Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1863-09-28

Constitution or criminal jurisprudence OF the
country.
I'd. Supersedlng the necessity of an accusation
upon oath. and the issuing Of a legal warrant.
Sd Comforting upon a military or police officer
the important function of judging phat shall be
regarded as a disloyal practice: and.
4th- Arrogating TO himself and delegating to
his subordinates the discretionary power to i'm
prison any citizen for any length of time inde-
pendent and in defiance Of all judicial process.
4 propose to show that this extraordinary claim
is purely despotic and unconstitutional-that tits
in violation of the sacred right that has been
sanctihed by the struggles of our ancestors. at
various periods Of English history, for the last
six hundred years; and. finally, has been so ex-
pressly guaranteed to US by the provisions of our
fundamental law. tina. its violation can be regard
ed in no other light than that of monstrous usur-
patton.
When Mr.. Lincoln entered upon the duties of
President he took the following osth:
al do solemnly swear that | will faithfully
execute the Office of President of the United
States, and will to the best of my ability pre-
serve. protect and defend the Constitution of the
United States"
The following provisions ore embraced in the
amendments to that instrument:
ARTICLE ".
The right of the people to be secure in their
persons, houses, papers and effects against un-
reasonable searches and seizure shall not be vio-
lated; and no warrant shall issue but upon prob
able cause, supported by oath of affirmation. and
particularly describing the place to be searched
and the person OF things to be seized.
ARTICLE v.
No person shall be held to answer for a capital
or other infamous crime unless on presentment
or Indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases
arising in the land or naval forces, or in the
militia when in active service in time of war or
public danger; nor shall any person be subject for
the same ~offense to be twice put in jeopardy of
life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any crimi
nal case to be a witness against himself; nor be
deprived of life. liberty or property without
due process of law: nor shall private proper
" be taken for public use without Just com
pensation.
ARTICLE vi.
In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall
enjoy the right to a speedy public trial by an i'm.
partial jury of the State and district wherein the
crime shall have been committed, which district
shall have been previously ascertained by law;
and to be informed of the natare and cause of
the accusatiOn-to be confronted with witnesses
against him-to have compulsory process Tor ob
tanning witnesses in his favor, and to have the
assistance Of counsel for mis- defense.
These provisions so distinctly asserting and
protecting the right of personal security from ar
bitrary or despotic authority. we're not in the
Constitution as it came originally from the con-
vention which framed it-not. however, because,
there was any dissenting voice 10 the doctrines
they embraced-but only because they were con
sidered to be so universally admitted. that their
express recognition in the Constitution was un-
necessary. Such, however, was the jealousy of
arbitrary power existing in some of the States,
that a number of them in the convention called to
consider the question of the adoption of the Con
~stitution insisted upon these declatory and re-
~strictive clauses, to prevent misconstruction and
abuse of power. They were. therefore, proposed
by Congress. and submitted to the several
States for their ratification, and thus became
a part, and, indeed, the GROWING glory Of the
Constitution.
Why, then, was it that those iIlustrious men,
fresh from the struggles of our own revolution.
insisted upon the incorporation of these provis-
ions into our funda mental law? Do you suppose
it was simply because they imagined that some
time thereafter a free people might become the
betrayed victims of arbitrary power2 Do you
suppose that those men were not enlightened in
the history Of that illustriOus people from whom
they derived their origin, and the model of their
civil and political institutionsf If you will con-
tinue to give me your attention, gentlemen, /
will show you from the indisputable record of
history why it was that the fathers of this repub-
lie placed in our fundamental law those priceless
and sacred guarantees OF personal liberty. | will
show you. from that impartial record, in which
the guilt of tvrants is fearlessly gibbited for the
eternal execration and instruction of mankind,
that the struggle between royal prerogative and
executive authority, upon the one side. and a
liberty loving people upon the other, commenced
as far back as the year 1915, and that that strug-
gle was continued with various vicissitudes until
the age of our own revolution, when Lord Chat
ham could assert in the British House of Com
mons that there was not a man 20 be found of
| auf1cfonf prOAinaov fn AofoDd IN orhffraru .rroof
upon the principal of legality.
And now. gentlemen. if YOU will follow me,
/ will present the historical proof:
In the year 1915, on the 18th of June, the
Barons of England assembled in arms on the
banks of the Thames, at Runnymede, and COM
PEELED their Sovereign, King John. to sign, with
his own hand. a doeumen which We would now
call a written constitution. | have III at celebra-
ted document i'm my hand, and it is called
MAGMA CHARTA.
1t consists Of seventy eight articles, and was
designed TO define the rights of all classes of the
English people, and to prescribe proper limita-
tons to the royal authority. Its forty fifth arti
Gle is in these noble words:
mo freeman shall be taken. or imprisoned, or
d~isseiged. or outlawed, or banished, or anyways
injured; nor will we pass upon him. nor send upon
him. uni IS by the legal judgment of his peers,
or by the law of the land"
In that language is the germ of those prOvi-
sions I have read to yon from the Constitution of
the United States. 1t is the written guarantee of
the liberty Of the individual man, his exemption
from injury or harm, except by the judgment of
his equals and by the law of the land.
King John was compelled too. by the terms of
the 18th article of this charter. in case of his own
delinquency, to abide by all its provisions to adj
nit the right of his subjects to ''distrain and dis
tress him 10 all WAYS possible to seize his cas-
ties, lands, possessions. and M any other manner
they can, until the grievance is redressed 70 their
pleasure.
This great charter has been regarded and
recognized in all succeeding ages of the British
monarchy as the foundation, the very corner
stone in the edi6ce of their liberties. 1t has been
revered by British statesmen, and has been ap-
pealed to with success in all the contests between
popular rights and royal prerogstive.
Ii was confirmed IN the twenty fifth year of
. the reign of Edward |, in the year 1897, by a
statute which Mr.. liam "a historian from
whom | will quote more copieusly hereafter
says 'added another pillar to the English Con-
s%titntion, not less important than the great char
!, ter itself"
During the reigus of Edward III and III. des-
potic power upon various occasions began to show
itself by asserting the right of arbitrary arrests
for the alleged srime of treason. The crime of
high treason seems TO have been of a very vague
and indefinite nature. determined only by the
construction of the courts. which sought chiefly
to crafty the malice or vengeance of the King.
IL was something like General Burnside's
acknowledgement +" or ''implied"-not the
treason" Of the Constitution OF the Uoited
States. which is defined in these words:
ART. 3, Section 3. Treason against the
United States shall consist only in levying war
> against them, or in adhering to their enemies.
- H. - - - I'LL