Civilian & telegraph. [volume] (Cumberland, Md.) 1859-1875, 1864-11-03
Hon. Henry Winter Davis Speech.
rCanclnded from EGrat Par. !

tConctndea FROM fF~t I0ge.J
liberty of somebody, whose liberty ought to
be respected, had been Invaded. there would
have been some point in it. Applause. If
they had said, that somebody had been con-
lined who ought TO have been at large, | would
have listened to the argument. If they had
said that some loyal man had been maliciously
arrested and maliciously confined, without Il
doubt upon the Presidents mind, aud without
even a prctext OF public reasoI, then | would
agree that the President ought to be i'm
poachcd. But when they say that the right
Of personal liberty has been. invaded because
men have been arrested without judicial pro-
cess, beg leave to say that there is no law
or constitution in the United States which
says that nobody shall be arrested excepting
by judicial process. The solemn language OF
the Constitution of the United States is that
mo man shall be deprived of life, liberty, or
property, without due process of law" Prop
erty' and elderly" stand in the same cat
egorv with life. How many men has
Abraham Lincoln shot down according to law
because they stood in gray clothes before men
in blue clothes What sherll's prcccpt goes
before Grants cannon balls? What Marshal
of the United States is required to give him
liberty to fire? What jury of inquiry is sum
moned to ascertain whether the flag that Is
floating on the horizon is an innocent rag, or
the emblem of Rebel armed force? What
antecedcnt judicial securities took place before
10000 men laid down and died at Gettys-
burg, or &C, 900 men were killed and wounded
in the campaign from this spring to the present
time from the Rapidon down to Petersburg
Then, so far as life is concerned, there is a
law that Is above judicial process. Nobody Is
fool enough to deny that Is there a Law
above judicial process with reference Likewise
to liberty? If there be not, WY do you not
turn loose the Rebel pr. ners Why do you
keep them confined for single day? What
precept has ever ordered their confinement
Whn sends the officers up to the lakes Who
crowds them into our forts? Who makes
them swarm here in Fort Delaware? Is there
a Judgment upon them, or is it that the law
of the land says that men found in arms and
seized shall be held, and that the President,
finding them in arms, shall hold them upon
his own Judgment Applause. Are we to be
told that only those who are actually caught
in battle array shall be so treated! May
men furnish the enemy with munitions of war,
or clothes, or information, or give them aid
and comfort, or send them medicines. and yet
not be within the range of an Indictment for
treason, or, at the option of the country, the
military security of discretionary arrest ?
From George Washington's day down to this
time no man has ever doubted the legality of
these things until the modern Democracy,
having too many traitors in their midst, found
it inconvenient to have these principles ap-
piled in practice. APPLAUSE. But it is
said, 1.-THE hdbeas corpus has been suspended
illegally by the President" | agree that 1t
was suspended illegally by the President III
the first year of the war, and | warned HIM
and his party friends of the illegaity Of and
the inevitable reaction in public opinion which
would come if that were not corrected. The
reaction came in the fall of 1862, and they
supplied the omission early in 1868, by going
to Congress to ask them to pass the requisite
law to suspend it; the law was passed, but
still the howl goes up the haJeoS corpus is IL
legally suspended But, gentlemen, suppose
that the President has oppressed, has illegally
arrested individuals, has committed all the
expressions that are ascrlbed to him our OPP
ponents propose to place George s. Mcclellan
in his place on his record" ostentatiously
referred to in his letter of acceptance as indi-
eating the course of his own policy hereafter,
referred to to supply the deficiency, to getrld
of the difficult points of the Chicago platform,
and the first man that took step in the di-
rection of arresting, without judicial process,
was George B. Mcclellan himself Whilst
there have been cases of arrests which ought
not to have been made, and some which, in
nv Judgment. were not justitiable, and many
which were indiscroet, in my opinion more
men have been improperly discharged than
have been improperly arrested. Great ap-
pause. But it is certain that on McClcllan's
record he is not the man to impeaeh the
conduct of the President in that particular.
"Statc Rights" too, were here defcd and
sovereign Legislature arrcsted-arrested by
George b. Mcclellan, whom his friend, Mr..
Attorney General Black, only last night, was
defending and advocating in this city land he
imputed to the Administration an entire de-
Walton from everything that had a precedent
in American history, especially upon the sub
Jet of State Rights and personal liberty; and
he did that to induce the people to take George
b. Mcclellan for President, who set the only
example that has been exhibited anywhere on
the American Continent, of the arrest OF
Legislature in solemn session, lii time ct peace
at that place, and in that State for there w"s
no armed foe in Maryland when that legis-
lature was arrested. 1t swarmed with traitors,
but traitors are the men they want to be free
from arrest They were not armed ; they
were not levying war; they were not threat
ening to levy war; they were too pusillan-
imous to attempt it; they were passing resolu-
tions, receiving reports, declaring that the op-
preston of the Government was too great to
be resisted They were safe traitors. and
they are the men that George b. Mcclellan
arrested. But there is another objection. 1t
is stated in the Chicago platform that military
power has been brought to bear Illegally upon
elections. That is the imputation made by
Mr.. Senator johnson, in his speech in Brook
lyn the other day, arguing in hehalfof George
b. Mcclellan. Who set the example? On
October 20, 1861, this order was issued from
the headquarters of General Mcclellan, by
his order:
"HEApo'Rs ARMY OF TIE PoToMAo.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 20, 1861.
Geaeral-there is an apprehension among
Union citizens in many parts OF Maryland OF
an attempt at interference with their lights OF
suffrage BY disuuion citizens on the occasion
of the election to take place on the 9th of No