New Orleans daily crescent., 1866-10-03
THE TRIAL OF JEFFERSON DAVIS.

MI. IaNJS 10 TRIAL. 1ne new lOfk Tribune
declares on the contrary, that Mr. johnson is
responsible, and in throwing the blame on
him, attempts to shift it from the shoulders
Of Judge Chase, The Tribune maintains that
the chief justice has no more to do with tht
trial Of Mr.. Davis than any other justice, eek
cept that ii happens that the chief justice wa
allotted or assigned to the circuit in which
Virginia is, to accommodate Judge Swayne
who desired TO be allotted to the circuit il
which Ohio is. But this assignment is pre-
cisely the fact which gives Judge Chase a greaa
deal to do with this triaI--so much 50 that il
an official correspondence he declared that he
would not hold court in Virginia as long as
that State remained stl,der military ride. This
objection is thus stated by the Tribune:
The chief justice held no court in Virginia il
\ 1866, because the writ of habeas corpus was sus
1 pended, and martial law enforced within Its
territory; in his Judgment all courts In region
/ under martial law must be quasi military courts
and it was neither right nor proper that the chei
! Justice, or any associate Justice of the supreme
court OF the United States the highest tribunal
of the nation, and head of one of the coordinate
departments of the goVernment-should hold o
court subject to the control supervision of the
executive department, exercising the military
power In this Judgment, all lawyers of respecta.
bility, of whatever political opinions will concur.
It's not true that all lawyers of respectable
ity concur in this opinion. On the contrary
it is only in a country in which all the ideas
Of the legal subordination Of the military to
the civil authority have been subyerted, that
SO disgraceful a pretext could be seriously
urged by a reeusant judge, or tolerated by a
rejecting people. Judge Chase knows that
the thing called g martial law had no ex-
istence in Virginia or anywhere else, in the
sense attributed to it in the above extract.
The legal status there was precisely the status
resulting from certain acts Of Congress, sus-
pending the writ Of habeas corpus, or author
izing the suspension Of that writ, within par
icular districts. Such suspension was
the effect OF statute, and not of
military authority, and it could not de-
stroy the functions Of the courts or
modify such functions except as to the
specific case of the writ of habeas corpus More
over, as the only effect of the suspension of
the writ, in the case under consideration,
would be to retain the prisoner in close Gus
tody, without bail, it is difficult to perceive
how such suspension could operate adversely
to the power Of the court to bring on trial
The opinion Of Judge Chase that under the
legal aspects of the situation, as established
by the law of Congress, courts held in Vir-
ginia must be quasi military courts, is simply
absurd. An opinion like this, emanating
from the chief justice of the United States, is
of ideas which characteristics the dominant
section. RS far from such an apprehension
operating % deter an independent judge from
exercising his functions, it should have been
only an additional incentive to him to per-
form the duty Of reducing the presumptuous
military to its proper subordination, and to
.einstate the law in all the majesty of its
4 The Tribune goes on to excuse Judge Chase
oy saying that he has not been able to satisfy |
himself that the President really intended, by
lis proclamations and orders, to restore the
nit Of habeas corpus But this, like the
ormer apology. is totally Irrelevant. Even if
he writ should remain suspended that fact
-oes not. as we have said, preclude the exer-
Use Of judicial functions by the courts; and,
n any event. the questions of the constitu-
ionality of the suspension and of the effect of
ihe executive orders and proclanations, are
proper subjects for judicial examination and
decision It is, therefore, perfectly plain that
Judge Chase, and nobody else, is responsible
for the delay, if responsibility is any where to
be borne.
But it seems that after all, thereis to be no
rial Of Jefferson Davis. There is no act Of
Congress authorizing the holding of any cir
suit court in Virginia until the November
lerm, unless the chief justice shall order
special term, and this he will not do.
An act of the last session of Congress
changes all the circuits except the first and
second, which include the districts in New
England and New York., and reduces the
number from ten to nine; but itneither makes
nor authorizes any allotment of the chief JUS
ice or associate justices to these new circuits;
md it seems doubtful whether the old allot-
ment gives any jurisdiction to hold courts in
he district which happens to remain in the
same circuits numerically as at the time of
'htI ttllublI4eAts willie u Is quite certain THAT
neither the chief justice nor any associate
Justice can exercise jurisdiction in any circuit
except by allotment or assignment under an
aot Of Congress It is q matter Of extreme
doubt, therefore, whether the chief justice
ean, after all, hold any court in Virginia until
after some further Legislation by Congress ma
king or authorizing allotments to the new
circuits.
The absence of the chief justice or JUS
tiee Of the supreme court from any circuit
does not, however, prevent the holding Of
circuit courts for the law provides expressly
hat, in the absence Of a justice of the su-
oreme court, a circuit court may be held by
5he district judge.
But, from the conduct of Judge Chase it is
clear that the object Of tie radical leaders is
to postpone and, if possible. avoid this trial.
The difficulty of convicting Mr. Davis of trea-
son is great; in fact conviction, under all the
would be impossible, without
. violent assault upon the recognized princi-
pies Of public law, Of public morality, and
disregard Of the opinion of the
civilized world. The cause which required
tor It's triumph all the power of the sword and
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