Year: 1861




been done beyond the constitutional compe-


tency of Congress-


Soon after the call for militia, it was con


sidered duty to authorize the commadlnt
General, in proper cases, according to his dis


cretion, to suspend the privilege of the wri
| of hdbeas corpus, or, in other words, to ares


and detain without resort to the ordinary pro


cess and forms of law, such individuals as hi


might deem dangerous to the public safety


This authority has purposely been exercised


but very sparingly. Nevertheless, the legal


ity and propriety of what has been done unde


it are questioned, and the attention of the


country has been called to the proposition


that the one who is sworn to take care thai


the laws be faithfully executed shall not him.
selfviolate them. Ofcourse, some considera-


tion was given to the questions of power and
| propriety before this matter was acted upon.
| The whole of the laws which were required to


be faithfully executed now being resisted, and
failing of execution, in nearly one-third of the
S!a'e Must they lie allowed to finally fail Of


of execution, even had it been perfectly clear


that by the use of the means necessary to


their execution, some single law ID ade in such


extreme tenderness of the citizens liberality


that practically it relieves more of the guilty
than that of the innocent should to q very lim-


tied extent be violatedl To state the ques tion


more direct y: Are all the laws but one to 60


unexecuted and the Government itself go to


pieces, lest that one be violated2 Even in


such case, would not the official oath be


broken, if the Government should be over


thrown, when it was believed that disregard
ing the single law would tend to preserve it.


But it was not believed that the question was
presented. 1t was not believed that any law was
violated. The provision of the Constitution, that
the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not
be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion
or invasion the public safety may require it, is
equivalent to provision that such privilege may
be suspended when in cases of rebellion or in
vasion, the public safety does require it. 1t was
decided that we have case of rebellion, and that
the public safety does require the qualified sus-
pension of the privilege of the writ, which was
authorized to be made.


Now it is insisted that Congress, and not the Ex-
ecutive, is vested with this power. But the Con-
stitution itself is silent as to which or who is to
exercise the power; and as to the provision was
plainly made for dangerous emergency, it can
not be believed the trainers of the instrument in.
tended that in every case the danger should run
its course until Congress could be called together
the very assembling of which might be prevented,
as intended in this case, by the rebellion,


No more extended argument is now offered, as
an opinion at some length will probably be presen-
IeU Dy tuc hbtOIueS -ocuSIdI w uttucF tueIc
shall be any legislation upon the subject, and if
any, what, is submitted entirely to the better
judgement of Congress.


The forbearance of this Government has
been so extraordinary, and SO long continued,
as to lead some foreign nations to shape their
actions as if they supposed the early destruc-
tion of our national Union was probable
While this, on discovery, gave the Executive
some concern, he is happy to say that the
rights of the United States are now practical
ly respect ed by foreign powers, and general
sympathy with the Government is manifested
throughout the world.


The reports of the Secretaries of Treasury,
War and Navy, will give the information in
detail, deemed necessary and convenient for
your action, while the Executive and Depart
ments will stand ready to supply missions, or
to communicate new facts considered impor-
tant for you to know. 1t is now recommend
ed that You give the legal means for making
this contest short and decisive one that
you place at the control of the Government,
O00, 900 dollars. That number of men is
about one>tenth of those of proper ages with
in the regions where, apparently, all are will
ling to engage, and the sum is less than a
twenty-third part of the money value owned
by the men who seem ready to devote the
whole A debt OF $500, 1000, 900 now is a less
sum per head than was the debt of our revo-
luton when VIC came out of that struggle,
and the m money value in the country bears even
q greater proportion. Surely each man has as
strong motive now to preserve our liberties as
each had then to establish them. A right re-
suit at this time will lie worth more to the
world than ten times the men and ten times
the money. The evidence reaching US from
the country leaves no doubt that the material
for the work is abundant, and that it needs
only the hand OF legislation to give it sanction
and the hand of the Executive to give it prac-
tical shape and efficiency. One of the great
est perpleXities of the Government is to avoid
troops faster than it can provide for
them. In word, the people will save their
Government if the Government will do its
part only indifferently well. 1t might seem
at first thought to be of little difference
the present movement at the South
be called secession or rebellion. The movers
however, well understand the difference
They knew at the beginning that they could
never raise their treason to any responsible
by any name which implies viola
ton of law. They knew their people possess
ed as much devotion to law and order, as
much pride and reverence to tho history and
government of their common country as any
other civilized and patriotic people. They
knew they could make no advancement di-
rectly in the teeth of these strong and noble
sentiments. They accordingly commenced
by al insidious debauching of the public
mind; they invented an ingenious sophism,
which, if conceded, was followed by perfect
logical steps through all the incidents of the
complete destruction of the Uuion. The
sophism itself is that any State of the Union
may consistently with the nations constitu-
ton, and therefore lawfully and peacefully
from the Union without the consent
of the Union or of any other State. A little
disguise that the supposed right is to be excr-
cised only for just cause, themselves to be
the sole judges of its justice is too thin
to merit any notice. With rebellion thus
sugar coated, they have beon drugging
the minds of their section for more than twen-
ty years, until at length they have bro't many
good men to willingness to take up arms
against the Government the day after some
of men have enacted the farcial
sentence of taking their State out of the Un-
ion, who could have been brought to no such
thing the day before this sophism derives
much, perhaps all its currency from the as
that there is some omDipotent and
sacred supremacy pertaining to each State of
our Federal Union. Our States have neither
more nor less power than that reserved to
them in the Union by the Constitution, no
one of them ever having been State of the
Union. The original ones passed into the
Union even before they cast off their British
Colonial dependence, and the new ones came
into the Union directly from condition of
dependence, excepting Texas, and even Texas
in its temporary independence was never de-


mi