Year: 1863

lbhN6 Deeu 6clLcu anu pIlsOt


and bastiles, not onlywithout warrant upo


probable cause, but without any warran


and for no other cause than constitutions


exercise Of the freedom OF speech. In viols


ton OF all these guarantees, a distingui.he


citizen oi a peaceful and loyal State has bee
torn from his bosom at midnight by ban


OF soldiers acting under the order OF one {
your Generals, tried before military com


mission, without judge or jury, convicted an


sente need without even the suggestion Q
any offense known to the Constitution o


laws ofthis country. Fn4all these acts yO


avow youreeli ultimately responcible. In tn


special case OF Mr.. Vallandigham, the iDjus
tice commenced by your subordinate wa
consummated by sentence OF exile fror
his home pronounced By you. That grea
wrong, more than any other which pfece
ded it. asserts the principle of a suprem
deSpotlsm. ' n 1850 .lli a.


These repeated and continued invasions o
constitutional liberty and privated right hsv
occasloned profound anxiety in the publ
mind. The apprehension and alarm which
theyare calculated to produce have been grea
| " enchanced by your attempt to justify
| them, because in that attempt you assume t
yourself a rightiul suthority possessed by n
constitutional monarch on earth. We ac
cept the declaration that you prefer to exer
else this authority with a moderation no
hitherto exhibited. But, believing as we d.
that your forbearanee is not the tenure BY
which liberty is erjoyed in this country, W.
propose TO challenge the grounds on which
your claim OF supreme power is based. While
tO a al ~ IL
the de erence to which you are entitled, we
can not accord to you the despotic power
you claim, however indulgeBt and gracious
yon may promise to be in welding it.


We have carefully considered the grounds
on which your pretensons to more than re
gal authority are claimed to rest, and II we
do not misnterpret the misty and cloudrd
forms OF expression in which those preten
tions are set forth, your meaning is, that
while the rights OF the citizen are protected
by the Constitution in time Of peace, they are
suspended or lost in time Of war; when inva-
sion or rebellion exists. You do not, like
many others in whose minds reason and the
love Of regulated liberty seem to be over
thrown by the exCiements Of the hour, at
tempt to base this conclusion upon suppo>
sed military necessity existing outside OF and
transcending the Consttution-a military
necessity behind which the Constitution it.
self disappears in a total eclipse. We do
not find this gigantic ami monstrous heresy
put forth in your plea for absolute power but
We do find another equality subversive OF lib
erty and law, and quite as certainly tending
to the establishment Of despotism. Your
claim 10 have found, not outside but within
the Constitution, a principle or gem of arbi
trary power, which in time OF war expands
at once into an absolute sovereignty, welded
by one man, so that liberty pershes, or is
dependent on his will, his discre tion, or his
caprice. This extraordinary doctrine you
claim to derive wholly hom that clause Of
the Constitution which, in case Of invasion
or rebellion, permits the writ ofhaJeds corpus
to be suspended. Upon this ground your
whole argument is based.


You must permit us to say to you with all
due respect but with the earnestnest de
manded by the occasion, that the American
people will never acquisce in this doctrine,
In their opinion the guarantees Of the Con
sttuion which secure to them freedom oI
speech and Of the press, immunity from ar
rest for offenses unknown to the laws OF the
land, and the right Of trial by jury before
the tribunals provided by those laws, instead
OF military commissions and drum head
court martial, are living and vital principles
in peace and in war, al all times and under
all circumstances. No sophistry or argu-
ment can shake this conviction, nor will
the people require its confirmation by logical
sequences and deductions. 1t is a conviction
deeply interviewer with the instincts, the
habits and the education Of our countrymen
The right to form opinions upon public
measures and inen, and so declare those
opinions by speech or writing with the ut
most latitude OF expression, the right ofper
sonal liberty unless forfeited according to
established laws, and FOR offenses previously
defined by law, the right when accused Of
crime to be tried where law is administered,
and punishment is pronounced only when
the crime is legally ascertained; all these are
rights instantly perceived without Argument
or proof. No refinement OF logic can unset
tie them in the minds Of freemep; no power
can annihlate them; and no force al tie
command OF any chief magistrate can com
pei their surrender.


So far as it is possible for US to understand
from your language, the mental process
which has led you TO the alarming conclu
sions indicated by your communication, 1t
is this: The habeas corpus is remedial writ,
issued by courts and magistrates to inquire
into the cause Of any Imprisonment or re
straint of liberty, on the return Of which
and upon due examination the person i'm


prisoned is discharged, If the restraint is
unlawful, or admitted to bail if he appears
to have been lawfully arrested, and is held
to answer criminal accusation. lnasmuch
as this process may be suspended in time o
war, you seem to think that every remedy
for false and unlawful imprisonment is ab,
rogated; and from this rostulate you reach
at single bound, the COZ clusion hat there
is no liberty under the Constitution which
does not depend on the gracious indulgence
OF the executive only. This great heresy
once established, and by this mode Of Undue
ton there springs at once into existence q
brood of crimes or offenses underlined by any
rule, and hitherto unknown to the laws o
this country; and this is followed by indis
crimnate arrests, midnight seizures, military
commissions, unheard Of modes of trial, anc
punishment and all the machinery OF terror
and despotism. Your language does not per
nit us to doubt as to your essential meaning
for YOU tell US that arrests are made no
SO much for what has been done, as for wha
probably would be done" And again: "1ht
man who stands by and says nothing wher
the peril OF his government is discussed, car
not be misunderstood. Il not hipdeied Co
course by arresD he IS sure to help the
enemy, and much more if hs talks anbigu
ously, talks Of his country with 'bu,s and
IFS and 'ands.'" You also tell US that the
arrests complained Of have not been made
"for the treason defined in the Constitution,'
nor "for any capital or otherwise infamous
crimes, nor were the proceeding, following
in any constitutional or legal sense crimina
Tho varv Oraund than n