Year: 1863

writ OF hdbeas corpus by resting unon in.
dicial precedent. l might declare IN tb;s
House and to the country, in the language
OF that eminent jurist, late Justice of the
Supreme Court OF the United States.


BENZ. Rand Curtis, Of Massachusetts. that
"the only judicial decisions which have
been made upon this question, have been
adverse to the power Of the President. !"
l might array negative upon negative,
and cite in support Of my position the
great names of judicial history. before
whose glory in the higher walks of useful
fame among men the most exalted names
of to-day would be as the feeble spark of
the glow worm in vain competition with
blazing sun at its meridian. | might show
from the record transactions of the asst.
that the nineteenth century and the land
Of much vaunted freedom have produced
President and Cabinet who, in spe-
cies of delirium, have defined, .spurncd
and sought to crush and humiliate the le-
gal decisions of centuries made in behalf
OF personal security and personal indie.
pendence; decision which salute the eve of
the wayfarer and the down -trodden of ev.
cry age and every cline like the light
house on the stormy beech, beckoning the
mariner in the midst Of darkness and
dispair to the shelter OF peaceful har-
Dor might do all this, and it would
be no more than has already been done
with far more ability than belongs to ms
humble powers. All the world knows
these things Even the Representatives
who msrepresent the people on the other
side of this Chamber know all this, and
shrink and tremble before the application
which future history will make of past
history. l wish however, to dwell for q
few moments amidst the historical associ-
ations of this immortal writ of human
freedom and human progress. 1 wish to
scan its purpose and discover its spirit
| wish to inquire what causes produced it.
| wish to see why it was ever thought Of
in connection with civil government
What did it propose to accomplish
What did it oppose, and what did it favor?
Who have been for it, and who have been
against it. The answer to these questions
drawn from history, will according to
any mode of reasoning, throw immense
light on the question Of the power of any
executive officer to suspend its operations
and deprive the people of its benefits.


Sir, the history Of the progress of lib
erty, next to the history of the Christian
religion, is the most sublime and instruc-
tive lesson taught in the annals of the
world. Its fortunes, indeed, have been
various, but no season of adversely has
eAer sulficed to quench the vestal fires
which burn on its affairs. And in all the
terrible struggles with which it Jared the
nations and liberated the people, its sole
antagonist has been the principle that to
one man belongs the right to govern the
many. Kings, and the curriers' of kings.
who talk of divine right to the possession
and exercises of power, have been the en-
emies which liberty has had to encounter.
Every contest it ever waged has been to
put restraint and control on the will, the
pretensions, the authority of one man.
Every battle fought beneath its banners,
in all the four quarters of the earth, has
been fought to resist and repel the AFRO
giant and unlawful claims of power made
by one man. Every law which was ever
enacted in its interest, from the laws Of
God an Mount Sinai to the present hour,
has been enacted 10 protect the masses
from the ravaging and oppressive land
of one man. This has forever been the
issue, and it is the issue now.


When the lights of liberty faded away
in the sky of Southern Europe, and Gre
clan and Roman glory went down in the
gloom and night of despotism, ages of
darkness followed, over whose paralyzed
faculties the spirit of absolutsm held 'un-
disputed supremacy. But liberty had made
one grand epoch. 1t had built monu-
ment of law, literature, science, and art,
which still stands, towering up in the
back ground of history like some awful
pyramid against the distant sky.


The statesman, the philosopher the po-
ct, the artist, and the historian, all bend
reverently before tho grand achievements
of that age of liberty. Then come, how
ever, that mysterious tomb of a thousand
years, in which the principles of free
Government slept. But it was not the
sleep in death. Liberty found its resur.
rection at the hands Of that great race
from whose loins the American citizens
have descended. 1t awoke with return
ing consciousness on the soil of our an
cestors, at the touch of Edward the Con-
fessor and Alfred the Law maker. But
it awoke simply to renew the struggles OF
the past with it's ancient foe. One man
in the robes of office, loving power with
selfish love, and exercising it in dsre.
gard of law, met the genius of liberal
institutions at every step on this side of
the dark ages, as well as in the days oil
Tiberius and Philip of Macedon


The struggle has never ceased. The
people graspeI at power; for to them the
possession of power is freedom, Crown
ed heads claimed it as their right; for to
them it was the qualification of a passion
more consuming than all Others that ev-
or corroded the human heart the avar-
ice of dominion-the last Of personal
supremacy. The safety of the people
lay in written laws judcially interpreted,
and this they soon learned. Kings so't
to govern by proclamations which suspen-
ded or disregardeI law. Hence arose those
glorious efforts to fix the boundaries be-
tween the ruler and the citizen, to put re-
straint on the one, and give security to the
other, which constitute the chief glory Of
England, and the just pride of English


Al - n