The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1863-01-02


ed from Fort Lafayette, on the 18th inst,
! was boy of seventeen, an innocent look
ing youth, with the down just beginning to
shade his chin, who had been in confne-
ment there on "suspicon of disloyalty to
the Government.
There have been many cases of hardship
and outrage under the barbarous rule of
Secretary STANTON; but this arrest of a bow
who ought to be in short Jackets, trundling
hoop, seems the most absurd of all. 1t
was hard case, that at St. Louis, few
weeks ago, when the order of release came
for political prisoner, taken from Wis
consin, who had been dying, for months,
and which reached his prison just in time to
be served on his corpse, before its burial
There was mockery of mercy in that
case but it was equalled, perhaps, a few
days later, in New York, where the releas-
ing order found the victim bereft of his
mind, and where the tenderness of the
War Secretary availed only to secure the
transfer of the ruined man from a POliti-
cal Bastile to Lunatic Asylum.
In common times, Secretary STANTON
will admit, that it would have been dis
graceful to arrest mere boy on such a
charge as this. With it's machinery of
laws, judges, jurors, sheritfs and jails, the
country could probably have protected it.
self, even in his view, against the mach
nations of traitor of seventeen. But, in
the midst of civil war, the Secretary does
not believe it safe for the country to put its
trust in these projections, nor even in the
orderly and well-guarded, though peremp-
tory processes of martial law, within fields
of actual military occupation. Safety, in
such crisis as ours, against the hellish
arts Of precocious urchins, can only be Sc
cured, according to Secretary STANTON, by
putting the whole area of the twenty loyal
States under martial law, and placing in
solitary confinement every boy out of his
short clothes, against whom a mere "sus-
picion Of disloyalty" is breathed, under a
process which is warranted by no code,
martial or civil-one which consists in ar
rest without warrant, incarceration with
out trial, and liberation without indemnity
or exculpation.
There are indications that this whole
matter of military arrests will be thor
oughly ventilated in New York before win
ter is over. We notice that the grand iu-
ry OF the Court Of Sessions, Of New York
city, summoned before them q number OF
witnesses, to appear at their present sit
ting, against EDWIN II. STANTON, Secreta-
ry Of War, for violations OF the laws OF
that State, in the arbitrary and Illegal ar
rest and imprisonment of its citizens ana!
it is expected that indictments against him
will follow The action of the grand jury
was doubtless based on the charge OF Re
corder HorFMAN, who stated as law, that
the removal OF any person from that Stare
into any other State Or Territory, to
answer any charge OF having committee!
ali offence against the laws OF the Unite,!
States, or OF that State, was in violation
OF the statute, as was also al arrest with
a view to secret confinement within the
State and that it would constitute no le-
gal defence to plead that such arrest, con-
tinement, OF removal, was by order of the
President, or any member OF the Cabinet,
or other officer Of the government. Such,
the Recorder said, vas not only the law Of
! New York, but that it was part Of the Con
stitution OF the United States.
| The query is, whether, if an indictment
should tie found against the Secretary,
Gov. SEYMOUR, would not feel bound to Is
sue requisition for his surrender: and
whether the President would not be alst
bound, by his oath, to deliver STANTON up
The Ne,u!d sensibly suggests that, if there
appears no other way for the President tc
rid himself of an incompetent Secretary.
! such case would afford an excellent OPP
portunity; though it is TO he hoped the
President will not wait so long before per
forming an act OF manifest justice to his adj
ministration and the country
ghe Government Finances.