The Cadiz Democratic sentinel. [volume] (Cadiz, Ohio) 1854-1864, 1864-03-16
Indiatia Should Sustain Her su-
prene Court:


arbitrary will. A law, to be such
must be declared by the Legislature Of
the State or by the Congress of the
United States.
/ Martial law is the law by which it
is assumed citizens can sometimes be
governed, before it has been declared
to be in force by Legislative or Con-
gressional enactment. 1t is, until
then, the arbitrary will of power, en-
forced by military tribunals and forms
of procedure unknown to the regular
course of the law; indeed altogether
superseding the law and its due ad-
ministrati on.
Martial law is not military law, for
martial law applies to citizens; but
military law is the code of law which
regulates the soldiers and sailors of the
army and navy. Martial law cannot
exist where the civil courts are open.
The conqueror in foreign war
may govern the residents upon the
conquered territory by his will, which
is governing by martial law. General
Scott refused to govern Mexico in that
way during his occupation, and gave
good reasons for his humane and en-
lightened policy. And if we had no
such precedent, recognizing reasonable
limits to the conqueror's power over a
subjugated people, the reason of the
thing would amply enforce decent re-
gard for the rights, feelings and hab>
its of the conquered, till their institu>
tions could be re~ established.
But the Presidents friends have
not gone so far as to hold that Indiana
is conquered province. She is sub
jected by petty officers, and those oc-
cupying high places in the Federal
Government, to what they call mar
tial law, for disobedience of military
orders; among others, the order for
bidding the sale by citizens of liquor
to soldiers.
The Supreme Court of Indiana has
decided, in Griffin vs.. Wilcox, that the
President has neither war power nor
peace power to do anything of the
kind. And in this case, where an ar
rest has been made for disobedience of
q military order, they decided tina t it
was false Imprisonment, emitting the
plaintiff to damages. We like to keep
that decision before our readers till
they have absorbed its principles. 1t
is an immense advance in the right di-
rection. IL declares the independence;
it displays the learning; it illustrates
the power of courts of justice in a
sovereign State. It is q decision to
the point: the citizen who violates
no law of the Union nor of Indiana,
can not be interfered with by Federal
officers. His house is his castle; his
tongue and his person and his proper-
ty are all under the protection of the
sovereignty of the State. Although
the offense laid to the party's charge
in that case was liquor selling to SOL
diers, yet if the same citizen had Of
fehded in any other manner, such as
public speaking or writing and pub
fishing his contempt of Lincoln's Ad-
ministration, he could not be arrested,
no matter how many Orders 80 he
might have violated, nor how many
Burnsdes there might have been stand
ing ready to enforce them.
In all that part of the map of the
United States known as Indiana ar
bitrary power, absolute will, martial
law, is at an end, so far as the Courts
can effect it. 1t has no place nor any
agency by which it can be upheld
In Ohio, we presume, the precedent
will, sooner or later, from pressure of
opinion, or sober second thought, or
from very shame, be followed by oul
own Courts of Justice. When the
time arrives it will place the residents
| of two Of the Northwestern States on
firm foundations and confidence and
decorum in the private affairs of indi-
viduals, and in respect to the rights
and duties of citizens will take the
place of our present chaotic condition.
But we have most important in.
quiry to make. Suppose that some
Mai Or General shall have the audacity
to disregard this decision? Suppose
that he summarily thrusts his will into
the case at the trial and inquest Of
damages? or in the Court of Common
Pleas, to which it has been remanded?
Suppose, what is now happening in
Ohio, in Franklin county, and what
has happened in Fairfield county, the
Federal Government requires the case
| ,tHx .s.aL.L. = se5t 80 r yA.lS l4 ~ & j,