Daily national Republican. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1862-1866, 1865-08-11
No /, or not an sc.ive participant. in the hos,

he is or not an active participant In the hos.
tilities. If he Is an active participant in the
hostilities, IL Is the duty Of the military to
take him prisoner without warrant or other
judicial process, and dispose of him as the
laws Of war direct.
Itis curious 70 see one and the same mind
Justify the killing Of thousands in battle be-
cause 1t Is done according to the laws OF war,
and yet condemning the same law when, out
Of regard for justice and with the hope Of
saving life, IL orders a military trial before
the enemy arc killed The love Of law, Of
Justice, and the wish TO save life and suffer-
ing, should impel all good mon in time Of
war TO uphold and sustain the existence and
action Of such tribunals. Thc object Of such
tribunals is obviously intended 70 save life,
and when their Jurisdiction is confined to
offences against the laws Of war, that is their
effect. They prevent indiscriminato slaugh-
ter; they prevent men from being punished
or killed upon mere suspicion.
The law Of nations, which is the result OF
experience and wisdom Of ages, has decided
that jayhawkers, banditti, &c, are offenders
against the laws of nature, and OF war, and
rs such amonableto the military. Our Con-
stitution has made those laws part Of the
law Of the land. Obedience to the Constitu-
tion and the law, then, requires that the
must not only meet and fight the enemies Of
the country in open battle, but they must
kill or tako the secret enemies Of the country
and try and execute them according to the
laws Of war. The civil tribunals Of the
country cannot rightfully interfere with the
military in the performance of their high,
arduous, and perilous, but lawful, duties.
That Booth and his associates were secret,
active public enemies, no mind that contem-
plates the facts can doubt.
The exclamation used by him when he es
capped from the box on to the stage, after he
had fred the fatal shot, "Sic Semper 1yrdn
ais" and his dying message, Say to my
mother that died for my country" show
that he was not an assassin from private
malice, but that he acted rs a public foe.
Such deed is expressly laid down by Vattel
in his work on the law Of nations, as an Of
fence against the laws of war, and great
crime "I give, then, the name of assassina-
tion to treacherous murder, whether the
perpetrators of the deed be the subjects Of
tho party whom we cause to be assassinated
or Of our own sovereign, or that it be exc
cuted by any other cInissary introducing
himself as supplinnt, a refugee, or a de.
serter, or, in fine, Us q stranger. ."-(Vattel,
339.)
Neither the civil nor the military depart
ment OF the Government should regard ltsel
as wiser and better than the Constitution and
the laws that exist under or are made in pur
suance thereof. Each department should, ir
peace and in war, con6ning itself to its owl
proper sphere of action, diligently and fear
lessly perform its legitimate functions, and
in the mode prescribed by the Constitution
and the law. Such obedience to and observ-
ance of law will maintain peace when il eX.
lists, and will soonest relieve the country from
the abnormal state of war.
Ny conclusion, therefore, is, that If the
persons who are charged with the assassina.
tion Of the President committed the deed n,
public enemies, as 1 believe they did, ant
whether they did or not, is question to b,
decided by the tribunal before which they
are tried, they not only can, but ought to be
tried before military tribunal. If the per.
sons charged have offended against the law
of war, it would be rs palpably wrong for the
military to hand them over to the civil
conrts, as it would be wrong in n civil court
to convict man of murder who had, in time
of war, killed another in battle.
am, sir, most respectfully, your obedient
servant, JAMES SPEED,
Attorney General.
To the President