Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1864-01-01


Brown, Of Mississippi.
On Monday last the Senate took up the House
bill to put the principals of substitutes in the army
Mr. Orr, of South Carolina, opposed the bill, and in
the course Of his remarks said:
The Secretary Of War said there was no con.
tract between the government and the principals
de (Mr ORR insisted that there was q contract
But II there was meme put it upon the ground Of
gooo falth. The country makes q call for soldiers.
A comes forward and offers himself. The govern.
ment says,to him. if be will furnish suitable SUBJ
stitute be shall be discharged He furnishes B, who
Is saccepted and mustered in, and is discharged
as 1t contended that consistently with good faith,
the government could afterwards take A and put
him into the armyf Senators had said there could
De no contract between the government and princi-
pal; that it was Q RVdIfn pdetUTG, there being no
consideration. A consideration was not necessary
to contract. He directed the grave attention Of
Senators to this question of good faith. They had
consci6ed citizens to the age of thirty-fye. They
had said to them, if it suited their pleasure and
convenience, they might furnish substitutes. Some
OF the conScribed searched out substitutes, paid
them their money, and, having put them into the
army and complied with all the prescribed cond'
tons, secured their discharges. Now, it was said,
there was no violation of good faith in putting in
these principals =
But there were other difficulties in the way ofthis
BILL If it was passed and became law, how was
it to be executedP He could say, from information
that he had that it could be executed except
by the means recommended the other day by the
Senator from Mississippi mr. Brown, in his reEo-
lutonary speech. Already it had been decided by
the Supreme Court of North Carolina that even
when substitute became liable by the extension of
the conscript age the principal not liable 9th
er decisions on the same subject had been given in
South Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi. 1t was
proper he should here say that If the North Carroll
StAta had had kha lorlor rofk kI,oW War
Department before them their decision might have
been different But still that court had decided that
when the substitute was accepted and the principal
discharged, the latter could net be taken again. If
after this decision, this bill is passed the principals
when conscribed, will sue out their wrts of hGbeds
coTPHs and will be forthwith released and the gov
ernment must either acquiesce trample the civil
tribunals under foot and put the whole country un
der military rule, as recommended by the gentle
man from Mississippi (Mr, Brownl He was not
prepared for such condition Of things as this He
did not believe there was any necessity for it"
MIR. johnson, of Georgia, said it struck him there
was no necessity for the passage of the bill under
consideration. The bill reported by the Military
committee covered the whole ground 1t extended
the coDscript age to fifty five and all the substitutes
in the army, ne thought would be found to be
under that age. Should the committee bill be
adopted, any legislation on this subject will be found
unnecessary. He would, therefore, suggest the
.
the committee shall have been acted upon. He
moved its further consideration be postponed till
Wednesday.
The bill and amendments were ordered to be
printed
In the course of the debate Mr. Brown, Of Mis-
sissippi, said:
This law should not be allowed to drop through
from respect of mere technicaltes such as decisions
Of State courts. was agreed upon all Sides with
rare exceptions, that legislation on this subject
should be retraced. The legislation Of the House
this subject met his views, but if it did not he
would agree with it If we could not get what we
wanted we should agree with the House in what
they wanted. Their opinions were as much entitled
to respect The bill strikes at the root of
the evil. The Senate should pass it promptly, and
il there was danger of the law not being executed
there was remedy. and let the Senate use it. sus-
pend the ha5eas corpus. The country should not
be lost because of the opinion of every petty Judge
authorized to issue hG6eas c0rpus giving different
decisions in Virginia Tennessee, Alabama, and Mis-
sissippi. To get uniformity, Congress should pass
law declaring this Law to be for the regulation and
discipline of the army, and by that means, as to
this measure suspend the writ of habeds eorpa-
Congress, there was no doubt could suspend the
1G6eds corpus to particular measures, having au-
thority to pass it generally. 1t would be bad to
have it said, after We were in graves that our
liberty had been lost whilst were struggling over
petty constitutional questions"
Mr.. Brown does not wish to be troubled with
"petty constitutional questions" lie desires to
suspend all law and all constitutions and establish
military law in their stead In the language of
Mr. Secretary Menminger, endorsed by President
Davis he regards the public safety as the supreme
law" He therefore sneers at constitutions, and
laws, and the decisions of "petty Judges" Mr..
chonlA hav Eva in - ~ Jor,
Dantoa and Robespiere.
We now tell Mr.. Brown, and those who think
with him, for all that if the desperate revolu.
tionary measures which he advocates shall be at
tempted to be carried out-if the civil law is to be
trsmpled under foot by the suspension of the writ
ofhG6eds corpus, and every able,bodied man placed
in the army from sixteen to-6ffy- -6ve-f no man is
to have hearing before State Judge as to the |
right of the enrolling officers to seize him, and if |
the rights of the States to be thus ignored and
, Iyept away by the mere. creature of the States, |
the common government the people of North.
Carolina soiH take their affairs into their Ova
hands, and 'OiH proceed, in COnOentiOn assembled,
to VindicGte their liberties and priOileges They
will not submit to military despotism. They will
not submit to the destruction of their personal and
civil rights in this, or in any other war. We say
what we h"O'0 to be so. A vast majority of our
people are already excited and restless on account
Of the threatened encfoachments on their liberties
Oy the Congress at Richmond; and we most re-
specially and earnestly warn the members Of that
body not to kindle fame which no efforts can ex.
1nguish. Pass these measures-suspend the hG6eGs
0Tpus in order to silence our Courts and force our
Whole population into the army-brcak faith with
he principals of substitutes-repudiate the curren-
y of the cOuntry-levy tax in specie to pay the
interest on the funded debt-continue in full opera
ion the tthing and impressment laws at the same
ime do these thinrs Mr R-ozrr h. ..ao.la