Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1863-06-18

ioo' "H'ons US Il ruo .t efficient corps Of
spies, lnior@ers' ppliers aud aidcrs and
ways.
ihey ,aew that ia times such as they
were 1auguraung, by the Constitution il
sen the habeas corpus might be sus-
ended but they also knew they had
friends who would make a question as To
'rto was TO suspend il meanwhile their
spies and others might remain at large to
he p on their cause. Or if, rs has hap,
pened, the Executive should suspend the
writ, without rulnOus waste of time, in
stances Of arresting innocent persons
might occur, as are always likely TO occur
in such cases and then clamor could
be raised in regard to this, which might
be, at least, Of some service TO the insur-
gent cause. 1t needed no very keen per-
ception to discover this part of the enc
my's programme, so soon as by open hos
tilities their machinery was fairly put in
motion. Yet, thoroughly imbued with
reverence for the guaranteed rights of in
dividuals: ! was slow to adopt the strong
measures which by degrees l have been
forced to regard as being within the ex-
ceptions of the Constitution, and as indis-
pensable to the public safety. Nothing
is better known to history than that
courts of justice are utterly incompetent to
such cases. Civil courts are organized
chiefly for trials of individuals, or, at
most, few individuals acting in concert !;
and this in quiet times, and on charges of
crimes well defined in the law. Even in
times of peace bands of horse-thieves and
robbers frequently grow too numerous and
powerful for the ordinary courts of JUS
tice. But what comparison, in numbers,
| have such bands ever borne to the lnsur
gent sympathizers even In many OF the
loyal States? Again jury TOO fire.
auently has at least one member more rea-
dy to hang the panel than to hang the
traitor. And yet, again, he who DIS
suades one man from volunteering, or in
duces one soldier to desert, weakaA the
Union cause as much as he who kills a
Union soldier IN battle. Yet this dissua-
SION or inducement may be so conducted
as TO be no defined crime of which any
civil court would take 9ognizance
| Ours is case of rebellIon--so called
by the resolutions before me-ln fact a
clear, fragrant, and gigantic case of rebel
lion and the provision OF the Constitu-
ton that "the privilege of the writ of ha-
beas corpus shall not be suspended, UNI
less when, III case of rebellion or invasion,
the pubic safety may require u, = .rc
provision which specially applies to our
present case. This provision plainly at
tests the understanding of tsose who made
the Constitution, that ordinary courts Of
IJust,,Scr are inadequate to +" cases of rebel
lion, "-attests their purpose that, In such
cases, men may be held in custody whom
the courts, acting on ordinary rules, Won d
discharge. Habeas corpus does not dis
char e men who are proved to be guilty
of defined crimes and its suspension Il
allowed by the Constitution on purpos'
that men may be arrested and held VIII,
cannot be proved to be guilty of defined
crime, "when, in cases of rebellion or in
vaslon, the public safety may require it.
This is precisely our present case--a cas-
of rebellion, wherein the public satet,
does require the suspension. Indeed, ar
rests by process of courts, and arrests il
cases Of rebellion, do not proceed alto
gether upon the same basis. The lorme
, is directed at the small per centage of or
binary and continuous preparation
+ crime, while the latter is directed at sud
den and extensive uprisings against tn
government, which, at most, will succee
or fail in no great length of time. In th
; latter case, arrests are made, not so muc
for what has been done, as for what prof.
ably wcuId be done. The latter is MOI
for the preventive and less for the vindl'
, tive than the former. In such cases tn
? purposes of men are much more easIl
, understood THAI in cases of ordlnar
: crime. The man who stands by and say
: nothing when 'he peril OF his governmel
q is discussed, cannot be misunderstood.
e not hindered, he is sure to he p the en-
/, my; much more, if he talks ambiguousl
Y talks for his country with "buts" al
: "if u and ands." OF how little val
!. the Constitutional provisions have que
n ed will be rendered if arrests shall new
e be made uaul defined crimes shall ha
# been committed, may be illustrated by
+ few notable examples, General John
d Breckenridge, General Robert E. LIE
i General Joseph E. Johnston, Gener
o John b. Magruder, General William
r. Preston, General Simon B. Buckner, al
. CoEmod re Franklin Buchanan, now {
/ oupying the very highest places in t
. rebel war service, we're all within t
1t power Of the government since the reb
c. lion began, and were nearly as W
S. known to be traitors then as now. l
III Questionably if we had seized and he
is them, the insurgent cause would be mu
n weaker. But no one Of them had tn
committed any crime defined in the la
ID Every one of them, if arreste |, wou
v have been discharged on habees corp
n were the writ allowed to operate. In vi,
x of these and similar cases, think t
of time not unlikely to come when shall
Mt blamed for having made too few ARE
a. rather than too many.
v. By the third resolution the meeting
I'd dictate their OPINION that military ARE
I'd may be constitutional in localities VIII
Il L