court to which resort can be had
1t is the question of the construction of the
statute, always difficult and vexatious maui
ry. LII is to know what the trainers of the
constitution meant, by what they have some
what insufiiciently expressed. The President,
lawyer himself, and a man whose conscien-
tousness even his opposers concede, is of opin-
ION that the Executive may, in the cases pre-
scribed, suspend the privilege of the writ.
There can be little room for doubt that his con-
sututlonal advisers agree to this view. Mr.
Seward and Mr.. Stanton enjoy and deserve
the highest reputation in the legal profession.
The Attorney General of the United States.
too, has given an official opinion in favor of
the right of the President TO exercise the pow-
er. Now, who shall decide, when casuists and
doctors disagree? If Mr.. Lincoln is wrong.
ne has at least erred in good company, and
even If 1t should turn out that the better un-
derstandng of the constitutional provision is
not the one entertained by the Government,
the President fhrour iptn ha of
howling sympathzers with treason, that old
Latin motto, derived from the twelve Roman
tables: "Sdtus popUH, supremd est ler.' He
can say to them, ITO do great good, | have
done little wrong. To SAGE a nation I i'm
prisoned a man. To preserve liberty forever
to twenty millions, restrained five hundred
OF their freedom for day." and confidng in
his own integrity, and the generous support of
his loyal countrymen, need have no anxiety
Tor the present or the future, growing out of
the imprisonment of few miserable imitators
OF the vices of Benedict Arnold, bereft of the
benefit of "cdpias' or "ndrr,' and detained.
IN defiance of the "habeds corpus dd respon-
denduni.'
The chief cause Of complaint made against
the President is his emancipation procama-
tion. 1t is almost lndicrous to witness the con-
tortions and CONSERVATION which this act has
produced among traitors and their allies ey-
y IL.
proclaimed harmless thunderbot, and an
unchrlstian and savage means of overcoming
an enemy. Now II is .cor ct pr9tered nihH"
and now it is sword, aud fire, and propo-
sal for the horrors of a st. Domingo nsurrec-
ton. To-day the Richmond and Charleston
papers regard it "a triile light as air." to-mor-
row the same Journals vent columns of hate
and fury and abuse upon its author, and ad-
Jure him, III the language of Othello:
Naro ol,
On horrors head horrors accumulate:
Do deeds to make heaven weep, all earth amazed;
Eor nothing cahst thou to damnstion add
Greater than that"
Where is Mr.. Lincoln's constitutional Gu-
Mority to Issue proclamation? ask the adj
vocates of dshonorable peace. Where, | ask.
In answer. is the constitutional authority for
this Shareholders war upon the country? The
Constitution did not and could not provide
for every possible condition in the future of
the Republic. 1t did not anticipate that the
thing it gave protection 10 would make war
upon the life OF its protector. In framing a
written code for government, much must nee
essarily be left to rational implication. and
much more to an absorbing subsequent neces-
sity if it arises. 1t sometimes happens. that
to extinguish confagration you must fight
fire with fire; the ordinary agencies are insult
ticient for the emergency, and to save the
building or town from being a smouldering
rum, you must DO something else than put on
water. The owner OF the orchard first tried
moral suaslon ON the thief, who laughed while
ne stole from the richly laden boughs; next
tuits OF soit green were aimed at and hit, but
dtd NOT hu.t the poacher, who continued to
Steal flndlng expostulation and gentle meas
ures alike unavaillng to protect his property,
the farmer tried the virtue of hard blows, and
very soop the ensconced robber was glad to
dlsgorge ms piunder, and cry, Don't, don't,
III come down."
Inc fresldHnt has been as wise as the men
VINO devised the new way to put the fire out,
and as good natured as the farmer In his
speech at Philadelphia. on his way TO Washing
ton, ne SAID that " his view OF the then aspect
OF affairs there need be no bloodshed or war.
There Is no necessity for it. / am not in fav-
or OF such a course-and, l may say in ad-
vance, that there will be no bloodshed unless
II be forced upon the Government" In his
Inaugural address he declares:
The protection which, consistently with
the Constitution and the laws, can be given,
VIII be cheerfuly given to all the States, when
lawfully demanded, for whatever cause,-as
cheerfully to one section as another. / hold
that IN contemplation of universal law, and
OF the Constitution, the union of these States
Is perpetual. l shall take care that the laws
OF the Union be faithfully executed in all the
States; in doing this there need be no blood
shed or violence; and there shall be none an
lana Ir Il