East Saginaw courier. (East Saginaw, Mich.) 1859-18??, 1864-07-20
,ertain fundamental laws which limit


respect those laws, they can be kept
in operation only by the judicial de-
partment, which affords to the injured
citizen the means of redress against
the immediate agents in the wrongful
act Human wisdom never has de-
vised, and in all probability never will
be able to devise any other practical
method of holding the administrators
Of government to the provisions Of
writted constitutional liberty. Destroy
or impair this method, create impedi-
ments in the way of Judicial action, or
strike out of existence this practical
means of enforcing constitutional guar
antics, and those guarantees become
mere waste paper. Of what avail is
it that Constitution provides that no
man shall be deprived Of his liberty
without legal process, if those who
seize me, or order me to be seised, in
an arbitrary arrest, are protected by
legislation against the exercise Of my
right of judical redress ? 1t is this
right Of judicial address, this power to
make the wrong doer accountable,
that makes the really valuable dis
tinction between our systems of liber-
ty and the acknowledged despotisms
of the world. Destroy it, and re-
publican government can be as des-
potic and irresponsible apower as any
autocracy on earth.
There is now q law on the statute
book of the United States which not
only undertakes to deprive the Judicial
tribunals of the States Of all cogni-
zance, civil and criminal, over pro-
ceedings instituted against persons
who have done any act injurious to a
citizen, by order Of the President OF
the Uuited States, but which also
makes tho order of the President, or
any one acting under his authority, a
full and perfect defence in all courts,
in any civil or in any criminal pro-
ceeding in which the act is drawu in
question. If this law is to be sus-
tanned by public opinion and by the
judicial tribunals, it will be found
that it has annihilated the liberties OF
the citizen as efiectually as any device
that was ever resorted to in any age
or IN any country. Ii, while it re-
moved all responsibility of subordi-
mates, it had proportionately heapcd
responsibility upon the President,
something of the dignity and regard
for principle which characterized free
constitutional governments would have
been saved, although the propiiety OF
such legislation could not then have
been defended But with such a law
in operation as this, it would be man
iiestly unjust to impeach the Presi-
dent for a high crime against liberty
or for u misdeneanor against personal
rights, whatever he might order TO be
done TO q citizen because it is the OBJ
vious intention of the Legislative de-
partmcnt that during the present re-
bellion" tire President shall have and
exercise an absolutely discretionary
power over the persons of oil citizens.
For this reason also, think it plain
that if the law can be regarded as
constitutionally valid, so as to furnish
defense to the subordinate officer
who does the act when the president
orders, it must be held to furnish the
presidenthimself with an equally good
defense; because it was the obvious
design of the law TO make an execu-
tive order paramount to every provls-
ion of the constitution that secures and
protects the liberties Of the citizen du-
ring the present rebellion"
| ask you, my countrymen, what
possible justification can there be for
such legislation as this ? The Consti-
tuition of your country declares that
you shall not be deprived of life, lib
erty or property. without judicial pro-
cess that you shall not be tried for
offences by court martial; that you
shall be tried by jury of your neigh
borhood; and while it assumes that
there may be state of war and that
for the security and efficiency of mill
tary operations, there must be times
and places in which military law p'ust
temporarily prevail, there cam bo no
pretence that it .iustiiies Legislation
which puts the right of citizens, every
where throughout the land, absolutely
under executive control, by declaring
that no person shall be amenable any
where, civilly or criminally, for any
act done undor an executive order
Why should our Legislators have thus
outraged the feelings and principles
Of those to whom constitutional liberty
is at least as dear as all else that lie
affords? / read with grief and
shame that an American Cong css,
laying aside all the cherished princi-
pies and traditions of free people,
and abolishing their last safeguards,
have placed the liberties of their conn
trymen absolutely in the power of one
man.
/ know that some apologist that il
this Legislation is not in accordance
with the constitution, the final judicial
arbiter of all questions will so declare
Let us not have too much reliance on
judiciary that may be obliged to
feel itself unsupported by public opin-
ion. have as much confidence IN
tho Judges OF the land as any lover OF
liberty and right ought to have. But
/ have not passed thirty years of my
life in observing tho administration Of
iustico or bcpn ,,oncerned in the study
Of its movements upon constitutional
questions, without having learned how
necessary it is to keep its atmosphere
pure and clear by the purifying and
invigorating influence Of an enlight-
ened and virtuons public s4ntimont.
And now, having underworld to
point out with precision what seems
to mo to DO the sources of our great
error, i will not be so unjust as not
10 admit that civil war in consti-
futfop,l ranul1c r,roseufe n 1ifiicult