The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1867-03-23
No. 80
From the Memphis AppeaII
Liberty VS.. Oppression.

Z ,
| the Preparatory Articles Of the Great Char
ter of Liberties Of King John, became Eng
lish law, in these words
No Freeman's body shall be taken, nor
imprisoned, nor disseized, nor outlawed, nor
banished, nor in any ways be damaged, nor
shall the King send him to prison by force.
/ excepting by the judgement of his Peers.
and by the law Of the land
And Article XXXIX Of the Great Charter
itself, sealed on the 9th of June, in the same
year, thnsssolenrhly stipulated
No Freeman shall be seized, or impris.
oned, or ontlawed, or in any way DESTROYED,
nor viii we commit him to prison, excepting
| by the legal judgement of his Peers, or bv
the laws of the land"
In the first Great Charter of King Henry
| III, granted November y, 1916, the same
guarantee read thus:
.-" No Freeman shall be seized, or impris-
Oned, or dispossessed, or outlawed, or in any
way destroyed, nor-will we condemn him
nor will we commit him to prison, excepting
by the legal judgment Of his Peers,o by
the law of the land
And in the Second and Third Great Char
ters of the same King, of 1917, and I224-5
and In the First Great Charter Of King Ed
ward !, of October -, 1891 it was in these
words:
q No Freeman Shall be taken, or irnpris-
oned, or dispossessed of his free tenement
liberties, or free customs, or be outawed, or
exiled, or in any way destroyed, nor viii we
condemn him, nor will we commit him to
prison, excepting by the legal judgment Of
his Peers or by the laws 0f the land
And each King made this solemn declara-
ton =" To none 10iU ace sell, to none aC2E
IRE deny, to none aoiH 1ce delay right or .j,1s-
lice. .nE f.s5s#
5. This loas English Liberty
This English Liberty crossed the Atlantic
with the Puritans who landed at Plymouth
with the Cavaliers who settled Virginia. and
the Colonists of Maryland, the Carolinas
and Georgia. 1t was part of their heri-
tage as Englishmen. 1t is part Of ours, by
the solemn guarantees Of six hundred and
fifty years.
1t is the glorious prerogative of a free
press to defend the liberties of the people
against the insolent arrogance of power,
and to vindicate and maintain unimpaired
these great principles of English Right
If it fails to do so, it sinks from It's high
estate, and becomes the menial of power and
usurpation.
.s5If it goes further, and iustifes or apollo
gizes foPacts of legislation or of the govern
ment, that are In derogatiOn of these rights,
and that deprive free men Of these guaran-
tees, it becomes the instrument Of opprea
power of the Press that is only legitimately
employed for the best Used to Justify
wrong the freedom of the Press becomes
detestable
Do those presses which remain and do not
condemn martial law and the suspension Of
the writ of Habeas Corpus, really reflect
upon what is meant by +" the suspension of
the privilege of the writ Of Habeas Corpus"
and the arbitrary power of arrest and i'm
r I = (. .
Call it what you please, this power, and
that to punish "a disturbers of the pPace,
and 70 cause trial of offences by I" Military
Commissions or Tribunals established by
military officers, and that of suspending the
Civil Courts and Magistrates is martial law.
1t is the viii of the Commanding General In
lieu of law.
Certainly these presses are SO blinded or
misled by the passionate desire to maintain
in power the party whose organs they are,
that they cannot see or else shut their eyes
to the enormities which are made possible
by the Military Despotism bill; and that
they do not consider what the suspension of
the privilege of the great English Writ Of
Right means
In the case of LUther Us Borden, z Hoa1-
ard l, in the Supreme Court of the Unitsd
States, in l84S, Mr.. Justice Woodbury.,
dissenting from. the opinion of the majority
of the court characterized martial law, " as
described in judicial as we'll as political
history, in these striking and memorable
words
a"It exposed the whole population, not
only to be seized without warrant or oath,
and their houses broken open and rifed, and
this where the municipal laws and its Off
GERS and courts remained undisturbed and
able to punish all offences but to send pris-
oners thus summarily arrested to all the
harsh pains and penalties Of courts martial.
or extraordinary commissions, and for all
kinds of supposed offences BY it. every
citizen, instead of reposing under the shield
of known and fixed laws as to his liberty,
property and life, exists with a rope round
his neck, subject to be hung up by a Military
Despot at the next lamp post under the
senter ce of some drum-head Court Martini
AS an Illustration how the passage Of
such law may be abused, Queen Mary put
it in force in 1858, by proclamation merely,
and declared, that wbosOeVer bad in his
possession any heretical, treasOnable, or
seditious books, and did not presently bnrn
them, without reading them or showing
them to any other person, should be esteemed
a rebel, and without any further delay be
executed by the Martial law
" For convincing reasons like these, in
every country which makes any claim 70 pO-
llLICdL or CIVIL llDEfLyf Lttit4hl law ~ OtG5
practised in England against her own peo-
pie, has been expressly forbidden there for
near two centuries, as well as by the princi-
pies of every other free constitutional GOy-
ernment
Such laws land martial law is only still
baser and more intolerable than bills Of
attainder, Afr. Madison denounces, as con
trary to the first principles OF the social com
pact. and to every principle Of sound legitla-
ton
"If it is to be tolerated, it win open the
door in future domestic dissensions here to a
/ series Of butchery, rapine, confiscatiOni plum
der, cenfagration and cruelty, unparalleled
in the worst contests in history between
mere dynasties for supreme power It
/ would 90 in practice to render the whole
I country-what Bolivar at one time seemed
/ to consider his-a camp, and tie administra-
/ ton Of Government campaign
The suspension Of the privilege OF the
/ Writ Of Habeas Corpus means Suspension
/ Of all rights Of property, liberty ana ne me
/ Tt means the entire substitution oI the Mill
/ tarv will and caprice for the Civil law 1t
] ,-.,,,s ,vbat fI,a yVfU Of a EurkIsh-Racha