The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-02-20
grave !.
RANDOLPH ON MILITARY ENCROACH-
MENT,

If military man should take will not say
a member of this House. but any one of the
miserable citizens who inhabt this place,
and escort him under military guard to New
Orleans-I say the military man who would
! do such thing ought to be precip plated from
/ the top of the Capitol I,could teach the mill
tary that they are to be subordinate to the ciril
poteer, and that if they undertake to riolate the
cicH institutions 81 their country, Mey should puy
the people from such an excess of military
power the time ,eM come orhen gOu acW be kicked
out Of doors at the point of the b0yonet
The above paragraph is from speech of
John Randolph of Roanoke delivered in the
United States House of Representatives Feb
ruary II, 1907, on resolution intended to
provide better security for the privilege of
the writ of habeas corpus. The resolution was
introduced in consequence of certain acts of
contempt against the courts of New Orleans,
in which an officer Of the little army of the
United States had, in violation of, and disre-
gard to, the writ of haJeas corpus, arrested
certain persons and sent them under guard
to Washington City.
This act of military disrespect for civil au-
thority aroused much feeling and was looked
upon as a dangerous precedent AS an in
vasion by the military Of the civil authority,
as conflict of jurisdiction between the cap
tain and the magistrate, it was but trifing
affair in comparison with what We have seen
during the past five years. In contrast with
the late invasion of our Legislature and the
expulsion OF its members cat the point of the
bayonet," the act then in question was no
more than the peccadillo Of a schoolboy in
contrast with the crime Of convicted and
sentenced felon.
This was the language of one whose purity,
patriotism and zeal in defense of political and
civil liberty have never been questioned He
had seen the erection of the fabric of Ameri-
can constitutional law. He had been familiar
with all the debates before and after its adop-
ton. He had been profound student of the
history of the country of his ancestors, and
diligent observer of all the processes by which
the liberties OF nations have been won and
lost. He was in requirement and ability one
of the strongest men in Congress, at that
time or before, or since. But what marked
his fervid speeches, his deeply meditated
writings, and all his course as Representative
and Senator, as well as in other spheres, was
his deep and constant solicitude for the main
tenance Of the rights and franchises of the
citizen against the encroachments of greater
and lesser tyrants in every public capacity.
Randolph's utterances on many subjects
seem now to have been prompted by the .
spirit Of prophecy SO truly have events full
filed his forebodings of evil At a time like
this, which is marked with tendency to en-
,roachment, we are in danger and will do
we'll to revert to the warnings and predic-
IONS We who are threatened with rude
seizure of our right of self-government, We
who hear the drum-beat of the usurper's COM
ng legions, will do wisely to listen to his adj
nonitions. He said on the same occasion:
In what way has every free people become
laves? The common recipe is-take gum
I'M safici Of plots and of military force,
llways kept ready for the purpose-and the
md is accomplished. And l say this must be
he death Of your government Has any
evolution taken place in the affairs of France
which was not preceded by plot? Are we
ure that time and chance, which happen to
IL men and all nations, may not happen to us?
My dread of standing armies has been more
han hundred times increased in conse-
Iuence OF the services to which our present