The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1863-07-11
The Presidents Letter.

1 we nave, Ill puiSudHCc Vi u PROMISE
made several weeks ago, at length made
room for the Presidents reply to the AL
bany committee. We give place to the
letter now, BECAUSE we want, if possible, tc
folIcsS i: up By the publication of the ad'
mirabis answer to it which the Albany
committee have given to the public. The
continued demands upon our columns
may comhel another delay here of several
weeks, but We shall give it if we can
Meantime we propose in our own feeble
way to make a few passing remarks dn
this extraordinary executiver illumination.
The President seems to recognize tina!
the constitution contains the following
guarantees
| l. Congress shall make no laws abridg
ing the freedom of speech and the press
2. The right of the people TO be secure in
their persons against unreasonable seizures
shall not be violated, and no warrant shall
issue but upon probable cause, supported
by oath. 3. No person except soldiers
and mariners in the service of the gov
\
capital or Infamous crime, unless on pre-
sentiment or indictment OF grand jury,
nor shall any person be deprived of life,
liberty or property without due process of
law. a. In all criminal prosecutions, the
accused shall enjoy the right Of a speedy
and public trial by au impartial jury of the
State or district in which the crime shall
have been committed, and to be confront
ell with The witnesses against HIM.
The President admits that in the case
of Mr.. Vallandingham and numerous 9th
but he proceeds to justify the outrage by
pleading that these guarantees are intend
ed only for times Of peace; but that In
times of invasion and rebellion they ar e
suspended or lost. Charles !. set up the
same pretence in time of fearful rebellion,
and lost his head.
1t is notable, however, that the Presi.
dent does not claim that the tremendous
power to suspen! or set aside these con-
stitutional guarantees arises from the
humbug pretence, at first SO impudently
set up but SO often and fully exploded, Of
military necessity The President has
the decency to make vigorous effort, in
his way, TO extract this strange power,
which destroys the constitution, from the
constitution itself He pretends to derive
it all from that clause of the constitution
which in case Of invasion or rebellion, per-
mits the writ Of habcas corpus to be sus-
pended.
The Supreme Court Of tho U. S. has
uniformly and in q dozen Of Instances de-
cided that Congress alone, and not the
President, can suspend the writ of ha5cas
corpus. According to The Presidents doc
trine, then, it would be Congress who in
time of invasion and rebellion are clothed
with these wonderful powers, and not
the President. But ahead of all this the
President forgets that ne Is attempting TO
justify acts that hsrc been done, and he
fails to tell us, and the country is wholly
ignorant, that the writ Of habcas corpus,
either by congress or the President, has
as yet been suspended in any portion of
the country.
The President displays the same astound.
ing ignorance in another regard. The
laws of last congress, assuming to author.
ize the President to suspend the writ of
hateas corpus, go into detail, and pre-.
scribe a number of torma!ities to be OF
served in the matter la the late numer-
Gus cases of arbitrary arrest, it Is notorious
these laws of the last congress were wholly
ignored, nor does the President in this
reply deign to aliude to them Is it his
deliberate purpose to ignore and trample
upon laws passed by his own frie nds, APP
proved aud signed by himself and which
he is sworn to obey