Dayton daily empire. [volume] (Dayton [Ohio]) 1850-1865, 1865-01-27


and his keepers declare that no has not beef
furnished with copy ofthe charges aeains
him. he says that he has again and aqaii
demanded IN vain, to know with what crim
he is charged lie is a man Who bears upor
his person honorable scars received IL the ser
vice OF his country be is Colonel aud N,
vengesnee OF some one fell upon him like
bolt from the clear sky He declares that h,
knows no reason for il and eau learn none
An agent of the War Department, an officer
unknowR to the Constitution aud laws Of ID,
cOnntty, lays his hands upon aman, puts hin
in prison where he is kept until said ageu
or some power above him ia pleased TO release
him There are plenty OF alleged cases whera
officers and citizens after being confined for
n long period, have been allowed TO 20 out with
out a word OF explanation concerning either
the arrest or the discharge.
| ask the House Of Representatives. whether
that kind Of practice is to grow up under this
Government, and no man ia to raise his voice
against 1t, or make any inquiry concerning il,
lest some one should say be is factious he is
unirien lily TO the War Department he is OBJ
p0eing the Administration Gentlemen, il
we are not meu in our places here, let US stop
our ears TO all complaints; let every Depart.
ment do Rs il plesses, and with meekness
aud silence let us vote whatever appropria.
/ tons are asked for. | do not say, for | do not
know, that the head Of ANY Department is
responsible for these things, or knows them.
IL may be that they have been done by subor.
dinates, ID msy be that the heads of the
Departments are not cognzant Of the facts
| make no accusation; but do say that il is
our business to see that the laws be respected
aud that il man has no powerful friend in
court, he shall ut least fud the Congress OF
the United States his friend.
But by far the most important and val
liable speech was made by Henry Winter
Davis, of Maryland. He not only states
facts, but lays down principles and the law
correctly. He especially notes the proper
distinction between military arrests and
military trial of citizens, and denonnces
the whole system of military commissions,
which are destroying the last vestige of
personal liberty among us. Asserting the
right of military arrest of citizens during
a constitutional suspension of the privi-
lege Of the writ Of hd6eas corpus, he de-
MES utterly the right to proceed to trial
except before the Judicial tribunals of the
land. One point further he ought to have
made-one emphatically correct whoe'er
orders or makes a military arrest of a cit
iAen. even during a lawful suspension Of
habeGs corpus, does il at his peril being
liable aiterward for either indictment or
an action for malicious prosecution or
false imprisonment, in case it turn ont
that the arrest was really without probable
cause. And as 10 Military Commissions
for the trial Of citizens in States where
judicial process is mobstructed, whoever
orders them, whoever sits upon them, who
ever prosecutes in them as Judge Advo-
cate, and all who execute their orders or
sentences, or are in any way concerned in
them, are liable criminally and ciyilly,
and will so find in the end, to their cost.
And in case the sentence be capital, and
carried out, each and every one of them
is, by the common law, a murderer. Ac-
cordingly Blackstone says: "If Judgment
of death be given by judge not author
lied by lawful commission, and execution
is done accordingly, the judge is guilty
Of murder. . Commentaries, Book 4, p.
l7S. And for this reason, during the
usurpation of Cromwell, Sir Matthew
Hale refused to sit in criminal cases. The
following are extracts from Winter Davis
speech ~ I'D I
The reason for the suspension of the writ
of habeas corpus was not to enable the Pres,
ident to arrest persons guilty OF any crime
knoWn to the law and punishable by law, for
which adequte evidence existed to carry the
case before the courts Of the United States
but it was because, in times of revelation and
public danger, there are persons of dangerous
influence engaged in plots and preparing i'm
surreetons, centers Of secret Information aud
communication with the enemy, known, but
not proved, or 90 imperfectly developed, as
not TO be, perhaps, the subject Of criminal
process, yet so dangerous and SO pressing as
10 require swifter and freer measures of pre.
vention than Judicial forms atford-discreton
AIRY Executive power precautionary, not
punitive; executive, and not jndicial-and it il
this power which the act suspendng the ha.
beas corpus has oon6ded to the President -
When the safety Of the repablic requires il,
the right of the citizen to judicial guarantees
must be subordinate to the public safety This
is case Of adverse dangers, where a choice
Of evils alone IS possible; and this discretion
can be nowhere so safely vested as in the.
President But this great discretionary power
over the liberty Ct the citizen, is not substi-
tute for the administration Of the criminal
law. Its a grave abuse TO use il for any such