New-York tribune., 1918-04-25
Does the Constitution Aid Spies?
By Henry A. Forster
(F'rom The American Laau Revie7v)

NOklNG nationaA war with any first
IL class power the Federal Constitution
does not lnure to the benefit of the
2aohc enemy, of spies, or of enemy svmpa-
thlzers, whether native or foreign. All
spies should be forthwith tried by court
martial and if convicted, shot. Omitted
States Revised Statutes, Sec. .343.> Enemy
sympathlzcrs after conviction by court mar
tlal should be either confined at hard labor
curing the war or else should be deported
10 the enemy country as was Vallandigham
In 1868 Vallandigham, the state leader of
a great party in Ohio, publicly sympathizcd
with the Contederacy. Ohio was not at that
time invaded. The courts were open. VAL
landlgham was tried by court martial. was
convicted of sedition and sympathizing with
the Confederacy, and was sentenced to con-
inement in fortress during the war The
Supreme Court refused to interfere. (Ec
purte Valandigham, / Wall, 243, 251-254.
BY way of communication of sentence he
was then deportcd to the Confederacy.
In 1904 Peabody, then Governor Of Colo
rado, declared a county to be in a state of
insurrection and ordered one Moyer to be
arrested as leader of the outbreak and
detained by the National Guard until he
could be safely discharged and then to be
delivered to the civil authorities. This was
done purely as military arrest and con-
tinement without any civil process. 1t does
not appear that the civil courts in the
county were closed during the insurrection
After the termination Of the insurrection
Meyer sued the former Governor, the for
and the captain of the company which ar
rested nnd confined him for an alleged
wrongful Imprisonment.
The Supreme Court unanimously upheld
the acts of the Governor and the militia
(Moyer VS.. Peabody, PIP U. S., 49,
In 1901 during the Boer War, a South
African was arrested by order of the mill
tary authorities, removed 800 miles from
his home and confined in civil Jail by
order of the military in Il district in which,
while martial law prevailed, the civil courts
remained open. The Privy Council upheld
the arrest and confinement.
Ir 1902, during the Boer War, convictions
of Imprisonment at hard labor and fines
under martial law by administrator
of martial law for acts contraveninr
martial law regulations against sedition and
unlawful travel and removal were upheld,
though made by the same person who was
also the civil magistrate and whose civil
court was open at the time.
In 1914 New Zealand reserve officer not
in actual service went to Samoa after its
capture and after all German resistance had
censed, and violated war regulations by ey
porting gold coin from Samoa, carrying per-
sonal letters from German prisoners there
to their friends nterned in New Zealand
and carrying photographs of captured Ger
man wireless station as we'll as manuscript
for the editors Of two New Zealand papers.
He was taken back to Samoa, tried there be-
fore military court. convicted and SEN
tcnced to five years imprisonment in New
Zealand.
The New Zealand Supreme Court upheld
the conviction and sentence.
In 1915 South African was arrested for
violating a martial law regulation forbid
ding seditious language and held for tria,
before special military court. The Boer
rebellion in South Africa did not break out