New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-05-09
A Call for the Documents.

|
Call for the Doc uments.
In remaykipg the readiness Of Democ
| racies to resort to arbitrary power, and rha
spells of Democracy, alternating with die
| tators, was the original idea, We mentioned
| that great Jacobin Democrat, Thomas JEFF
| feIsOp, as an illustration, who in regard &c
| so tremendous an occasion as the abandoned
and dispersed t1atboat expedition of Burr
| against Mexico, argued that the best way
| to save the constitution might bs to roll il
| up and stow it away in a pigeon hole for
| while. Upon this son of Jefferson in
the Inquirer calls upon US for citation from
Jefferson, as follows:
"WIll our contemporary have the good
ness to cite the letter or document in which
Mr.. Jefferson used the language given above
as coming from his penn We supposed
ourselves tolerably familiar with his writ
ings, but we have no recollection of any.
thing like that which the Gazette attributes
to him.
We have generally found that the admir-
ing children of jefferson are ignorant of
his works; but they are our delight and we
take pleasure in laying his written wisdom
before his political offspring. We did not
pretend to quote words, but the substance
OF what We stated is found in J+tferson's
letter to DR.. James Brown, in his works,
Vol. ", p. 37S. 1t seems that DR.. Brown
had been suspected of completely in the
Burr expedition. Long enough after the
affair for its passions to cool, he wrote JET
ferson, in 1908, disclaiming any participa-
ton with Burr. Jefferson accepted his dis.
caimer, but expressed his applicability
toward those who interposed constitution
and law against his giving Burr and his
friends what they deserved. He wrote:
Il did wish to see these pc ,ple get
what they deserved, and, under the maxim
OF the law itself, that inter anna silent leqes,
that IN an encampment expecting daily at
tack from powerful enemy, selfpreserva-
ton is paramount to all law. | did expect
that instead Of invoking the forms of law to
cover traitors, all good citizens would have
concurred ia securing them. Should We
have ever gained our revolution if we had
bound our hands by the manacles of the
law, not only in the beginning, but in anv
part CT our revolutionary conflict! There
are extreme cases when the laws become
inadequate to their own preservation, and
when the universal resource is dictator or
martial law. Was New Orleans in that
Here is the doctrine laid down, with more
words. but as broadly as we expressed it.
Law must be silent when the public safety
requires it, and in time OF pu olc danger the
laws become inadequate 10 even their own
preservation, and the natural resort is to a
dictator or martial law. And what was
this emergency in which Jefferson argued
that LAY should be silent! Burr's men had
and his hatboats were sunk. If
here had ever been any danger it was
over. Yet jefferson wanted to cOnstrue the
whole country into military camp, and
make himself dictator In this letter he
argues as If 1t were a camp IN which self. |
preservation was paramount to all law.
Yet the courts every where were in peaceful |
possession of their jurisdic ton save as he |
)rOke in upon it.
lie seized four prominent citizens at New |
Orleans in the presence of>the courts, and |
lad them carried by sea to Baltimore, and
rom thence two of them 10 Washington
where he tried to conceal their arrival and
o keep them in custody of tine marine
uard while he procured the introduction of
OIL into the Senate, and its passage by |
suspension of the rules in one secret session,
o suspend the habeas corpus in the whole
ountry. But this bill was hindered in the
ionse. and the two kidnapped persons at
Washington, Bollman and SwartWOut, were
rought before the Supreme Court on ha-
cas- corpus and discharged. 1t was this
ldcial action, and his failure to force Chief
ustice Marshall to set aside law to convict
urr, that Jefferson was still inveighing |
galnst when he wrote this doctrine, which |
irtIally was that whenever he thought the |
nblic safety required it he should be |
lowed to make himself dictator and to |
lence all law.
And here is the jaunty way he speaks of |
IS arbitrary arrests ana deportation of citi-
Ms, IN letter to Governor Claiborne, in
07:
The Feds and the little band of Guilds
opposition will try to make something Of
e Infringement of liberty by the military
rest and deportation of citizens, but if it
,es not 60 beyond such offenders as Swart
out, Bollman, Burr, Blenuerhasset, Tyler. :
c. hey. will be supported by the public
'ryohation.'
Is the Enquirer satisfied? Have we sus. !
ined our Remarks that jefferson held that
ere were times when the best way TO save J
e constitution was to roll it up and stow
away in pigeGnshole? Probably the
aGu''er thought the arrests of Vallandig- I
III and OF some persons in Indiana were :.
Q first military arrests Of civilians in this Il
untry. aud that Vallandigham' was the d
st deportation. Aud these we're in time y
great war, and these men were VIGOROUSLY .
'irg aid and comfort to the enemy; while
tfel son wanted to make constructive L
Ite ct war in the whole country, when II
a blow had been struck and there was II
an enemy IN arms.-Chncinndt Gazette. a a