Daily State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1862-10-06

both Houses OF Congress at its late session
We hold the general tenor of these discus
sions agains, the rights of slavery in the slave
holding States, and in favor of the exercise
by Congress Of powers not delegated by the
Constitution, to be eminently dangerous IN
sustaining the spirit of secession at the South.
and creating disregard for the Constitution
at the North.
We denounce the abolition Of slavery in
the District of Columbia, at the cost of the
United States. a unconstitutional, and pecu-
liarly mischievous at this time in giving force
TO the distrust of the North in all the slave
States.
We denounce the sweeping end indiscrim-
mate measures OF conhscaton and emancipa-
ton. as unconstitutional, and as having a
strong tendency to unite the whole South
against the Union, as one man.
We believe that these and kindred things
have had great weight in diminishing the
numbers and influence of the Union party at
the South.
We deny the power of the Executive to
suspend the writ of kdbeas corpus in the loyal
States. We deny that this act, materially
changing the laws OF the land, is an Executive
act. We have the authority of the Supreme
Court of the United States, pronounced by
the voice of Chief Justice Marshall as long
ago as 1907, and affirmed by every common
tator on the Constitution since, that under the
Constitution of the United States. 1t is a leg
islative power. No king has assumed such a
power in England. since the revolution.
We deny the power of the Executive to
make arrests in the loyal States. The sus-
pension of the writ of habeas corpus. if validity
done, would not authorize this There are
Federal Courts in all the loyal States with
full power and jurisdiction to punish all crimes
against the United States. No, exercise OF
Executive power has ever been more odious
than letters dc cdchet, by which the Executive
could arrest and imprison without judicial
writ, accusation, or trial. We hold this man.
ner of arrest in the loyal States of persons
not in arms against the Government, to be in
violation of Sec. 2, Art B, of the Constitution
of the United States, and of Art. A, 5 and 6
of the amendments thereto. And we consider
this practice as unnecessary, and tending to
bring the Constitution into disregard.
We deny the power of the Executive to
trammel the freedom of the press by the sup
preston of newspapers. The press is judicially
responsible for abuses; but the freedom OF the
press, subject to judicial remedies. is essential
to the freedom OF the people. And we pro-
test against the manifest partiality with which
this new and dangerous power is exercised.
We deny the recent sem-ofiicial definitions
of the crime of treason. % Treason against
the United States shall consist only in levyine
war against them, or in adhering to their enc
mics. giving them aid and comfort" In com
menting on this definition in the Constitution
I,rslc haf
mark of Montesquieu, that if the crime OF
treason be indeterminate, that alone is sufii-
cient to make any government degenerate
into arbitrary power; and he denounces, as the
Supreme Court of the United States had re-
jected, the doctrine of constructive treason,
1t was in apprehension of the dangers of con-
structive treason, that the definition of this
crime was introduced into the body of the
Constitution itself: and it is definition far
more IN keeping the rights of free people
than such vague phrases as disloyot practices
The Statutes of the United States amply pro-
vide for the punishment of reasonable crimes
under the Constitution, and we recognize nc
power in the Executive to enlarge them.
We deny the power of the Executive to
transport persons accused of CRIME in the
loyal States, from the State where the crime
is alleged to have been committed, to any
other State or place for trial; to cause the
trial of any person in the loyal States for any
crime before military tribunals or other
Courts, except before a jury in the Constitu-
tional District Courts of the United States;
or to subject such persons to such trial, except
upon the Indictment of grand jury. These
rights are guaranteed to every person, under
all circumstances, by the Constitution itself
And we fully believe that the loyal people OF
the United States are worthy of their fathers
who framed the Constitution, and will be
found unwilling to surrender rights so sacred
and so essential to their liberties.
We believe that the Executive acts of
which we complain, were done rather In mad
vertencv by subordinate officers, than in the
deliberate purpose OF subverting the Consti-
tuition. or with the sanction of tie President
The stretch of power, however, is too great
and too dangerous TO the liberties of the peo-
pie, to pass without the protest of the free and
loyal Democracy. If done as part of full
and deliberate policy, they strike at the root
of American liberty, and we are drifting
from the safe anchorage OF the Constitution
into an unknown wilderness OF cruel waters
Let whatever may come, the Democracy
will abide by their time-honered principles
by the Constitution and the Union. 1--WE
will neither surrender our rights, nor forsake
them. We will maintain our constitutional
liberty at all hazards, and as a necessary steT
towards that end, we will maintain the Union
in like manner. We are for the Constitution
as it is, and the Union as it was"
We call upon our brethren throughout the
State to organize the party for the coming
election OF members of Congress and of the
State Legislature. We call upon them tc
nominate as candidates tried and true Demo
Gratis, on strictly party principles, inviting the
support of all persons, but acting in utilization
with no other party or faction whatever. We
call upon them, for the sake of liberty and
union. now and forever, one and inseparable,
to exert all their constitutional right and
power to elect conservative men, who will not
blasphemously assume to do any official act in
the name OF God. which cannot be done under
the sanction OF the Constitution. So doine
the Democracy of Wisconsin will best serve
the cause of the Union. and give the highes
proof of their loyalty TO the Constitution.
We claim the right on their behalf and oul
own, to censure the political acts of the Adj
ministration, when we think that they deserve
it, and to do all lawfully within our power tc
sustain the supremacy of the Constitution in
all places North and South, and over all per.
sons in Office, and out of it. And so that emo
we devote our hearts minds and estates TO aid