Year: 1863

the late Democratic Convention of Ohio by the
President of the United States, asking the revo-
cation OF the sentence by which Mr.. Vallandig-
ham was banished from the State; the reply of
the President, and the reioinder of the Commit
tee These documents are worthy of examina.
ton and preservation, forming an interesting part
of the history of these extraordinary times. In
the address and rejoinder of the Committee will
be found a most able and searching review of the
positions assumed by the Executive in respect TO
the military arrests made under its authority, to
gether with a temperate and accurate exposition
of the rights of the citizen as secured, or intended
to be secured, by the Constitution. We do not
propose to examine at length the statements or
Arguments of the President in response to the
Committee. This has been most satisfactorily
done in the reioinder. But there is one noint
which, coming from the source il Does is worthy
of notice as opening novel view of the rights
and powers of Government; we allude to the
right assumed to arrest and punish men not for
crimes which they have committed. but for those
which, at some future day, they may be inclined
10 commit,


Mr.. Valandigham was arrested, holden for
trial. tried. found guilty. sentenced. AND the sen.
tence carried into execution All the forms
which, under the law, constitute a judicial pro.
ceeding, were observed in this case and he is now
suffering the penalty which he was condemned to
undergo. Yet Mr.. Lincoln says: 1.-The military
arrests and deteutions which have been made. in
cluding those of Mr. Vallandigham, which are not
different in principle from the other, have been
for prevention, and not for punishment-as in
functions to stay injury-as proceedings to keep
the peace-and hence, like proceedings in such
cases, and for like reasons, they have not been
accompanied with indictments, or trials by iuries
nor, in single case. by any punishment whatever
beyond what is purely incidental to the preven-
ton"


These remarks, so far as they apply to the case
Of Mr.. Valandigham, are manifestly untrue
That gentleman sentenced to punishment
beyond what is purely incidental to the preven-
ton" The legal analogies with which Mr.. Lin
coin seeks to sustain his position do not hold
good When it is sought to bind men to keep
the peace, or TO refrain from doing wrong, they
are not indicted. tried, sentenced and punished
for a specific offense alleged to have been com
mitted but probable reasons are shown for the
fear that they may at some future day do some
thing contrary to public law or private right
The proceedings against Mr. Vallandigham, in
all their exterior aspects had reference to some
thing which he was assumed to have done in the
past not to anything which he might do in the
future; and 1t is too late in the day now to set
up that he is simply bound over to keep the
peace


BaDishment is punishment; so is Incarceration,
except when il is expressly for the purpose of
holding men pending trial for an offense known
TO the law. with which thev are distinctly charged
in preliminary proceeding. Every form of
words and argument intended to give a different
aspect to the practice, is simply sophistry, and
will only be accepted as reason when reason itself
is obscured by party intoxication. Resort to
sOphistrv of so glaring character is proof equiv
alent to a confession of the unsOundness of the
cause in which il is employed; and Mr.. Lincoln
would have done far more respectfully had he
admitted the wrong, declared bis arrests and i'm
prisonments acts of force dictated solely by his
own will, having in view the general good, and
expressed his determination, as such, to maintain
and defend them. To act without the sanction
of law and the Constitution is bad enough; but
when the act is done, to seek to Justify it by
wrestling and rnisnterpreting law and Consttu-
ton is worse: for, in addition to the original
wrong, there is the false construction grown into
a precedent, threatening to he fruitful of future
injuries and acts ot injustice. The former may
be simply AN offense against an individual: the
latter great crime against generations.


Mr. Lincoln is ''unahle to perceive an insult to
Ohio in the case Of Mr.. Eallandigham" Mr..
Lincoln has not probably, at this time, a very
accurate perceDtion of the nature OF political
insult The people of Ohio by their Constitu
ton, stand pledged, all to each, to defend, with
the whole power of the State against illegal in
jury. Under the orders of the President of the
United States, Mr.. Valandigham has been in
ured by proceeding which that officer admits
to be unknown to the law. That protection
which, from It's very nature, the State guaran-
tees to every citizen who stands unchanged with
crime under the State or National laws, has been
violated and if this is not insult and an offense
against the sovereignty Of the State, it would be
L
gentle name the act can be described.


But Mr. Lincoln seems as little capable to
comprehend the nature of a personal as cor
porate insult, appears by the propositions with
which his reply to the Committee closes. The
members of that Committee are gentlemen as
able, as honorable, as well instructed in the ma
ture and principles of government. rs estmable
in all the relations of life, as high the esteem
OF their fellow citizens. as polished in their man
ners, and well conversant in the rules of social
and official intercourse as himself; and vet he
takes occasion to offer them gratuitous insult,
including an impeachment of their loyalty, in the
form of propositions for the restoration of Mr.
Valandigham. They went to the Capital to pre-
sent upon its own merits the case of a man who
had been treated with great injustice, and in
whose person the sovereignty of the State had
been lnsuted; and, in response to their represen-
tations. he informs them that If they will sub
scribe tn certain opinions and do certain acts
which he prescribes, he will accept this as a con
slderarion for doing that which otherwise he re-
fuses TO do: justice so the injured parties. IT, as
he contends. Mr.. Vallaudigham was properly
restrained. it would be difficult to show by tip
Constitution what right Mr.. Lincoln had TO de
mand a bribe for setting him at liberty, and. if
he was not properly restrained, the impudence
OF a proposition demanding consideration for
doing act of justice is garing as its foolish
ness. In any aspect in which the thing may be
viewed, it savors more of the cunning and dis
honesty OF small politician than oi the sagacity
OF a statesman, such as in these terrible times
should stand at the helm of our tempest tossed
Commonwealth