Holmes County farmer. [volume] (Millersburg, Ohio) 1857-1926, 1862-11-13

htticle oil war, he may through, apprOpri-
ate military tribunals. innct the punish
ment prescribed by law. dnd there his
logtW authority cnds
The military power over citizens and
their property is power to act, no, a
power to prescribe rules for future action.
IT springs from present pressing emer.
gencics and is limited by them. 1t can.
not assume the functions Of the statesman
or legislator, and make provision for fn.
ture or distant arrangements, by which
persons or property may be made sub.
scrvient to military uses, 1t is the phys.
ical force of an army in the field. and
may control whatever is so near as to be
actually reached by that force, in order
to remove obstructions 20 its exercise
But when the military commando. con.
trolls the persons or property Of citizens
who are beyond the sphere Of his actual
/ operations in the field, when he makes
laws to govern their conduct, he becomes
a legislator. Those laws may be made ac
tually operative; obedience to them may
be enforced by military power; their pur-
pose and effect may be solely to recruit or
support his armies, or to weaken the pow
er OF the enemy vita whom he is contend
ing. Bat lie IS a legislator aH; ana
whether his edicts are clothed in the form
ofproclamations or Of military orders, by
Whatever name they may be called, they
arc laws. II he has the legislative power
conferred on him by the people, it is well.
If not, he usurps it.
lie has no more lawful authority to
hold all the citizens ofthc entire country,
outside Of the sphere Of his actual oper-
ations in the field, amenable 10 his mill
tary edicts, than he has to hold all the
property Of the country subject to his
military requisistons. He is not the mil
itary commander of the citizens Of the
United States, but Of its soldiers.
Apply these principles to the proclaim
tions and orders Of the President. They
are not designed to meet an existing emer-
gency in some particular military opera
ton in the field, they prescribe future
rules OF action touching the persons or
property Of citizens. They are to take
effect, not merely within the scope Of
military operations in the field or in their
neighborhood, but throughout the entire
country, or great portions thereof Their
subject matter is not military ofenses, or
military relations, but civil offenses and
domestic relations; the relation of master
and servant; the oficnses of "disloyal;v or
reasonable practices" Their purpose is
not to meet some existing and instant
military emergency, but to provide for
distant events, which may or may not oc.
cur; and whose connections, ii they should
I. incide with any particular military op.
perations, are indirect, remote, casual anl
possible merely.
1t is manifest that in proclaiming these
edicts the President is not acting under
the authority Of military law; first bccuusc
military law extends only over the per.
sons actually enlisted in the military
service; and second because these persons |
are governed by laws enacted by the leg
islative power. 1t is equally manifest
that he is not acting under that implied /
authority which grows out of particular
ACTUAL military operation; for these exc
cut've DEGREES do not spring from the
special emergencies Of any particular mil
itary operations, and are not limited to !
any field in which any such operations
are carried on.
Whence, then, do these edicts spring d? |
They spring from the assumed power to
extend martial law over the whole terri
tory of the United States; power for the
exercise of which by the President there
IS no warrant whatever in the Con ,titu-
ion, a power which no free people could
confer upon an executive officer, and re-
main free people. For it would make
him the absolute master of their lives,
their liberties and their property, with
power to delegate his mastership to such
of his satrapS as he might select, or as
might lie imposed on his credulity or his
fears. Amidst the great dangers which
encompass MS, in our struggles to encoun-
ter them, in our natural eagerness to Law
hold of efficient means to accomplish our
vast labors, let us beware how we bor-
row weapons from the armorv of arbitra-
ry power. They cannot be welded by
the hands of a free people. Their blows
will finally fall upon themselves.
Distracted councils, divided strength.
ire the very earliest effects of an attempt
o use them, What lies beyond no pa.
riot is now willing to attempt to look
non,