Holmes County farmer. [volume] (Millersburg, Ohio) 1857-1926, 1863-07-09

not soldiers. is martial law pleade L?
/ Why this has not yet been declared over
the whole country. Nor does it apply
where there is no army nor rebellion. It
was not applied to Ohio at all, nor TO
Dayton till after the arrost. Judge Curtis
thus refers to this extraordinary power,
asserted for the commander.in.c chief:
"But when the military commander
controls the person or property Of citi-
zens, who are beyond the sphere Of his
actual o. erations in the field; when he
makes law to govern their conduct he
becomes a Legislator. Those laws may
be made actually operative; obedience to
them may be enforced by military power;
their purposes may be solely to support
and recruit his armies, or to weaken the
power Of the enemy with whom he IS con
I tending. BWhe is a legisiot0r slH: AMI
whether his edicts are clothed iu the form
Of procIamations. Of military orders, by
whatever name they my be called, they
are laws. If he have the legislative pow.
er. conferred on him by the people, it is
well. If not, he usurps it.
"lIe has no more lawful authority TO
hold all "citizens" Of the eutire country,
outside OF the sphere Of his actual opera
tions in the field, amenable to bis. military
edicts, than he has to hold all the Drol.
erty Of the country subject to his military
requisitions. lie is not the military com
mander of the citizens of the United States
but Of its soldiers."
If what Judge Curtis says be true, the
power which has thus arrested one Of our
citizens. and created an offence, or
strange tribunal to try a real or alleged
offence, is usurpation. If Judge Curtis
be not mistaken, and il the Repu bican
Supreme Court Of Wisconsin are not al
SO mistaken in a similar judgment; if the
commentators and iurists Of the land are
not in error, then Gou. Seymour has not
overstated the case, when he says such
conduct "wil not only lead to military
despotism, it establishes military despot-
ism"
In Ohio, the civil machinery OF the
State has not stopped. Every part of it
was running without jar under the Con
stitution. The Courts were open, the
process Of the State unimpeded not
single pully, lever, joint, wheel or cog
were out of place-all evolving out Of har-
mony, order, peace and security. Dis
cussion was free; printing unrestricted;
| meetings public; the ballot.box and all
other elements of freedom were unimpGr-
ed, when, 10! a citizen is seized in his own
house, in the night time, and by military
force taken before military tribunal, and
by q mode of seizure and duress unknown
to the institution of the State, to answer
for an offence, for the trial Of which a
law had already been passed and differ.
cnt tribunal already designated lie is
tried, and Justice laughs at the mockery.
lie is sentenced TO Je thrust Within the
borders of formidable rebellion, whose
success he had everywhere deprecated.- -
What can come of it? What does it
forebode? What does it mean? Horace
Greeley told the truth when he said that
this Punishment was the worst joke which
Mr. Lincoln had yet perpetrated. Precise.
ly what Mr.. Greeley means | cannct say:
but if Mr. Vallandigham peclares boldly
in the South, as he has in the North
against the independence of their section
and the Internal atrocity of their war
against our Government, MS exile will be
comedy of errors If Mr.. Nallandigham
| should, through what he may conceive to
be the injustice ofthe North, or the bland
| ishments of the South, show the least
sympathy with the rebellion and its OBJ
ects, | shall be mistaken in his character
! His Democratic friends will h the first to
anathematize such recreancy. Time, to,
which he has appealed, will solve the Wis
dom or the unwisdom. the seriousness or
ocoseness of the peculiar punishment.
g. What crime has sought to be thus
punished? Mr.. Vallandigham' speech at
Mt. Vernon was the ostensible---but his
sentiments as to the war. expressed for
two years, was the real olIense. But would
these come within the law of July H.
1856? If so, let him be tried legally for
his peace principles under that law. In
his Mt. Vernon speech, he did not indulge
in any urgent speeches for peace, He con-
fined himself to dcnouncing the Admins
tration for the iniractions of the Consti-
tuition. He urged compliances to law and
obedience to legitimate authority. Hi:
speech there allayed excitement, and stop
ped all tendency to violence.
1t is on record, that on some most ma
teral questions, my votes and speeche
were not in accordance with Fallandig-
hams l differed with him then. anG
yet differ, as you know, as to his peace
policy; but upon that occasion | said
very little that would not be obnoxious
to the same punishment, if, indeed, his
speech there were obnoxious. Yet my
speech was reported as harmless" his
as dangerous" l think am right in
assuming that Nallandigham's peace pol
icy was the real reason of his arrest
This again enarges the discussion. Had
he right to indulge in unwise and I'M
patriotic sp, eches? Supposing that he
is wrong aad others right, still there re-
mains an important question, some more
momentous than the arrest of one man.
1t is the right Of free speech. 1t is the
right always exercised in the time of war
by spme one in favor of peace: a right
Indispensable to the attainment of the
very object of the war. which is peace
This right has been always used in time
of war, as well in England as in Ameri-
ca. To vindicate that right before you.
would be superAuous. AS we'll re argue
the principle of gravitation, the circula-
tion of the blood. of the existence of light.
The time was when John Milton wrote