Year: 1863


even the suggestion of any offence known to


the Constitution or laws of this country. Fo,


all these acts you avow yourself ultimately
responsible. In the special case of Mr.. Val
landigham. the injustice commenced by your
subordinate was coDsummated BY a sentence
of exile from his bone pronounced by YOU
That great wrong, more than any other which
preceded it, asserts the principles of supreme
despotiSm.


These repeated and continued invasious Of
constitutional liberty aud private right have
occasioned profound anxiety in the public
mind. The apprehension and alarm which
they are calculated to produce have been
greatly enhanced BY your attempt to Justify
them, because 10 that attempt you assume 10
yourself rightful authority possessed by no
constitutional moparch on earth. We accept
the declaration that you prefer to exercise this
authority with moderation not hitherto ex


hibited. But. believing as we do that your
| forbearance is not the tenure by which liberty
is enjoyed in this country, We propose TO chal,


enge the grounds Oh which your claims of su-
preme power are based. While yielding to you
as Constitutional Magistrate the Difference TO
which you are entitled, We cannot accord TO
| you the despotic power you claim, however in
dugent aud gracious you may promise to be
| in welding it.


We have carefully considered the grounds
on which your pretensons to more than regal
authority are claimed TO rest and if we do
not misinterpret the misty and clouded forms
of expression in which those pretensions are
set forth. your meaning is, that while the
rights Of the citizen are protected by the Con.
stitution IN time of peace, they are suspended
or lost in time of war, when invasion or rebel
lion exists. You do not, like many others in
whose mind reason and the love of regulated
liberty seem to be overthrown by the excite
ments of the hour, attempt TO base this concu-
sion upon supposed military necessity exist
ing outside of and transcending the Consliiu
ton, a military necessity behind which the
Constitution itself disappears in total eclipse
We do not find this gigantic and monstrous
heresy put forth in your plea for absolute pow
er, but we do find another equally subversjve
OF liberty and law, and as certainly tending
to the establishment Of despotism. y You claim
to have found, not outside but within the Con
stltutlon, principle or germ of arbitrary pow
er, which in time of war expands at once into
an absolute sovereignty, welded by one man,
so that liberty perlshes, or is dependent on his
will, his discretion, or his caprice. This extra
ordinary doctrine you claim to derive wholly
from that clause of the Constitution which, 10
case OF invasion or rebellion, permits the writ
| of ha5eaS corpus to be suspended Upon this
ground your whole argument is based


y ou must permit Us to say to you with all
due respect, but with the earnestness demand
ed by the occasion, that the American people
will never acquiesce 10 this doctrine In their
opinion the guarantees of the Constitution
\ " 10 thap 1F j
the press, immunity from arrest 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 courts-martial, are living and
vital principles IN PEACE AND IN WAR. at all
times and under all circumstances. No sophis
try or argument can shake this conviction, nor
will the people require its confirmation by log
ical sequences and deductions 1t is convic.
tion deeply interviewer with the instincts. the
habits and the education of our countrvmen
The right to form opinions upon public mea
sures and men, and to declare those opinions
by speech or writing, with the utmost latitude
OF expression, the right of personal liberty un
less forfeited according TO established laws.
and for ofienses previously defined by law, the
right when accused of crime to be tried where
D
nounced only when the crime is legally ascer
tanned; all these are rights instantly perceived
without argument or proof No refinement of
logic can uusettle them in the minds of freemen
| no power can annihilate them; and DO force at
the command of any Chief Magistrate can
compel 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 conclusions ndica-
ted by your communication, it is this The
habedS corpus is a remedial writ, issued by
courts and magistrates TO inquire into the
cause OF any Imprisonment or restraint of liber
iy, on the return of which and upon due exam
nation the person imprisoned is discharged. if
the restraint is unlawful, or admitted to bail if
be appears to have been lawfully arrested, and
is held 10 answer a criminal accusation. Inas
much as this process may be suspended in time
OF war, you seem to think that every remedy
I for false and unlawful Imprisonment is abro
gated and from this postulate you reach, at
single bound. the conclusion that there is no
liberty under the Constitution which does not
depend on the gracious indulgence Of the Exc
cutive only. This great heresy once establish
ed. and by this mode of induction there springs
at once into existence brood of crimes or Of
fenses unde6ned by any rule, and hitherto IN
known 10 the laws of this country and this is
followed BY indiseriminae arrests, midnight
seizures, military commissions, unheard of
modes of trial and punishment, and all the
machinery of terror and despotIsm Your
language does not permit US to doubt as to
your essential meaning, for you tell US. that,
4" arrests are made not so much for what has
been done. as for what probably would be
done" And, again: - The man who stands
by and says nothing When the peril of his gov
ernment is discussed. canuot be misunderstood
Ii not hindered (of course by arres,) be Is sure
to help the enemy, and much more if he talks
ambguously, talks for his country with butts :
and IFS and ands.' You also tell Us that
the arrests complained of have not been made
" Tor the reason defined in the Constitution, >"
nor " for any capital or otherwise Infamous
crimes, nor were the proceedings following in
q constitutional or legal sense criminal prose
cutions." The very ground, then. of your JUS
tlfcation is. that the victims of arbitrary ar
rest were Obedient to every law. were guiltless