The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1863-07-02

ExECUr1vE MANSION. WASHINGTON. !
| June IL, 1868. !
Hon. Erastus Corning and others:
GENTLEMEN Your letter of May
10, inclosing the resolutions of a public
meeting held at Albany, N. Y, on the
10th of the same month, was received
several days ago.
The resolutions, as l understand
them, are resolvable into two PROPOSE
tions-frst, the expression ofa purpose
TO sustain the cause of the Union, to
secure peace through victory, and to
support the Administration in every
constitutional and lawful measure to
suppress the rebellion and secondly, a
declaration of eensure upon the Admin
istratien for supposed unconstitutional
action, such as the making of military
arrests. And, from the two propositi-
tions, third is deduced which is that
the gentlemen composing the meeting
are resolved on doing their part TO
maintain our common Government and
country, despite the folly or wickedness,
as they may conceive, of any Admins
tration. This position is eminently pa
triotic, and as such, [ thank the meet
ing, and congratulate the nation for it.
My own purpose is the same; SO that
the meeting and myself have common
object, and can have no difference, ex-
cept in the choice of means or meas
ures for effeeting that object.
And here l ought to close this paper,
and would close it, if there were no ap-
prehension that more injurious conse-
quences than any merely personal to
myself might follow the censures sys-
tematicallycast upon me for doing what,
in my view of duty, I could not forbear.
The resolutions promise to support me
in every constitutional and lawful meas
ure to suppress the rebellion; and !
have not knowingly employed, nor shall
knowingly employ any other. But the
meeting, by their resolutions, assert and
argue that certain military arrests, and
proceedings following them, for which
l am ultimately responsible, are uncon-
stitutional. think they are not. The
resolutions quote from the Constitution
the definition of treason, and also the
limiting safeguards and guarantees
therein provided for the citizen on trial
for treason, and on his being held to
answer for capital or''otherwiseinfamo
crimes, and, in criminal prosecutions,
his right to speedy and public trial
by an impartial jury. They proceed to
resolve "that these safeguards of the
rights of the citizens against the preten-
sions of arbitrary power were intended
more especially for his protection in
time of OWL eommotion." And appa-
rently to demonstrate the proposition,
the resolutions proceed: "They were
secured substantially to the English
people after years of protracted civil
war and were adopted into our Consti-
tuition at the close of the revolution"
Would not the demonstration have been
better, if it could have been truly said
that these safeguards had been adopted
and applied during the civil war and
during our revolution, insted Of after
one and at the close of the other? l,
too, am dovotedly for them after civil
war, and before civil war, and at all
times, "except when, in case OF rebel
lion or invasion, the public safety may
require" their suspension. The resolu-
tions proceed to tell US that the safe
guards "have stood the test of seventy
six years Of trial, under our republican