The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-05-22
THE WRIT OF LIBERTY.

From the NJ Y. World.
The last act of the Republican party in Con-
gress-the Ku-klux law-which authorizes
President Grant to suspend the privilege of
the writ of habeas corpus, brings sad memo
ries of what this great writ of liberty has un-
dergone within the last ten years.
The Constitution says:-"The privilege of
the writ of habeas corpus shall not be sus-
pended unless when in cases of rebellion or
invasion the public safety may require it.
In April, 1861, John Merryman petitioned
Chief Justice Taney for issue of the writ'to
General Cadwalader. The petitioner set forth
that he was deprived of his liberty by armed
men, who incarcerated him in Fort McHenry.
The writ was issued, and the General replied
that he is ''duly authorized by the President
in such cases to suspend the writ of habeas
corpus for the public safety, and refused to
produce the prisoner. The Chief Justice
thereupon decided that ''the privilege of the
writ could not be suspended except by act of
Congress"
This was in the spring of 1861. No pub
lie proclamation of suspension had been
made by the President, only an order issued
to commanding officers, which in effect ex-
tinguishes the most important personal guar
antees of the Constitution. citizen is
seized and imprisoned for q cause known to
no one but few military officers, and when
the Chief Justice of the United States issues
a writ to inquire into the ground of impri-
sonment the military commander refuses to
tell or produce the prisoner. He demanded
'speedy trial, but the suspension of the
writ literally effaces him from his country.
The facts developed in the Merryman case
and opinion of the Chief Justice deeply
stirred the whole country. Republican par
tisans denounced the venerable Chief Justice
as the vilest of the vile. On the other hand,
conservative men upheld and vindicated his
judgment. In the meantime, September 24,
1862, President Lincoln made public procla-
tion that 'the writ of habeas corpus is sus-
pended in respect to all persons arrested, or
who are now, or hereafter during the Rebel
lion, shall be imprisoned in any fort, etc.
This was without warrant of Congress, and
discussion of the question of power in the
Executive went on. Finally, the next Sep
tember, in 1863, the public indignation was
so great that Congress intervened, authorized
the President to suspend the pTiOtLege of the
writ, and passed an act to indemnify him and
his officers for detentions under previous
mere Executive suspensions.
Republican partisans in Congress did not,
SO great was the popular excitement, venture
to give to the President unlimited power in
this matter, for it required that the lists con-
tanning the names of persons arrested should
be furnished to the judges OF the circuit aud
district courts, and whenever the grand jury
of apv of these courts should terminate its
session without finding indictment against
such person, that the judges should order
such prisoner desiring a discharge to be
brought before them to be discharged. These
} provisions lulIed the popular wrath and
!. Stacked the popular vigilance. The people
were cheated again. The names Of prisoners