Democrat and sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1853-1866, 1862-11-05

! The time has certainly come when
the people of the United States must un-
derstand, and must apply those great rules
OF civil liberty which have been arrived at
by the self-devoted efforts of thought and
action of their ancestors, during seven
hundred years of struggle against arbitra-
~ power. If they fail TO understand and
! apply them, if they fail to hold every
branch OF their government steadily to
| them, who can imagine what is to come
out OF this great and desperate struggle
Ihe military power Of eleven of these
States being destroyed-what then
| What Is to be their condition? What is
TO be our condition?
. Are the great principles of free gov
ernment 10 be used and consumed as
means Of war Are we not wise enough
| and strong enough to carry on this war to
successful military end, without submit
ting to the loss of any one great principle
OF liberty! We are strong enough. JVe
are tc1se enough, if the people and their
servants viii but understand and observe
the Just limits of military power
" What, then, are those limits They
are these. There is military law; there
is martial law. Military law is that sys-
tenn of laws enacted by the Legislative
power for the government of the army and
navy OF the United States, and of the mi
iItIa when called into the actual service of
the United States. 1t has no control
whatever over any person or any property
OF any citizen. 1t could not even apply TO
mo &C II Il
express provisions of the laws of Con-
gress, making such persons amenable
thereto The persons and property of
private citizens of the United States. are
as absolutely exempt from the control of
military law as they are exempt from the
control of the laws of Great Britain
g But there is also martial ld,c. What
Is this 1t is the will of a military COM
mander, operating without any restraint,
save his judgment, upon the lives, upon
the property, upon the entire social and
individual condition of all over whom this
law extends. But, under the Constitu-
tion of the United States, Ore5' ,rIOns does
such Mtc eItendg
HNill any one be bold enough TO saw.
in view of the history of our ancestors and
ourselves, that the President of the United
States can extend such law rs that over
the entire country, or over any defined
geographical part thereof, save in connec-
ton with some particular military opera
tions which he is carrying ON there!
Since Charles |. lost his head, there has
been no king in England who could make
such laws in that realm. And where is
there to be found, in our history, or our
constitutions, either State or National.
any warrant for saying, that President
OF the Emitted States has been empowered
by the Constitution TO extend martial law
over the whole country, and to subject
thereby to his military power every RIGHT
of every citizen? He has no such au-
thoritv''
And what is the limit of his lawful and
constitutional authority rs General-in-
Chief.-Judge Curtis answers this ques-
ton rs follows:
"What, then, is his authority over the
persons and property of citizensl
answer, that over all persons enlisted in
his forces he has military power and COM
mand; that over all persons and property
within the sphere of his actual operations
in the field, he may lawfully exercise such
restraint and control as the successful
prosecution of his particular military en-
terprise may, in his honest judgment, alb
soiutely require: and upon such persons as
have committed offences against any
article Of war, he may, through appro-
pirate military tribunals, infict the pun
ishment prescribed by law. and there his !
la,rtm authority ends.
The military power over citizens and
their property is power to act, not a
power to prescribe rules for future action.
1t springs from present pressing emergen-
cies, and is limited by them. 1t cannot
assume the functions of the statesman or
legislator, and make provisions for future
or distant arrangements by which persons
or property may be made subservicnt to
military uses. 1t Is the physical 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
distractions 10 its exercise.
''But when the military commander
controls the persons or property of citi-
zens who are beyond the sphere of his
actual operations in the field, when he
makes laws TO govern their conduct. he
becomes n legislator. Those laws NAV
be made actually operative: obedience to
them may be enforced by military power .
their purpose and effect may be solely to
recruit or support his armies, or to weaken
the power of the enemy with whom he Is