The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1863-07-03
The President Ignores the very Legis.
latlOn that he Invoked.

In our review of President LrNCo1N,s
Letter to the Albany Democratic Commit
tee, and in the articles following, we al
luded, though not so fully as we ought, to
the fact that the Congressional legislation
providing for the trial at the hands of the
courts Of those who should give aid and
comfort to the enemy, and prescribing the
manner in which the writ of habeas cor
pus should be suspended, was enacted at
the instance of the President himself. The
fact is, that, after the President had for
the first time assumed the power to sus-
pend the writ of habeas corpus, he formal
ly submitted his assumption of that au-
thority to the judgment Of Congress. In
his message to that body, at its first mes
sage thereafter, he said:
1t was decided that we have case of rebel
lion, and that the public safety does require the
qualified suspension of the privilege of the writ.
Now it is insisted that Congress and not the
Executive is invested with this power. But
tn Constitution itself is silent as to what or
is to exercise the power.
Whether there shall be any legislation on the sub
.ject, and, if aay, achat, Is Submitted entirely to
the better judgment of Congress.
President LINCOLN by this language Off
cially comedies the whole power and dis
erection in the premises to the ''better
judgment of Congress-" and Congress,
assuming to act upon its prerogatives, pro-
cecded to pass the laws of July 18th, 1862,
and March Sd, 1868, full quotations from
which We have lately published. They
provide, with great exactness and compre-
hensiveness of detail, for trial by the civil
tribunals of all offences of a REASONABLE
nature, and prescribe the manner in which
the writ of habeas corpus may be suspen-
ded, in the case of persons arrested
under the military authority of the
President. 1t is these laws passed
at his own invocation, which were
deliberately violated by President LIN
coin, not only in the case of VALLAN-
DIGHAM, but in hundreds of others. And
it is this violation which the President
attempts to defend in his Albany letter.
He does so by utterly ignoring the fact that
such laws were ever passed. Having deliv-
cred the subject of military arrests and pun
ishments over to "the better judgment of
Congress-, he proceeds forthwith as if that
"better judgment " had taken no action
whatever upon subject in regard to which
its legislation is careful, specific, and ample
Most of the Republican journals, and
among them the Press, taking their cue
from the President, also ignore this legis-
latiOn. Indeed, were there no other chan
nels of information, the public would never
know that Congress had provided full and
specific penalties for political crimes. There
are few Republican papers, however,
which have too much integrity to counte-
nance this suppression of the trut and of
this class is the New York Ecening Post
We have had occasion heretofore to copy
articles from that paper, containing sound
doctrine on the question Of personal rights,
and we commend to our Republican friends
the following, which is taken from the
Posts review of the Presidents letter:
We have one omission to note in the letter,
at which we are somewhat surprised and
that is, the tidlnre to menticn the fill md salts
Jo<,.. i J,,t A.
tire subject Of a,5;trmy arest<.
AS part of the history OF the times. as an
evidence Of the eagerness of the Republican
party to subject all public action to the require
ments of law, and particularly as a complete
exposure of the scnseessnesS Of the Cry which
is now got up against the persons in power,
nently ovcrturning our established Institutions,
that tcgislnf0n. whica secures u fisis' on,l unple
trial az ere,y case of arrest by Erecufi0e Eep1,t-