The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-02-20
HABEAS CORPUS.

Grant power more despotic than any sover
eign OF England has dared to exercise sine
the reign of King john by authorizing hin
to suspend the writ of habeas corpus through
out the Republi, whenever he may thinl
proper to do so, it behooves the people O
this country seriously to consider the sacred
character Of that great writ, and why it wa.
considered by our patriot ancestors of suffi
Gent importance to be enshrined in the Con
stitution Of the United States
The priviege Of The oort Of habeas corpus,
says the second clause of section of the Con.
stitution, "shaH not be suspended unless ,cher
IN case Of rebellion or nrasion the public satet,
may require it, Why was the privilege of the
writ of habeas corpus deemed so importan.
that this solemn prohibition of its suspension
Except in the two cases mentioned) was in
corporated in the Constitution of this coun-
try? The answer is, because it is the only
safeguard we have inherited from our British
ancestors for the preservation of the personal
liberty OF the citizen against the oppression
of the government
The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus
and the right Of trial by jury constitute the
palladium Of the personal liberty of every
English subject and of every American citi-
zen, however humble he may be and although
they were both common law rights, derived
by immemorial usage from remote and rude
period Of English history, yet they were
often, under English tyrants, set at naught, if
not legally drawn in question, until, at
Runnymede, in the year 1915, they were en-
braced in Magma Charta extorted from
King John, and conceded to be the indis-
putable right Of every English subject.
The history of the methods and parliament
tary enectments. by which the personal liberty
of every British subject has been secured, is
full of interest and instruction to us who have
derived our ideas of the guarantees of personal
security from the same sources, more espec-
ally at this fearful epoch in our national
history, when dissolute President, with the
appreciation Of his sycophantic ministers and
servile Congress, is clamoring for authority
to make arbitrary arrests and to fill the jails
and prisons of the country with such Of his
countrymen as he may deem disloyal to his
imperial designs.
The language of the great charter extortei
from King John is "that no freeman shall be
taken or imprisoned but. by the lawful judg-
ment Of his equals, or by the law of the land. -
BY the Petition Of Right, adopted in the third
year of the reign of Charles the First, it is en-
acted, "that no freeman shall be imprisoned,
or detained without cause shown, to which he
may make answer according to law and an
other statute enacted in the same reign, pro-
vides that eff any person be restrained Of
his liberty, by order or decree of any illegal
court, or by order Of the Kings majesty IN per-
son. or by warrant of the council board, or of
any Of the privy council, he shall, upon de-
mand of his counsel, have writ of habeas
corpus, to bring his body before the Court of
Kings Bench or Common Pleas, who shall
within three court days determine whether
the cause of his commitment be just, and
thereupon do as to justice shall appertain."
But yet, with all these general provisions
of law for the security Of the British subject
from illegal Imprisonment, it did not seem to
the enlightened statesmen of Great Britain
that personal liberty was Sufficiently guarded
of Charles the Second, which is frequently
called another Magma Charta sof the King
dom. It is from this act that we derive most
of our reverence for the sacred character of
the writ of habeas corpus, because OF the
severe penalties it denounces against any
officer disobeying the writ, and the lord chan
cellor or judges denying the same
Not only did the party thus offending, his
advisers, aiders and assistants forfeit to the
party aggrieved sum not less than five hun
bred pounds, to be recovered with treble
costs, but were subject to the penalties OF
prrmu,ire-a form of outlawry-and were in
capable of the Kings pardon
John Randolph, in 1907, while inveighing
against the arbitrary arrest and deportation OF
two citizens of New Orleans, charged with
reasonable plot by Gen. Wilkinson, declared ]
in Congress that Gin England the writ Of
habeas corpus is secured by the sanction of '
death. And is our attachment to liberty,
he exclaimed, 'less than that Of England?
saw that Chief Justice Of England, for re- 8
fusing to issue writ Of habeas corpus may be a
mpeached, taken to Tower Hill and decol- s
lated" I
Such is the jealous care with which the t
English nation has guarded the personal @
liberty of its subjects, and, as we have seen, t
he trainers of our Constitution deemed it OF
importance to embody in that in L
,trument solemn declaration that the e
privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall t
not be suspended unless when in the case OF $
,ebellion or invasion the public safety may f
'equire it. o
Why, then, should President Grant, in time tt
# peace, ask to be clothed with authority to
uspend the writ at will Why unless he b
wishes to humble the people of this country u
4 hiS feet by arhitrary arrests and Unlimited Ii