The Daily empire. (Dayton, Ohio) 1865-1867, 1866-12-27
lsotriDtltion for ArDitrary A..


lsctribt,ti0n for Arbitrary Arrests.
Tho decision Of the Supreme Court in the
lndiapa conspiracy case has wide and
very important application. 1t affects all
cases that occurred during the rebellion.
in which civilians in the loyal States were
subjected to punishment by military au-
! thorlty. Milligan, the pcrsoH i'm whose be
half the action was brought before the
| supreme Court, was arrested ia Indiana
during the war; on q Charge of ftreasonably
conspiring against the Governments. he
was tried by a amilitary commission and
was sentenced TO death. About ayenr ago.
while his sentence was peudinT, the mnttcr
was brought before the Supreme Court,
and .hc latter gave the opinion that Milli-
gan could not lawfully be cNeculcd under
the sentence of the military commission,
land that he shOrlld be turned over TO the
civil authorities for trial. The decision
which was rendered by the Supreme Court
on Monday dispOses of MI the points in
volyed In the case, 1t not Only declares
that Alilligan was not amenablc 10 trial by
military commission, but It enuueiatcd Tie
general principle that such commission
has no right TO try n civilian ia State
whore martial law does not exist, no mat
ter how ilawrant the crime with which he
Is charged.
This decision viii open up q wide field Of
litigation. II there was no warrant for
tho trial Of criminals iu the loyal States by
military authority during the war. there
was of course no legality Ia Gle arbitrary
arrests that were made all over the North
by such authority, Under tho decision in
question We fail 10 see what can prevent
the residents OF Northern States, who were
arrested and iucarccraicd In Government
prisons, whose newspapers were suppressed,
ETC. from, recovering damages. The SUI
premp Court. i'm the Milligan decision. de-
clares that the military authorities had no
right tC interfere In the natter because the
Circuit Court of Indiana was open aull un-
obatructed, and fully competent to dispose
of the case. Hundreds OF men were ar
rested and imprisoned in the North, by
military authority, and yet the civil courts
were operative in every Northern State.
The decision In question being general IN
its application, we may now look TOR an al
most endless list Of legal actions against
the parte, wlo were Instrumental in the
arbitrary arrests.
Congress was Kind enough TO take all the
responsibility on President liucOlu's
shoulders IN matters of this kind by the
passage of 2 bill eNcmptiug him from
penalties for acts done in his Oiliciil capac-
ity. Possibly the present Congress may,
after the holiday festivities, feel amiablc
aud rood natnred enough TO favor
the officials Of less dcgrec in the same way
I'm that ease tile Government would hayO 10
bear the burden of damages that might be
collected by the victims Of arbitrary arrests
that Is, the people would have TO pay the
penalty for the rash and uuwarranted con-
duct Of impulsiyo officers. But, whatever
the cost may be. we hope that the Outages
committed upon the freedom of speech and
Of the press during the war, viii not be
allowed 20 pass into history without the
ma pl rtstff no