Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1867-01-18
THE EGG FRoE ..zHE NEST or TREA-
son


agement and consolation to the Cop
perhead party which everywhere eaek-
/ les over il with uncommon glee. The
mere aequittaI of Milligan. however,
would have furnished the Democracy
but slight cause for rejoicing but for
/ the mischievous doctrines, entirely ex-
/ traneous to the case, which the Court
! goes out of its way to establish as law
! Of the land.
The facts and the question growing
out Of them, properly before the Court
( for adjudication were simply as fol-
/ lows In 1868 Congress authorized the
suspension of The writ of haBeas cor-
pus, but at the same time provided
/ that in States where the civil tribu-
nails were open lists of all persons ar
rested by the general government
should, during the suspension Of the
writ, be furnished to the United States
Courts in each district or circuit, and
/ if the grand jury of the district in
which the arrest was made did not
bring in an Indictment against any per
/ son SO held at its next meeting, the
/ prisoner must be discharged DIilli-
gan was arrested for treason by Gene
raj Hovey, commanding the Military
District Of Indiana in 1864 was tried
/ by a military commission, condemned
to death, and the sentence against him
was approved by President johnson
/ in 1865. But noindictmen was brought
| against him by the grand jury, and
1Iilligan therefore claimed his liberty
under the act Of Congress, and his ap-
peal was sent up from the United
States Court in Indiana to the Supreme
Court. This tribunal now decides, all
the judges agreeing, that Milligan was
entitled to his release under the act of
Congress, and that not having been
indicted by the grand Jury, as the act
provides, he was not subject to trial by
/ the military commission. Had the
Supreme Court stopped here no seri-
Gus fault could have been found with
its decision, although it is a matter of
common notoriety as well as estab bIish-
ed fact that Milligan has been guilty
of most coWardly and diabolical trea-
son. and richly deserves the sentence
pronounced against him. But the old
fogy junto of the Court, consisting of
Judges Davis, Nelson, Grier, Clifford
and Field, is, as usual, not satisfied
with simply deciding a legal question
but, with the manifest purpose of boil
stering up decayed Johnsonism and
effete Democracy, proceeds to give the
people an extra judicial political lee
ture about the powers of Congress.
They take advantage of the occasion
to proclaim their opinion that Con
gress cannot authorize the trial of civ
ilians by military courts. from which
objter dictunt Chief Justice Chase and
Judges Wayne, Swayne and Miller
very properly dissent, taking the
ground that Congress has the CoDsti-
tutioDal right to authorize such trials
when the safety of the country is in
imminent peril.
1t is an authority as clearly implied in
as it is manifestly necessary to execute
/ in time of great public danger, the
power conferred upon Congress to
suppress instructions, to raise and
support armies, to provide for the
common defense, to make all laws
which shall be necessary and proper
for carrying into execution" its pow
ers, and to suspend the Ha5eas corpus
when, in cases of rebellion or inva-
sion, the public safety may require it. y
It is a fact so notorious as to need no
discussion that civil courts are almost
utterly worthless as a means of pun
ishing conspiratOrs and assassins in a
time Of civil war, and as an auxiliary
for the suppression Of an insurrection.
Their movements and processes are
too slow for time Of such exigency,
nor is it easy to see why traitors caught
in arms should be shot down at once
without trial and without mercy, while
other traitors, not armed, but caught
in conspiracies more dangerous than
open resistance should be entitled to
the benefit of the quibbles, technical
tiles, and the coveted political effect of
tedious trial before civil court.
The thing is preposterous and in a
time like that of the recent civil war
is simply insane folly. Every bush
wbacker in the South pretended to be
civilian. Mosbey's guerillas and
MOrgan's raiders often palmed them
selves off as harmless citizens. Every
band of partisan" cut throats who
went about pillaging, burning, and per
scouting Unionists pretended when
convenient, to be mere citizen patri-
OTIS" Bridges were burned, roads OBJ
structed, signals given to the enemy,
supplies smuggled through our lines,
the plans of our generals betrayed
all these things and thousands more
as villainous were done by these harm
less citizens of the Southern States.
Nor can any one doubt that drum
head trial and a short shrift would
have been very appropriate justice for
such individuals, no matter where
caught. Yet lily-6ngered villains like
Vallandigham, or Milligan, or Olds OF
Horsey and the whole infamous list of
anti-draft couspirators and Canada
sneaks, too nice to brave the dangers
of the field and too cowardIy to fight
for secession, though caught in the
very act" Of plotting worse treason at
home than their Southern confeder-
ates were .enactiug on the battle field |
--these parlor traitors must, forsooth, |
have the benefit of the laws delay"
nor be Inundated by the quick justice
meeted out to the meek-garbed bandit
And vet if lOval Dublie oDiniOu. aetna