The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1863-07-11
A Letter from President LiAcoIn on Ar.
bitrary Arrests.
EXECUTIVE MANSION,

bitrary Arrests.
EXECUTIVE MANSION,
Washington, June IL, 1868.
Hon Erastu, Corning and others, Gentlemen:
Your letter of May I9, enclosing the
resolutions of a public meeting held at
Albany, New York, on the 10th of the
same month, Was received several days
ago.
The resolutions, as understand them,
are resoivab!e into t~o propositions first.
the expression OF n purpose to sustain the
/ cause Of the Cnion, TO secure peace thro
victory, and to support the administration
( in every constitutional and lawful meas
: ure to suppress the rebellion; and sec
ondly, a declaration a censure Upon the
administration for supposed uucon.titu
/ tional action, such as the making of mill
! tary arrests And from the two propOsi-
| tons, u third Is deduced which Is that
! the gentlemen composing the meeting are
! resolved On doing their part TO maintain
/ our common government and country.
despite the folly or wickedness, as they
may conceive, of any administration -
/ This position is eminently patriotic, and
a. such, ! thank the meeting, and con
gratulate the nation for it Ny own pur
pose is the same; so that the meeting and
myself have a common object, and can
have NO difference, except Ia the choice of
. means and measures for eaectiug that OBJ
ject.
And here ought to close this paper,
and would close it, if there were no appre-
hensions that more injuriOu, 'nsequen
ces than any merely personal 10 myself
n ight follow the censures Systematically
cast upon ne for doing what, in my view
Z =. =. l..
tions promise to support me in every con
s;itutinr;al and lawful measure TO suppres,
the rebellion and have not knowingly
employed, nor ehall knowingly employ.
anv other But the meetlnc by Their re
solutions. assert and argue that certain
military arrests and proceedings following
them, for which am ultimately re-ponsi
ble. are unconstitutional. | think they
are not. The resolutions quote from the
constitution the definition OF treason. ana
also the lInilt!ns safeguards and guaran-
tees therein provided for the citizen on
trials For treason, and on his being held TO
answer for capital or otherwise Infamous
crimes. and, in criminal prosecutions, his
right TO a speedy and public trial by an
imI artial jury They proceed ts resolve
that these safeguard, of the rights of the
citizen against the preiensions Of arbitrary
power were intended more especially for
his protection III tIInss OF civil commO,lon.
And, apparently to demon straie the pro-
position. th. resolutions proceed They
were secured substantially to the English
people after years of protracte.i civil war,
and were adopted into our constitution at
the ciyss of the revolution Would not
the demonstration have been better, If il
could have been truly said that these safe>
guards had been adopted and applied dy
ring the civil wars and during our Ievolu
ton, instead of after the one and at the
close of the other? !, too, am devotedlv
for them, after civil war, and betore civil
war. and at all times, except when, in
cases of rebellion or Invasion, the public
safety NAV require their suspension
The resolutions proceed TO tell us that
these safeguards have stood the test of
seventy SIX years of trial, under our re-
, publican system, under circumstances
which show that while they constitute the
! foundation of all free government, they
| they are the elements of the enduring
stability of the republic" No one denies
that they have so stood the test up to the
beginning OF the present rebellion, if We
except a certain occurrence at New Or
leans nor does any one question that they
will stand the same test much longer at
Ter the ftOclilOn CLOSES. buI THESE pro-
visions of the constitution have no appli-
cation to the case we have in hand. be
cause the arrests complained Of We're not
made for treason-that is, not for tie
treason defined in the constitution, and
upon the conviction of which the punish
ment Is death-nor yet were they made
TO hold persons to answer for any capital
or otherwise infamous crimes; nor we're
the proceedings following. in any consti-
tutional or legal sense, criminal pre- Secu
tons The arrests We're made on totally
different grounds, and the proceedings
s>liowing accorded with the grounds of
IN ,..@sts Let Us consider the real case
viii VIM we are dealing and apply it to
the ,arts of tns constitution plainly made
for such cases. .,
Prior to my installation mere it has been
inculcated that any state had lawl1:
right to secede from the national Union,
and that it would be expeoient to exercise
the right whenever the devotees of the
doctrine should fail to elect President to
their own liking l was elected contrary
to their liking, and according so far as it
was legally possible, they had taken seven
states out OF the Union: had seized
many of the United States forts, and had
fred upon the United States flag, all he
fore was inaugurated, and, OF course, be-
fore had done any official act Whatever
Tie rebellion thus began SON ran into the
present civil war and, in certain respects,
it began on very unequal terms between
the parties. The ins ,rgents had been pre-.
pairing for it more than thirty years, while
The government had takens no step to re-
sist them. The former had careful 'y ccI-
sidered all the means which coulI be
turned to their account. 1t undoubtedly
was a well pondered reliance with them
that in their own unrestricted efforts to
destroy the Union, constitution aud law.
all together, the government would, in
great degree, be restrained 10y the same
constitution and law from arresting their
progress Their sympathizers pervaGed
all departments of the government and
nearly all communities Of the people
From this material, under cover of liberty
of speech" Liberty of the press" and
"ha5eas corpus" they hoped to keep on
foot amongst us a most efficient corpse OF
spies, informers, suprliers and aiders and
abet,ors of their cause in thousand
ways They knew that in times such as
they were inauguratins. by the constitu
ton itself she "habeas corpus might be
suspended; but they also'know they had
friends who wo Il make a question as to Was
was to suspend il: ineanwhiie their spies
and others might remain at large to h Up
an their ca,,-c. Fnr il. as has happened,
the executive should suspend the writ,
without tu nou- waste cf time. DISTANCES
of .arrestiug .nncc',it persous n.'.ilt occur.
as are always likely to occur u such cases;