Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1863-06-22

&c known as the confiscation act, 1t is provided
(sec 2) that if any person "shal give aid or CON-
fort to the rebellion insurrecti0n, and be con-
victed thereof, such person shall be punished" by
fine and Imprisonment and disqualification for
Office In the 18th section the Courts Of the
United States are given "fuI power" to institute
all proceedings under the law.
This would be sufficient as to the crime as al
legged and the tribunal to try it; but Congress did
not stop there. By an act approved March Sd,
1863. known the act relating to the habeas
corpus 10. 5. Statutes. page 755. &c from
which | now read, the President is authorized to
suspend the writ of habeas corpus Gin any case
throughout the United States or any part of il -
Whenever and wherever the writ Is suspended no
military or other officer Is bound to answer the
writ by the production of the body; but the
Judge shall, on notice that the prisoner IS held IN
der the Presidents order suspend all proceedings
under the habeas corpus. BY the same law the
Departments of State and of War are to furnish
20 the Judges Of the districts the names Of politi
cal prisoners who arrested therein for civil
trial. Ifthe accused are not indicted the Judge
is to order discharge and the custodian is to ex
ecute the order. In case the Departments fail to
send such list TO the Judges any citizen may do
it aud obtain the discharged of the prisoner.
These laws are in force They were made by
Republican Congress. They were made for
this very exigency This civil war was in con
tended by these laws to prevent arbitrary arrests
l and inquistorial tribunals Of military men. 1t
was intended by them TO guarantee an acoustic
rial trial: openly, with indictment by jury, Sc
lected impartially. and who should return an alb
solute verdict. It will he remembered that two
days after the emancipation proclamation 10 wit:
September "a. 1862. the President issued another
proclamation subjecting all persons "to trial by
courts martial and military commissions" who
were found 'afordng aid and comfort to the Re
bells" The same proclamation suspended the ha-
beas corpus for all such perlons
IT, then you would understand the law of
March g. 1863, remember it WIS intended ex
pressly to ignore the right of the President to
issue that proclamation without the authority
from Congress The first section substantially
disavows the right of the President to suspend
the writ without the consent of Congress thereto
The other section quoted provides civil trial for
those arrested.
Would you know the motive which prompted
the law OF Marchf Read the debates of the last
session The arbitrary arrests OF the last summer
were condemned the last fall elections In
| Vermont, in Massachusetts, in New York, in
| New jersey, in Iowa, in OhiO-everywhere, far
and aloof from military precincts, such arrests
were made. The names of the victims are
familiar The election operated, as the miracle
of old did, to open the prison doors. When, on
the first day of the last session, offered
luton denouncing these arrests, and calling on
the President to stop them, it was voted down bv
| the Republic ms; yet many of their best men
fused to sanction such proceedings Cowan,
Browning. Kellogg, and others, felt the necessity
of providing for the relief of all civilians from
military arrest and trial They disested this
plan of turning them to the civil authorities
for indictment, trial, and punishment or dis
charge.
Thus was secured, by the last Republican
Congress. that peral trial upon which Monies
quieu thought "that chiefly the liberty of the
citizen depended" In Ohio there had been no
suspension of the writ of habeas corpus 1t was
therefore the duty OF Judge Leavitt to see to il
that Mr.. Vallandigham had the benefit of the
writ.
The implication of this law ] have quoted, to
say nothing of the constitutional right of every
one imprisoned. as of course to have the writ re
quired the Judge 10 issue il. What business was
il of his whether Gen Burnside would would
not execute itl He must have known the history
of this writ of ireedOm-O. this glorious result
of the long struggle in England between law and
power. He must have learned that the law had
| triumphed in the struggle, and that however it
NAV be in France, where iron rod was the
staff of Justice in America and England, at com
mon law, individual liberty and public Justice
were not empty words but practical realities,
made so by the Independence of the Judiciary and
the majesty Of the-aw.
So long as the writ had not been suspended in
Ohio. nor martial law declared, he had no right
to refuse it, even TO the meanest criminal. Had
he allowed IT,. how do we know but that General
/ Burnside would have taken counsel of the AttOr-
new General, Mr.. Bates. who. as an honest officer
would have advised that Gen. Burnside should
either have returned the body, or have complied
with the law of March 5, 1863, and have at once
notified the Judge that he could not by reason
of suspension of habeas corpus in Ohio; or per
haps the Secretary of War might have handed in
the name of Mr. Valiandigham to the Judge for
''due process of law" by indictment and trial, in
obedience to the law of March 3. 1863
By the failure or neglect OF Mr- Stanton to
comply with his part OF the law of March 3. 1863,
it is now impossible to comply with its provisions
since Mr. Vallsndigham is removed hy the act OF
our military outside of its lines. If Mr. Valiand-
igham's name placed upon the list sent
Judge Leaviit, it is now too late TO afford him
the civil trial provided by the Republican Con-
/ gress.
When such Republican papers as the Evening
Post and the New York Tribune csndemn such
proceedings; when Ieh moderate and historic
| journal as the National lntelgencer protests;
when the New York World. never friendly to
/ Vallande eham'< peace notions. utters its indig.
nant and noble renoDstrances, shall we the party
which has ever been jealous Of the encroachments
of power. fail TO speakr AS your representative
during the Congress which enacted the laws re-
.
of that legislation To save the nation from
any of the di-graceful scenes of the last
summer, when citizens were seized without war
rant, Imprisoned without law, and dismissed
without hearing
i In Ohio, the civil machinery of the State has
not stopped Every part of il was running with
out Jar under the Constitution. The courts were
open, the process Of the State unmpe'ied not a
pulley. lever, joi1t, wheel or cog out Of place
all evolving out of harmony, order, peace and Sc
curity Discussion was free; printing unrestricted
meetings public; the ballot-box and all other
elements Of freedom we're uompaired when ioi
citizen is seized in his own house. in the night
time and by military force taken before a militia
ry tribunal and by a mode OF seizure and dureSs
unknown to the institutions of the State. to
swer for an offense for the trial Of which law
had already been passed and different tribunal
already designated. He Is tried and Justice
|, laughs at the mockery, He is sentenced be
thrust within the borders Of formidable rebel
, lion, whose success he had everywhere depreca
ted What can come of it2 What does IL fore
bodel What does il mean? Horace Greeley
told the truth when he said that this banishment
the worst joke that Mr. Lincoln had yet per
petrated Precisely what Mr. Greeley means !
cannot say; but if Mr. Vallandigham declares
boldly in the South he has the North.
. against the independence Of their section and the
! internal atrocity OF their war against our Gov
ernment this exile will be n comedy of errors.
II Mr. Vallandigham should, through what he
may conceive 10 be the injustice OF the North or
: the blandishment of the South, show the least
sympathy with the rebellion and it's objects, I
, shall be mistaken in his character His Demo
cratic friends will be the first TO irsthematize such
1 rpcreancv Time IN which he has lied an