Year: 1864

The writ or Habeas Corpus.


The second Congress of the Confederate States is
. decided improvement on the FIRST 1t has lust
closed its first session. and Vndicated its indepen.
dence and wisdom in three remarkable measures Of
policy-1. 1t has refused TO continue the act sus~
pending the writ Of hGbedS e0rpu& 2. 1t has re-
fused increase the Presidents salary or to give
nim two thousand dollars Of il in gold: and g. 1t
has compelled the resignation of . Cabinet Minis
ter, by the exercise Of its legitimate powers We
propose to make few observations upon each of
these measures Of policy.


And first Of the suspension of the writ of hd6eas
corpUG The President sent = response to Congress-
insisting on the necessity Of continuing the suspen-
sion. The question has been discussed in the Leg
isatures Of several States in Congress- and before
the Judiciary in Richmond and IN other parts of
the Coniederacy. The result is that Congress re-
fuses to continue the act suspending the writ Of
hubeds corpus and the act itself expires thirty DAYS
after the adjournment Of Congress.


We look upon this result . signal triumph of
liberty over despotism-of the popular free will
over the arbitrary tendencies of the Confederate
Government II the act bad limited the suspension
of the writ of hGbeGs corpus to the cases contempa
ted by the Constitution, no one would have objected
but the occasion was used to make the Executive
ounipotent and irresponsible for any arrest 1t Is
q sad reality, that here when our Confederacy is
but three years old, we are compelled to Wrest from
our new Government the very liberties we broke
up the United States Government to vindicate and
establish Instead Of faithful observance of the
Constitution there has been . steady and continual
effort on the part Of the Administration to set aside
and destroy it The personal liberty Of the citizen
has been outraged by requiring Of him passports
from one part Of State to another, not within the
military lines of our armies, and whole batch of
officers has been created 10 enforce this military
veillance-caIled Provost Marshals--without any
Law whatever to authorize it and to complete the
tyranny, the writ Of hGbeGS corpus was suspended,
BY which any citizen might be seized and cast into
prison by the Executive without any cause shown
whatever, and be kept there by him as long as he
pleased without release or trial This last stride
to despotic power called forth thendgnant protests
of the great States Of Georgia, Mississippi Alabama
and North Carolina 1.-THE Constitution authorized
1.-THE Constitution was farce for to talk Of free
government by its own terms of organization, pro-
VIdiag for its absorption into despotism, is hid
eous absurdity. But the most extraordinary feat
of the whole Esurpation, yes that the Executive
was the chief actor in producing It As itciothed
him with arbitrary power over the person OF the
citlzen, and made him despot one might have sup
posed that he would have appeared as little as pos
sible in such transaction-that he would have LEFT
it exclusively to the Congress, In which by the
Constitution the whole legislative power of the Con-


federacy is vested to pass law 50 greatly adding
20 his powers and 80 vastly increasing his response
bilities And when, too, several States of the Con-
federacy had denounced the measure IS unconstitu-
tional-to pause to fOrbear, to grasp questionable
powers, would be the Impulse expected But our
President did not look upon matters IN this light
He sought the power. He brought the whole force
of the Executive to bear the legislative depart
ment By messages to Congress- and all those other
appliances which are so we'll understood in Wash
ington, he tried to hold on to the power conferred
upon him by the suspension of the writ of hGtsds
corpuG He failed. The people and the Coustitu-
ton triumphed. and in twenty days time we have
again the guarantees for the personal liberty OF the
citizen which the Constitution provides. We honor
the Congress for the indePen-
dence, and its fidelity to the Constitution ChGr-
Lts0n Mercury. '-,.