The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1863-06-26
President Lincoln's Attempt to JUS
tlfy Arbitrary Arrests.

The extent to which party allegiance
will control individual judgment, becomes
subject of serious reflection, and excites
our fears for the safety Of our institutions,
when we find influential journals and prom
inent citizens, eagerly seeking for argu-
ment to support the Federal Administra-
ton in the overthrow of the heretofore
unquestioned liberty of the press, ofspeech,
and of the citizen. The recent popular
demonstrations against the revolutionary
acts of the President and his subordinates,
have at last called forth an attempted JUS
LITIGATION in long communication from
the Executive, which for ignorance of the
subject which it treats, weakness of argu-
ment, and petty shutting, can find its par
allel only in previous state papers of the
same author Did we not find some of
the leaders of the Abolition party landing
this document as sound exposition of the
Consultation, we would pass it by unno-
ticed, as affording its own best refutation.
1t is gratifying to know that the most re-
spectacle of the Administration presses
have repudiated both the acts and the de-
fence.
The Democracy Of New York remind
the President in their resolutions that the
rights which he has assailed, "were Sc
cured substantially to the English people
after years of protracted civil war, and
were adopted into our Constitution at the
close of the Revolution To this ugges-
ton, pregnant with warning that what was
purchased by ''years of civil war;" will
| never be surrendered at less cost, he taunt-
ingly asks, # the demonstration would
not have been better if it could have been
truly said that these safeguards had been
adopted and applied during the civil wars,
and during our revelation, instead of after
| the one and at the close Of the Other?'
| Whether the President means in this QUE
ry, "adopted and applied" by the insur-
gents, Or the British Government, during
the civil strife, is hard to determine, and
in either case is equally absurd; because
| the former were in rebellion without rec
! Ognized authority to "adOpt or apply"
anything unless achieved by the sword,
and the latter was struggling directly
against the recognition OF these very
Safeguards" let alone their "adoption
and application" and reluctantly yielded
them only after "years of protracted civil
war;"
The President in order to avoid the con-
stitutional difficulties which he encounters
on every side, assures us that the safe
guards contained in the Constitution "have
no application to the case in hand because
the arrests complained of were not made
for treason-that is, not The treason de-
fined in the Constitution, and upon con-
viction of which the punishment is death
nor yet were they made to hold per-
sons to answer for any capital or other in
famous crimes; nor were the roceedings
following, in any constitutional or legal
sense, criminal prosecutions The ar
rests were made on totally different grounds,
and the proceedings following accorded
with the grounds of arrest"
The President has asserted that these
arrests are constitutional, and he is seek
ing t" prove it. He says they are not for
treason, nor arc they for any "capital or
other Infamous crime" In making these
quotations from the Constitution, we can
fairly presume that if the arrests had been
for treason or any "capital or other
Infamous crime they would find TO war
rant in the Constitution, as a different
mode of disposlnr of such cases is provid-
ed for in that instrument. The President
does not point us to any law defining the
crimes for which these arrests were made.
nor can he, there having been none since
the repeal of the "Alien and Sedition
Laws" and even they did not authorize
arbitrary and military arrests. The only
conclusion that can be arrived at from the
position Of the President is this That
after all the efforts of Our revolutionary
sres to place the crime of treason in a
tangible shape, admitting of no construc-
tons Or implications, upon which many
good men have been hanged in England,
they only succeeded in defining one kind
OF treason, or as the President terms it
the treason,'' which in no manner cuts
OFT other classes of treason, Or as some of
our military gentlemen denominate it,
"treason en- the mind;" and that there is
also large catalogue of crimes not " cap
ital or Infamous" which exist outside of
the Constitution or statute books, for which
our citizens may be picked upat the pleas
ure of the Executive-tr tried by courts I'M
known to the law, and punished at the ca
price Of the judges. The President does
not explain what the distinction between