The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1865-12-08
RESTORATION OF THE WRIT OF HA
BEAS CORPUS.

day of the present month, has restored the writ
of Habeas C6rpus to all the States and Terrific
ries, except the States Of Virginia, Kentucky
Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina,
Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Lou
isiana, Arkansas and Texas, the District of
Columbia, and the Territories of New Mexico
and Arizona. For this act of clcmency on
the part of the Executive, We of Maryland. Mt
least, should feel thankful. Not that the Presi-
dent has done more than his duty, or granted
us more than our rights as citizens of sovereign
State But because this is another proof on the
part of Mr.. johnson, that he is making an effort
to administer the government in accordance with
the provisions Of the Constitution-so long neg
lected and apparently forgotten-and in the
spirit of the fathers of the republic.
We had occasion, heretofore, TO say, that in
our opinion there never was any more probabili-
ty Of Maryland going into secession, than there
was a possibility of the intensely loyal Adolf
tionists of the country shouldering their muskets
and going to the front TO assist in putting down
the rebellion; and we think so now. True, some
of tho leaders of this disuuon faction, who have
warred upon the Constitution of the United
States and the rights of States and individuals,
since the year eighteen hundred and thirty, did
during the war obtain commissions as officers in
the army, but what use did such officers as But
ler-tbe hero Of Big Bethel, the Dutch Gap Ca
nal, the New Orleans banks, and the distinguish
ed capturer of helpless women in the Crescent
City-make of his? or n P Banks the hero Of
the Shenandoah and Red River? The first COB
bled all the valuables he could lay hands on in
New Orleans, about some Of which there is at
present we believe, law suit pending in New
York city. The other, We believe, has had Civ
en- him the distinguished honor of furnishing
Stonewall Jackson and Kirby Smith with an
abundance of military stores from his commits
sary department, rs often as these two rebel
generals found their larders getting low.
Now, men in this Suite have been arrested and
Imprisoned many of them through the nstru-
mentality of i'll disposed neighbors, among whom
they CHANGED to live, not because they had attu-
ally done anything criminal, not that they had
in any way contributed to the Southern cause
either by word or deed, but because they won!d
HUI lOilOW tuS lNstN vi hVuuSiI ullIlPS, Dpllt-
Fisher Butler and Banks, who made the best time
on record ont of the Shenandoah Valley, ac-
cording to the account of the race given
in his report, and that old political prosti-
tute, Dan. Dickinson, and others of a like kidney
This was the head and front Of their offending
nothing more. But happily for us of this
State where VIC have not had au election since
before the war, Mr.. johnson has restored this
welcome writ Of hobeas corpus. This writ was
never intended TO relieve the guilty, and never
was used for that purpose. Its mission was
only to relieve the innocent and hence it is term
ed in England, from which country we borrowed
it, the subjects Writ Of Right passed for the
security of individuals on the twenty seventh
day of May, 1919. This act, says n dstin-
guished English author and jurist, is next in
Importance to Magna Charta; for SO long as the
statute remains in force no subject of England
can be detained in prison, except in cases where
in the detention is shown to be justified by law.
The Habeas Corpus Act can alone be suspended
by the authority of parliament, and then for a
short time only, and when the emergency is ex-
treme. In such cases the nation parts with
portion Of its liberty to secure its own permanent
welfare, and suspected persons may then be dr.
rested without cause or purpose being assigned"
1t will be seen that the suspension of this writ
rendered it quite convenient to get rid of oil such
persons as were opposed to the obnoxious, dam
gerous and destructive policy of the Abolition
party, and that its restoration will relieve MANY
from that oppression under which they have
groaned for the last four years. The State of
Maryland never as State furnished single mar,
or single dollar to the cause of the rebellion
True, some persons, as individual citizens, left
the State for that purpose, but the great mass of
the people of this State, who were denounced as
disloyal, remained behind, Notwithstanding they
were arrested and in many instances imprisoned,
disffanchised, abused, oppressed and tormented
in every manner which malice and sordid MO.
tires could invent. Indeed, the 1nun object of
the leaders of the Abolition party seemed to be
to drive every man whom they chose to de-
nounce as Copperhead from the State; but in
this they failed. The Democracy, true to the
land and institutions of their fathers. and tn.
themselves, bore with patience all this oppres-
sion, rather than aid in the destructitn of a
"Union, wonderful in its formation, boundless in
its hopes and amazing in its destiny" They
looked for the time when the Constitution of
Washington, and Franklin, and Madison and
Jefferson should be restored to them. They kuew
that the day was not distant when they would
again be what the patriots of the Revolution in
tended they and their children's children sbou,d
ever be-the equals of their fellows. They loved
the soil Of Maryland and venerated her ips,itu-
tons !; they remembered the fame of the old Ma.
ryland line, in our death struggle for libertv
with England; they preferred the TEACHINGS ~
Hancock, Adams and Hamilton, to tboss of
Brownlow, Sumner and Wilson. They had M
confidence in or respect for men who cried Union
from the lips only, and defrauded at the first Oh
portpniay the very government which they pre-
tended to defend. Of this the numerous trials
OF numbers of the shoddy crowd for frauds on
the eoysrnment, sufficiently establishes. They
wanted no Union-sliIc,s such as tbe lor,, NJ a..