Holmes County farmer. [volume] (Millersburg, Ohio) 1857-1926, 1863-01-08

for release through such channels, and
that such applications will be regarded
as additional reasons for declining to re-
lease such prisoners" Could there be,
by any possibility, more direct and dc.
fant disregard of the Constitution than
this order ? And in violation Of the Con
stitrtion, and even without so much as a
mock trial, they have inflicted upon me
cruel aud unusual puni hment.
My friends, it was to protect the citi
zen against such despotism such tyran
ny As has been practicod by Lincoln and
Tod, that our fathers, beyond tie safe
guards already enumerated, provided for
the writ OF habeas corfus-a judicial pro
cess by which the citizen might be taken
out of the hands of the President, ond
the Govcrnor-ond Ly which these high
functionaries might be required to show
cause for their arbitrary and despotic
proceedings.
SO jealous, indeed were the trainers Of
the Constitution Of the rights Of the citi-
zcn--and so fearful of the cncroachmcnt
OF arbitrary power, that they expressly
forbid the suspension of the writ Of ha.
beas corpus, by any power whatever other
than Congress, and by Congress only in
certain specific cases.
President Lincoln and David Tod have
no moro right to suspend the habcas cor
pus than the variest beggar that walks
our steeett.
Again and again the Circuit Court Of
the United States has decided that all
such suspensions of the President, are in
express violation Of the Constitution !;
and | defy either the President or Cover
nor Tod to point out a single instance in
which any Of the Judges of the Supreme
Court Of the United States, no matter to
what political party such Judge belongs,
in which decision has been given sus-
tanning them in their usurpation of this
suspending power.
An effort was made at the last session
of Congress by the party friends Of the
President to get this writ suspended -
But his own friends even have refused to
clothe him with such despotic power
yet in defiance of all these decisions Of
the Courts-in the face OF this refusal 10y
his friends in Congressman regardless.
of his oath Of Office, the President u,urps
the power to suspend the habeas corpus,
arrests his victims regardless of all Con.
stitutional prohibitions, and runs them
into his Military Bastilcs, and loads his
cannon with grape and bombs, and so
plants them that he can utterly annihiatc
the Sheriff and his posse if ne attempts
! 10 ,l,,. Il Al 4
ton.
There stands to-day, Just inside the
sally port Of Fort Lafayette, brass six
poundcr, loaded with bomb. This can
non was planted in that position at the
time when it was expected that tho Shcr
If Of New York would attempt to exc.
cute writ of habcas corpus upon the
commandent of the Fort. He says that
he has praoticed with it until he has OBJ
tanned the exact position, so that bomb
fired from it would explode in the sally
port he boasts that with single bomb
he could utterly DESTROY the Sheriff with
his whole posse comitatus; in derision of
thi, writ, he has nicknamcd this cannon
his "habeas corpus
This heabeas corpus, which, for more
than two hundred years, has been regard
cd rs the great bulwark of civil liberty
always the boast and pride Of our English
ancestors was made to reach and relieve
just such tyranny as has been practiced
in my case, Six lying, malicious black
republicans steal into democratic meei
ing for the express purpose of misreple-
senting the speakers. They make u NAL
icious, garhlcd, and lying report of the
speeches and "not having the fear OF
God before their eyes, and being instiga-
ted by the devil" they blackcncd THEN
souls with the awful sin of perjury, in
order to vent their party malice upon an
lnnocen; and unoltending neighbor. And
II common rumOr be true, upon such per.
Jury rs this | was arrested. Not upon
| prcscntment or Indictment by Grand
Jury; not upon any warrant known to
my country, but by "letireS de cacAel, "
from the war office.
Upon these "iettreS de cachet," term
unknown to the laws and the Constitu-
ton OF this country term borrowed
! from the despotism of the dark ages--a
process every letter of which was so rank
with the smell of blood, that even the
Jacobins OF France discarded i'll was
arrested, And as if there was not iufamy
enough in such process, the Admins
tration doopcns its infamy by adopting
the long slice discarded practice Of the
Spanish inquisition, which caused its
victims to be arrested under the cover Of
night.
Upon garbled and false report of a
speech of mine, made 10y Bob Clarke, a
perfect ninny hammer of the Admiuistra-
ton; III defiance Of all the guarantees OF
both our State and National Constitu-
tion. Lincoln and Tod caused me to be
kidnapped, and hurried oil out of the
State, and placed in solitary confinement
in Fort Lafayette; where, after having
surrounded me with armed soldlers-and
with u sentry day and night tramping
backward and forward before my cell
door--with II cannon loaded to the very
muzale standing inside the salyport
ready to deal death to any and all officer,
OF the civil law, they set all Constitution
al barriers at defiance, and laugh at the
majesty of the law, and the yirtuous in
dignatlon OF an insultod and outrageC
people.
You will bear in mind il you please
my friends, that all the barriers and safe