Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1866-07-11

either their persons or the subject-matte
of the charges.
The only color of authority for such
trial, was found in the Presidents proc
lamation of September 24th, 1862, which
was substantially annulled by the haBsa.
corpus act of March Sd, 1868, and the sub
sequent Presidential proclamation of Sep
tember 18th, 1868.
By these acts, the military authority
could only arrest and hold disaffected per.
sons till after a session of the Unitec
States District Court.
May it please the Court, have thu
reviewed the principles upon which oul
] government was founded; the practice o
the fathers who founded it ; and the al
most unanimous sentiment of its presi-
dents, congresses, and courts.
l have shown that Congress undertook
to provide for all the necessities which
the rebellion imposed upon the natioD
That il provided for the trial and pointed
out expressly the mode of punishment
for every crime imputed to the petition
ers. There is not single charge or spec.
ification in the petition before you, not a
single allegation of crime, that is not ex-
pressly provided for in the laws of the
United States, and the courts are desig.
mated before which offenders may be
tried. These courts were open during
the trial and had never been disturbed
by the rebellion. The military commits
sion on the tenth day of its session with
drew from the chamber where it had
been sitting, that the circuit court of the
United States might hold its regular term
in its own building. For the next ten
days the commission occupied, by permis-
sion, the chamber of the supreme court
of Indiana, but removed to another
hall when the regular term of that court
began. This military commission sat at
a place two hundred miles beyond the
sound of a hostile gun, in a State that
had never felt the touch of martial law,
that had meyer been defled by the tread
of hostile rebel foot, except on a re-
mote border, and then but for day
That State with all its laws and courts,
with all its securities of personal rights
and privileges, is declared by the oppo-
sing counsel to have been completely and
absolutely under the control of martial
law; that not only the Constitution and
laws of Indiana, but the Constitution
and laws of the United States were
wholly suspended, so that no writ, in
junction, prohibition, or mandate of any
district or circuit court of the United
States, or even of this august tribunal,
was of any binding force or authority
whatever, except by the permission and
at the pleasure of military commander.
Such doctrine, may it please the Court,
is too monstrous to be tolerated for a
moment; and l believe that when this
cause shall have been heard and consid-
cred, it will receive its just and final con-
demnation. Your decision will mark an
era IN American history. The just and
final settlement of this great question
will take a high place among the great
achievements which have immortalized
this decade. 1t will establish forever,
this truth of inestimable value to US and
to mankind, that a republic can WELD
the vast enginery of war without break
ing down the safeguards of liberty, can
suppress insurrection and put down re-
bellion, however formidable, without
destroying the bulwarks of law; can by
the might of its armed millions, preserve
and defeat both nationality and liberty.
Victories on the field were of priceless
value, for they plucked the life of the
republic out of the hands of its enemies,
but
Peace hath her victories
No less renown'd than war"
and if the protection of law shall, by
your decision, be extended over every
acre of our peaceful territory, you will
have rendered the great decision of the
century.
When Pericles had made Greece i'm
mortal in arts and arms, in liberty and
law, he invoked the genius of Phidias to
devise a monument which should SYM
bolize the beauty and glory of Athens.
That artist selected for his theme the tu-
telar divinity of Athens, the JoVe-born
goddess, protectress of arts and arms, OF
industry and law, who typifed the Greek
conception of composed, majestic, unre-
lenting force. He erected on the heights
of AcropoIis, colossal statue of Miner
We, armed with spear and hemlet, which
lowered in awful majesty above the sur
rounding temples of the gods. Sailors
on far-off ships beheld the crest and
spear of the goddess and bowed with
reverent awe. To every Greek she was
the symbol of power and glory. But
the Acropolis, with its temples and stat
ues is now heap of ruins. The visible
gods have vanished in the clearer light
of modern civilization. We cannot re.
store the decayed emblems of ancient
Greece, hut it is in your power, o Judges,
to erect in this citadel of our liberties, q
monument more lasting than brass; in.
visible indeed to the eye of flesh, but
visible to the eye of the spirit as the aw-
full form and figure of Justice, crowning
and adjoining the republic; rising above
the storms of political strife, above the
din of battle, above the earthquake
shock of rebellion; seen from afar and
hailed as protector by the oppressed OF
all nations; dispensing equal blessings,
and covering with the protecting shield
of law, the weakest, the humblest, the
meanest, and, until declared by solemn
law, unworthy of protection, the guilt
lest of its citizens"
The following is the order of the Su-
preme Court:
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
No. $50, December Term, 1865.
Ex parte in the matter of Lambdin P
Milligan, Petitioner.
On certificate of division in opinion
between the Judges of the Circui
Court of the United States for the
District of Indiana.
Mr.. Chief Justice CHASE, announced
the order of the Court.
The following is directed by majority
of the Court to be entered in this cause,
and the like order will be entered in No
365 ,ex-parte in the matter of William A
Bowles, petitioner, and No. 376, ex-parte
in the matter of Stephen Horsey.
This cause came on to be heard on the
transcript of the record, from the Circuit
Court of the United States for the Dis
trict of Indiana, and on the points and
questions on which the said Judges oi
the Circuit Court were opposed in opin-
ion, and which were certified in this
Court for its opinion, agreeably to Act Of
Congress in such case made and provi-
ded; and was argued by counsel. On
consideration whereof this Court is oi
opinion
l. That on the facts as stated in said
petition and exhibits, a writ of habeas
corpus ought 10 be issued according to
the prayer of said petition.
IL. That on the facts stated in the said
petition and exhibits, that the said
Lambdin P. Milligan ought to be dis
charged from custody as in said petition
is prayed, and according to the Act Of
I