Griggs courier., 1898-06-24
MARTIAI. Law.
Country and What Was bone
military Arrests.

After its first defeat Spain, fearing
riots and disturbances, has promptly
declared martial law. The modicum OF
individual liberty possessed by the citi-
zens under the constitutional monarchy
is thus snatched away and as rigorous
rule as that of Charles I. or Philip III.
again instituted. The martial law Of
the Spaniard is rigorous, one-man, no.
trial rule. With the American it con.
stituted for the most part the deprival
of that privilege which our Anglo-SaNon
ancestors extorted from King John at
Runnymede, and which has constituted
the bulwark of their liberties for these
nearly eight centuries, the privilege of
habeas corpus, the right of the accused
to immediate trial.
In the United States the privilege of
the writ was never suspended before
1861 by the federal government, though
state governments in several instances,
rs in the Dorr rebellion in Massachu
setts, had done so. In the Burr con-
spiracy case and the Jackson case at
New Orleans federal officers had re-
fused to obey the writ.
'On the breaking out of the rebel
lion," says Alexander Johnston, the his
torian, president Lincoln. after calling
out $4,000 men and proclaiming the
blockade, authorized the commanding
general on April %, 1861, to suspend the
writ of habeas corpus between Phila-
delphia and Washington
The order was shortly afterward ex-
tended to Florida. Chief Justice fancy,
however. issued writ, and when it was
refused by Gen. Cadwallader, referred
| the matter to the president. The at.
torney general gave decision in favor
of the presidents power to declare mar
tial law, and then to suspend the writ.
Arbitrary arrests" were made in
large numbers throughout the north by
order of the state department. In 1862
the war department assumed sole pow
er of arrest. From July to October,
1861, 175 persons were imprisoned in
Fort Lafayette alone, among them
state judges, mayors of cities, men,
bers of Maryland's legislature, persons
engaged in ''peace meetings" editors of
newspapers, and those accused of being
spies. BY act approved May 4, 1863,
congress authorized the president,
whenever in his judgment it was neces.
sary, to suspend the writ anywhere in
the United States, but the power was
left to federal judges under certain re-
strictions to issue the writ. In 1864 q
congressional investigation disclosed
the fact that the power of arrest with
out trial had been much abused and
used by persons to punish personal enc
mics. The recurrence of such abuses
was prevented, but the past could not
be undone.
The supreme court in 1866 in the
Milligan case overthrow the whole doc.
trine of military arrest and trial of pri-
vate citizens in peaceful states. 1t held
that congress could not give power to
military commissions to try, convict or
sentence in a state not invaded nor en-.
gagged in rebellion.
About $4,000 cases of military arrests
were reported during the war. During
the Ku Klux troubles in the south after
the war the president was empowered
to suspend the writ of habeas corpus in
places where these outrages were com.
mitted. In the confederate states in
1864 the writ was suspended owing to
the numerous trials to avoid conscrip.
tion.-N, Y, Sun,