Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1875-02-26
Dort Qobarro Chimes
PORT TOBA CCO:
Friday Morning, February. 26......1875



sonal solicitations of Gen. Grant, should be
sufficient, apart from its monstrous provis-
ions, to cause it to be looked on with jeal-
GUS suspicion. We by no means intended
to say that the President ought not to in
terchange views with members of Con-
gress and make to them such suggestions
from time to time as the exigencies of the
occasion may require. In fact, by the plain
letter of the Constitution, this is made his
bounden duty. But this duty must be
discharged under the forms of the Consti-
tuition and by making to Congress such
suggestions as he thinks proper. In this
instance he did not, in accordance with
time-honored practice. communicate his
views through message purporting to
emanate from the President to Congress,
but by personal solicitations made by him
to Republican Caucus, and not for the
welfare of the whole country, but solely in
the interest of the particular party, and
to enable it to maintain itself and him in
power by an abuse of the legislative pre-
negatives of Congress to invest him with
most despotic powers. If the Republican
party thought that Andrew johnson, in
running around the country making fool
ish speeches, was guilty of conduct SO un-
dignifed that he was no longer fit to sit
in the Presidential chair and ought to be
removed by recourse to the extreme meas
ure of impeachment, surely Grant ought
to be subjected to the same extreme pen
altJ for his grossly unbecoming conduct
in visiting the halls of the National Leg
islature and then and there, by solicita-
tions and threats, seeking to influence and
bias the actions ofthat body. So jealousy
has each preceding Chief Executive guard
ed himself against the risk of such impu-
tation, that none of them have ever visited
the Capitol but on the invitation of either
the one House or the other, with the ex-
ception of the last night of the session.
when he is present in the building for
the convenience of signing bills as they
are presented to him. Yet Gen. Grant did
not hesitate, with that great want Of del
icacy for which he is 80 conspicuous, to
visit repeatedly Congress, and by person
nj solicitations of its members seek to
brestall its actions, and this most iniqui-
tous bill was one of the results of those
personal appeals thus made.
But when we come to look at the pro-
visions of the bill, its monstrous PROPOSE
tions cause us to lose sight of this breach
of decorum. Without going into the
minor details of it, or pretending to con-
slider its other provisions, We will pass at
once to the right which is therein given
to the President to suspend at will the
writ of ha6eas corpus. We are bound to
assume that His Exeellenc- S--;--.- si.;.
power, because otherwise he would not
have used such solicitations to obtain it.
Now why does he want this power, what
possible justification can there be for sus-
pending the writ at this time7 The SUBJ
stance of the great writ is that any one
arrested shall have the right to be brought
before magistrate competent to inquire
whether his arrest and Imprisonment by
government is according to law. Amy
man in community is liable to be arrest
ed, but if he is innocent he is entitled to
his discharge. This great writ of freedom
gives him the opportunity to prove his
innocence and it is the only safeguard he
has against unjust privation of his liberty.
It simply entities the prisoner to be
brought before judge, authorized by law
to decide whether his arrest and impris-
eminent are legal.
Now then the suspension of this great
bulwark of our liberties does nothing more
nor less than make the President one of
the most absolute despots on the face of
the earth. His powers will then be as
absolute as those of the Emperor of all the
Russias or of the Sultan of Turkey, who
hold the liberties of their subjects, 80 to
speak, "in the hollow of their hands," For
there can be only distinction without a
difference between a monarchy with abso-
lutte powers and republican executive
with illimitable authority. In fact the
history of the world shows that the latter
is more to be dreaded than the former,
and for an illustration of this fact we need
not cite any other example than that of
the French Revolution. The suspension
then of the ha6eas corpus confers upon the
President the right to arrest and imprison
citizens on his own mere within and caprice,
depriving them of the knowledge of what
are the charges against them or whether
there are any. He may be the most inno-
cent man in the world but he is absolutely
without any means Of proving his limo
cence or availing himself of it, even if|
proved. Its. suspension would make the
President an absolutely irresponsible des-
pot, enabling b1m to grab up any citizen
against whom he had prejudice or spite,
and iznprison him forever, or at least as
he "languishing did live, and SO living,
did die" There is absolutely no accoun-
liability for the use or abuse of this power
to arrest. This Caucus Bill'' authorizes
the President to declare martial law and
suspend this great writ OF right in any
part of the country, making him the sole
aakigs of the necessity in every case. Thus