the free states, hundreds of miles from the seat of rebellion and war, merely because a great and wicked rebellion exists in many of the slave states-and to seize by arbitrary power, and without legal process, hundreds of persons on mere suspicion of disloyalty, and for words only, and not for acts declared by the laws to be criminal and send them off and incarcerate them for months in military prisons, without giving them any information of the grounds or causes of their arrest, or any opportunity to explain the matter, and show their loyalty, seems like a terrible and alarming abuse of arbitrary power; which, if drawn into a precedent, may be used by some ambitious president of the Cæsarian, Cromwellean, or Napoleonic order, to overthrow the constitution, subvert the liberties of the people, change the very nature of the government, and substitute in its place a military despotism, like that of Cromwell, France, Russia, or the ancient Roman Empire. This is no fancy picture, and hence our people are, and should be, jealous of, and alarmed by such fearful and shocking abuses of power, heretofore unknown in our country.

Great numbers of men have been arrested in the free states, hundreds of miles distant from the rebellion, and confined in military prisons for months, for words only-which were construed as evidence of disloyalty to the federal government, and as tending to discourage enlistments. We have no laws which make disloyalty to the government, without overt acts against it, a crime or of fence; nor have we any laws which make words only, an offence, which can be punished by imprisonment or otherwise. Hence all such arrests and imprisonments are acts of arbitrary power, not only without law, but contrary to law. They are as despotic as any of the acts of Oliver Cromwell, Napoleon Bonaparte, or Louis Napoleon.

The president may issue proclamations to carry laws into effect, and may make temporary rules and regulations, (not inconsistent with the laws of congress), to govern the army, and to carry into effect the laws of war, in districts where war actually exists, and in their immediate vicinity-but he has no power to make laws, and no power to make words used, or acts done, at a distance from the seat of war, crimes, or offences, and to punish them as such, by imprisonment or otherwise. His attempt to make mere words

uttered in the free states, at a distance from the rebellion, a crime or offence, and to punish them as such, by imprisonment, even though they may tend to discourage enlistments, is a great and dangerous usurpation of legislative power, of a very alarming character. It is a very palpable and dangerous infraction, also, of the 1st amendment to the federal constitution, which was designed to secure freedom of speech.

But if the use of words tending to discourage enlistments, be so dangerous in times of invasion or rebellion as to justify their punishment, as crimes or offences, congress, and congress only, should legislate upon the subject, declare it a misdemeanor, and prescribe the punishment. The president has no power to do so; all his acts upon the subject being most palpable usurpations of legislative power. If the president can properly make laws to declare what shall constitute a crime, in any case out of the army, and far distant from the rebellion, and punish it as such, I can see no limit to his power in time of rebellion, to make laws for the punishment of crime, under the pretext of expediency, and the public safety. He may also legislate, by proclamation, in all civil matters, on the same pretended grounds of public expediency-as he has assumed to do by his emancipation proclamation. If that be law, then congress may be dispensed with altogether, as an expensive and useless clog upon the operations of the government. Such are the absurdities and dangerous consequences to which such novel and despotic doctrines lead. They involve claims of greater powers and prerogatives for the president, than have been exercised by any king of England since Charles the first was beheaded. The people of England rebelled against such arbitrary and despotic doctrines and the practice under them, more than two centuries since, and brought the neck of their king to the executioner's block. What the American people will do, time will disclose.

EXCEPTIONS AND LIMITATIONS.

As almost all general rules have their exceptions, and all laws their proper spheres of operation, to which their application is limited; so the 5th and 6th amendments to the federal constitution have their proper sphere, to which their operations are limited. The clause in the 5th amendment, that no person shall be deprived

of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law," seems to be general, and without limitation as to persons, circumstances, or the condition of things; but such is not the case. They apply only to ordinary, and not to extraordinary circumstances, in which the public good requires their limitation. That clause was borrowed from the 29thter of magna carta, of Henry 3d, and is contained in the bills o. rights, or constitutions, of nearly all the states; and yet it has always been construed that there are circumstances to which it does not apply, among which may be enumerated the following, viz:

1. Self-defence is regarded as the first law of nature. A man's person, and his personal rights and property, are regarded by the laws so sacred, as to justify his taking the life of another in many instances, when it seems necessary to protect his person or his property. He is not obliged to wait for the injury to be inflicted, and to run the risk of being killed himself, or robbed, and then appeal to the laws, or in case of murder, leave his friends or the community to sue out legal process for redress, and the punishment of the offender. On the contrary, he may shoot and take the life of a robber or burglar, without process.

2. Any person caught in the act of committing crime, may be arrested and committed to prison without legal process. To wait to get process, and let the criminal escape, would defeat the ends of law, and be absurd.

3. All state prisons have high walls around the prison yards, on which there are guards with fire-arms-whose duty it is to shoot any convict who may raise a mutiny, or attempt to escape. Many are shot, and some killed in such attempts. Their lives are taken in such instances from the necessity of the case, without the judgment of a court of justice, and without process of law.

4. In case of armed mobs, and local insurrections of armed men, it is often necessary to shoot in among them, and take the lives of some of them in that mode, without process of law, in order to disperse them, and restore order and obedience to law.

5. All great rebellions are supported by organized armies, with arms, and all the materials of war. They can be met and put down only by armies of military men, by the use of powder and ball. To give the 5th amendment to the federal constitution such

construction as to deny the use of the only proper and effectual means to put down an organized rebellion, would be a gross absurdity.

6. In time of war, by reason of either invasion or rebellion, private property must often be taken by military men for public use, without legal process; though a just compensation should generally be paid for it.

7. When the supremacy of the laws is overthrown, the administration of justice obstructed, and the courts cannot sit, by reason of a great rebellion or revolutionary movement, the 5th and 6th amendments to the federal constitution do not apply to the state or states, and the district or districts of country in which the rebellion exists. The laws of war are then and there in force, and private persons, as well as soldiers, guilty of violating them, may be tried and punished by courts martial, or military commissions. To claim that spies and private, unorganized persons, who are guilty of killing or wounding soldiers, destroying provisions and supplies for the army, or otherwise guilty of aiding the enemy, by obstructing the movements and operations of an army, can be arrested only on legal process, and tried by the ordinary criminal courts of the country, after law and order shall have been restored, would be an absurdity contrary to the usages of all civilized nations. State rights, and state sovereignty in local and municipal matters, do not justify any such absurdities.

These are some among many exceptions and limitations to the broad and general application of the 5th and 6th amendments to the constitution of the United States, which their words would seem to warrant.

SEC. 17. THE PRESIDENT'S PROCLAMATIONS OF SEPTEMBER.

The emancipation proclamation issued by the president, Septembee 22, was followed by another proclamation, bearing date September 24th, 1862, and effect was given to the first, so far as was practicable, by a subsequent one, published to the world on the first day of January, 1863. In each of those proclamations, the president assumed legislative powers, and attempted to legislate to an alarming extent.

PROCLAMATION OF THE PRESIDENT.

Whereas, it has become necessary to call into service, not only volunteers, but also portions of the militia of the states by draft, in order to suppress insurrection existing in the United States, and disloyal persons are not adequately restrained by the ordinary process of law from hindering this measure, and from giving aid and comfort in various ways to the insurrection: now, therefore,

Be it ordered, first-during the existing insurrection, and as a necessary measure for suppressing the same, all rebels or insurgents, their aiders or abettors within the United States, and all persons discouraging volunteer enlistments, resisting military drafts, or guilty of any disloyal practices, offering aid or comfort to the rebels against the authority of the United States, shall be subject to martial law, and liable to trial and punishment by court martial or military commission.

Second-That the writ of habeas corpus is suspended in regard to all persons arrested, or who are now or hereafter during the rebellion shall be imprisoned in any fort, arsenal, military prison, or other place of confinement by any military authority, or by the sentence of a court martial or military commission.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the City of Washington, this 24th day of September, 1862, and of the independence of the United States the 87th.

By the President.

(Signed)

WM. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

There are several very grave objections to the foregoing procla mation.

1. It is a palpable, gross, and high-handed usurpation by the president of legislative powers, which can be exercised by congress only, with the approval of the president.

2. The suppression of the writ of habeas corpus, and the decla ration of martial law throughout the United States, in all the loyal as well as the disloyal states, or to certain classes of persons, involves an assumption of power not conferred by the constitution