The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-11-16

look well to rooms occupied by strangers.
and those vacated during the night should
| be inspected at once. Let citizens be vigil
liant and watchful. Watch not strangers
alone, for II the attempt Is made to burn
| residents will aid. The fire department will
be on the alert, and ready for any emergen-
cy. The different wards might do well to
organize voluntary patrols. The fact that
We are prepared will be likely to deter
Them. Preparation did act as a deterrent
in Indianapolis, and elsewhere where this
danger was apprehended, but the fire at
St. Adams. VT, and the attempted incen-
diarism in New York and other places in
the North prove that the danger was real.
THE GREAT TRIAL.
1t was during the excitement caused by
these conditions that Milligan. Horsey and
their fellow-suspects of the Knights of the
Golden Circle were brought to trial. The
charge against them was high treason. The
trials in which they figured were popularity
known at the time as the Indiana conspira-
cy cases. Milllgan, who was considered the
principal prisoner has given the name to
the trials by which they are known in the
annals of the period. They are called in
the law books and in the history of the
time the Milligan case The trials are
memorable in legal sense because of the
fact that they show where the power TO
suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas
corpus rests. President Lincoln was COM
PEELED, through the stress of war. to sus-
pend the privileges of the writ in many i'm
stances in 1S6l-65, and hundreds of persons
were thrown into prison, and kept there
for months without trial. Congress, early
recognizing the necessity of such action,
gave It's sanction, in the extra session or
July 4-Aug. 3. ISL, to the Presidents course,
and subsequently the arrests of suspects,
and the supension OF the writ in their cases,
We're numerous. Among the persons appre-
hended were Congressman William a. Hall.
of Missouri, who was arrested at Mexico
Mo- on Aug. IL, 1864, on charge of using
70 hn DrtA-
taken to st. Louis under guard but he was
soon afterward liberated. The Hall case
started an Investigation by the House of
Representatives, which led to the removal
of some of the abuses which were inevita-
bic under the excitement of the time and
the perils by which the administration was
confronted.
The history of the Milligan case is this:
While at his home in Indiana, Oct. 5.
1864, Miiisgaa was arrested by order of Gen.
A. +. Hovey, commanding the military dis
trct OF Indiana, on charge of treason. On
Oct. u he was brought before military
commission convened at indianapolis by
General Hovey's order. was found guilty
and was sentenced to be hanged, the ex-
ecution to take place on May 10, 1866. The
Circuit Court of the United States for the
Indiana. circuit met at indianapolis on Jan.
2, 1865, and impaneled jury which was
but that body did not find any Indictment
against him, and was discharged. The
judges of the Circuit Court were divided in
opinion on the question of releasing Milli-
gan and certified the case to the Supreme
Court. 1t was. argued before the latter tri-
bunal in the March term of 1866, but the
decision was not rendered until the Decem-
Der term of that year
PLEA IN THE SUPREME COURT.
Mlligan's plea before the Supreme Court
was that the military commission had no
jurisdiction to try him on the charges which
it preferred, or on any other charges, be-
cause he was a citizen of the United States
and OF the State of Indiana, and had not
State which was arrayed against the gov
eminent and that, consequently the right
of trial by jury was guaranteed him by the
Constitution of the United States The
case. as presented to the Supreme Court,
involved three questions, which, briefly
| habeas corpus TO be issued to Milligan? CD
! Ought he to be discharged from custody?
| CD Did the military commission have juris-
/ diction to try and sentence him? Through
| a majority of its members the court held
| that questions / and must be answered in
| the affirmative and question in the mega
| tive.
In substance the decision of the court was
| that Congress had not the constitutional
power to authorize military commissions in
| such cases as Milligan's; that the priv
/ loges of the writ of habeas corpus could
| not be suspended in districts where the
action of the civil courts was uninterrupt-
| ed, though such commissions might be
| given jurisdiction to try residents Of re-
| bellious States, prisoners of war and prls-
/ oners in the military and naval service.
| Chief Justice Chase and Justices Swayne,
| Wayne and Miller dissented from the ma
| iority of the court--Justices Davis, Grfer,
| Nelson, Clifford and Field--on one point,
| holding that Congress had the constitu-
| tional power to provide for trial by mill
| tary commissions in cases like Milligans,
| but had not used this power. The entire
court, however, agreed that Milligan was.
ated. The fate of Horsey and the others
was involved with Milligan's, and all were
| set free.
This was the most celebrated Of all the
cases in which the question of the suspen-
sion of the privileges of the writ of habeaS
| President Johnson, by proclamation, re-
| stored the privilege of the writ in nearly
! all the country outside of the South; in
| April 1866, 1t was restored everywhere ex-
! cept in Texas, and in August of that year
| Texas also got it. At the time of the sem
DEATH in oetober @ th s ee ense apoSse ID
| great excitement throughout the country,
| and the interest in it, in a milder form,
| upon it.
,Milligan, Horsey and the others, on their
liberation, Immediately dropped into OBJ
! security. All of them were financially ruined
by the outlay for their attorneys all were
broken in health by their long confinement
and nearly all of them were Stunned by for
mer friends and enemies alike Only two
or the men who figured prominently in the
Indiana conspiracy cases. whether as pris-
oners prosecutors, attorneys or judges are
alive to-day. Milligan, Heffron and Bowles
died long ago, and so did Morton, the Gov
Hovey: the military commander in Indiana,
took place few years ago. Dead, too, are
David Dudley Field, Garfield, Black Nc
Donald and the rest of the eminent counsel,
and all the justices of the Supreme Court
who passed upon the case except one. That
one is Justice Field. The only other sur
vivor of this historical conspiracy trial Is
Stephen Horsey, who is passing his closing
days in a poorhouse in the State in which
| he was once a conspicuous figure
-e-0-S--
Yellow journalism in 1900.
I,racpo (CaI Dap,,h1foar