The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1863-01-02

Among ! lot of poll enets releAs-
ed ftom Fort IafAySt "a tie 18th inst,
was aboy of seventeen, an innocent look
inexc1fh. with he down inst beginningto
shais his chin, who had been in oonAne-
ment there on = suspicion Of disloyalty to
the Government. 2
There have been many cases Of hardship
and outrage under the barbarous rule Of
Secretary STANTON; but this arrest of a boy
who ought to be in short jackets, trundling
a hoop, seems the most absurd of all. 1t
was hard case, that at St. Louis, few
weeks ago, when the order of release came
for political prisoner, taken from Wis
consin, who had been dying, for months,
and which reached his prison just in time to
be served on his corpse, before its burial.
There was mockery of mercy in that
case ; but it was equalled, perhaps, few
days later, in New York, where the releas-
ing order found the victim bereft of his
mind, and where the tenderness of the
War Secretary availed only to secure the
transfer of the ruined man from Politi-
cal Bastile to Lunatic Asylum.
In common times, Secretary STANTON
will admit, that it would have been dis
graceful to arrest mere boy on such a
charge as this. With its machinery of
laws, judges, jurors, sheriffs and jails, the
country could probably have protected it.
self, even in his view, against the mach
nations of traitor of seventeen. But, in
the midst of civil war, the Secretary does
not believe it safe for the country to putits
trust in these projections, nor even in the
orderly and well-guarded, though peremp-
tory processes of martial law, within fields
of actual military occupation. Safety, in
such crisis as ours, against the hellish
arts Of precocious urchins, can only be Sc
cured, according to Secretary STANTON, by
putting the whole area of the twenty loyal
States under martial law, and placing in
solitary confinement every boy out of his
short clothes, against whom mere "sus-
picion Of disloyalty'' is breathed, under
process which is warranted by no code,
martial or civil-one which consists in ar
rest without warrant, incarceration with
out trial, and liberation without indemnity
or exculpation.
There are indications that this whole
matter of military arrests will be thor
Oughly ventilated in New York before win
ter is over. We notice that the grand jul
ry OF the Court of Sessions, of New York
city, summoned before them number of
witnesses, to appear at their present sit
ting, against EDWIN NJ. STANTON, Secreta-
ry of War, for violations of the laws of
that State, in the arbitrary and Illegal ar
rest and Imprisonment of its citizens and
it is expected that indictments against him
will follow. The action of the grand jury
was doubtless based on the charge of Re-
corder HOFFMAN, who stated as law, that
the removal Of any person from that State
into any other State or Territory, to
answer any charge of having committed
an offence against the laws of the United
States, or of that State, was in violation
of the statute, as was also an arrest with
a view to secret confinement within the
State and that it would constitute no le-
gal defence to plead that such arrest, con-
tinenent, or removal, was by order of the
President, or any member of the Cabinet,
or other officer of the government. Such,
the Recorder said, was not only the law of
New York, but that it was part of the Con-
stitution of the United States.
The query is, whether, if an indictment
should be found against the Secretary,
Gov. SEYMOUR, would not feel bound to is
sue requisition for his surrender? and
whether the President would not be also
bound, by his oath, to deliver STANTON up ?
The Herald sensibly suggests that, if there
appears no other way for the President to
rid himself of an incompetent Secretary,
such a case would afford an excellent OPP
portunity; though it is to be hoped the
President will not wait so long before per-
forming an act of manifest justiceto his adj
ministration and the country.
Tbe Government Finances.