ARRESTS AND THE PASSPORT SYSTEM.

enjoyed in times of peace. They will be sifted hereafter by the diligent historian when the turmoil of conflict has passed away, and rightly, not so much for the censure of individuals, whose errors of judgment may be pardoned under such extraordinary circumstances, but for a warning of the dangers and calamities of war-one of the greatest evils of which is the opportunity which it presents for inflicting serious injuries upon the cause of civil liberty. It is the parent of innumerable woes in the myriads which it sends to horrid slaughter, and the countless agonies with which it burdens a whole generation; but its most deadly wounds are those which survive the memory of the battle-field, and are perpetuated in altered conditions of society, and new and less happy forms of government.

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leave the country without a passport. The order thus read: "To all whom it may Concern: Until further notice, no person will be allowed to go abroad from a port of the United States without a passport either from this Department or countersigned by the Secretary of State. Nor will any person be allowed to land in the United States without a passport from a Minister or Consul of the United States, or, if a foreigner, from his government, countersigned by such Minister or Consul." The regulation was not to take effect in regard to persons coming from abroad until a reasonable time shall have elapsed for it to become known in the country from which they may proceed. A subsequent explanatory notice stated that the regulation was principally intended to check the communication of disloyal persons with Europe, and that, consequently, ordinary travellers on the lines of the railroads entering the British possessions would not be interfered with unless in any special case the agent of the Government on the border should object to their transit. Under this regulation, the starting of transAtlantic passengers sailing from the Northern ports was for a time quite active, and the free communication of rebel agents with their friends abroad became a matter of increased difficulty. Facilities were supplied in the chief cities for procuring passports. The regulation continued in force for a month or two, and was then dropped, to be revived again under peculiar cirumstances to check the escape of persons from the country

Another novelty to the American people at this time was the introduction of the passport system. It was adopted at a moment when great activity had been shown throughout the country by the enemy after their success at Bull Run; when the navigation of the Potomac was interrupted by their batteries; when they were reported to be approaching Maryland with designs upon the capital, which was supposed to be in danger; when the defeated army of General Lyon was in retreat from Springfield, and Fremont was calling lustily for troops; when agents of the Confederate States were busy in the North, and making their way to its ports to procure the materials of war, confer with their ambassadors abroad, and stimulate the friendly | subject to military duty at the call of European opinion already enlisted on their side. On the 18th of August, a notice was issued from the State Department forbidding any person to enter or

the Government. The very day the passport order reached New York, a call appeared in the journals from Mr. Cameron, Secretary of War, addressed to

each Governor of the Northern States, that the military authorities refuse to requesting them immediately to forward pay obedience to a writ of habeas corpus. to Washington "all volunteer regiments Her Majesty's Government conceive that or parts of regiments, armed, equipped, this practice is directly opposed to the or uniformed or not."* The activity maxims of the Constitution of the United which prevailed in supplying volunteers States that no person shall be deprived for the war may be judged from the fact of life, liberty, or property, without due that fifty-one recruiting stations, nearly process of law.' Her Majesty's Governall for supplying new regiments, were at ment are willing, however, to make every this time open in the city of New York. allowance for the hard necessities of a There were thirty-one skeleton regi- time of internal trouble; and they would ments formed at the same time at Phila- not have been surprised if the ordinary delphia. Everywhere throughout the securities of personal liberty had been North, East, and West, a similar alacrity temporarily suspended, nor would they prevailed. have complained if British subjects, falling under suspicion, had suffered from the consequences of that suspension. But it does not appear that Congress has sanctioned in this respect any departure from the due course of law; and it is in these circumstances that the law officers of the Crown have advised Her Majesty's Government that the arbitrary arrests of British subjects are illegal. So far as appears to Her Majesty's Government, the Secretary of State of the United States exercises, upon the reports of spies and informers, the power of depriving British subjects of their liberty, of retaining them in prison, or liberating them, on his own will and pleasure. Her Majesty's Government cannot but regard this despotic and arbitrary power as inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States, as at variance with the treaties of amity subsisting between the two nations, and as tending to prevent the resort of British subjects to the United States for the purposes of trade and industry. Her Majesty's Government have therefore felt bound to instruct me to remonstrate against such irregular proceedings, and to say that, in their opinion, the authority of Con

An opportunity presently occurred for the Secretary of State to put before the public the ground taken by the Government in justification of the arrests and the attendant suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus. Two British subjects named Patrick and Rahming, having been arrested and sent to Fort Lafayette, her Majesty's minister at Washington, Lord Lyons, was induced to make the proceeding the subject of remonstrance, in the following letter to Mr. Seward, the Secretary of State. Washington, Oct. 10, 1861. Sir: Her Majesty's Government were much concerned to find that two British subjects, Messrs. Patrick and Rahming, had been subjected to arbitrary arrest, and although they had learnt from a telegraphic dispatch from me that Mr. Patrick had been released, they could not but regard the matter as one requiring their very serious consideration. Her Majesty's Government perceive that when British subjects, as well as American citizens, are arrested, they are immediately transferred to a military prison, and

Order of the War Department to the Governors of the

Loyal States, August 19, 1861.

CORRESPONDENCE OF MR. SEWARD WITH LORD LYONS.

gress is necessary in order to justify the arbitrary arrest and imprisonment of British subjects."

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necessary now to inform Her Majesty's Ministers that all executive proceedings, whether of the Secretary of War or of the Secretary of State, are, unless disavowed or revoked by the President, proceedings of the President of the United States. Certainly it is not necessary to announce to the British Government now, that an insurrection, attended by civil war and even social war, was existing in the United States when

To this Mr. Seward replied the same day. He began by stating the circumstances under which the arrests were made. In the case of Mr. Patrick, it seems that a treasonable correspondence of disloyal persons in Alabama was discovered to be carried on with Europe by means of the house at New York in which he was a partner. Mr. Patrick the proceedings which I have thus rewas consequently committed to military custody at Fort Lafayette by the Secretary at War. When it was ascertained that he was personally loyal to the United States Government, and ignorant of the nature of the correspondence, he was promptly released. Mr. Rahming was arrested at New York on his arrival from Nassau, where he had attempted to induce the owner of the schooner Arctic to take cannon to Wilmington, N. C., for the use of the rebels. On these facts he was likewise sent to Fort Lafayette, by the Secretary of State, but was in a short time released on executing a bond that he would bear true allegiance to the country. The particular cases being thus disposed of, the Secretary took occasion to instruct the foreign Minister on the principles by which the Government had been guided in instituting proceedings which seemed so utterly unwarrantable to that gentleman, that he thought it necessary to inform the Administration of their grievous departure from the laws which the national officers of all men were bound to understand and respect, "I have to regret," said Mr. Seward, "that after so long an official intercourse between the Governments of the United States and Great Britain, it should be

lated took place. But it does seem necessary to state, for the information of that Government, that Congress is by the Constitution invested with no executive power or responsibility whatever, and, on the contrary, that the President of the United States is, by the Constitution and laws, invested with the whole executive power of the Government, and charged with the supreme direction of all municipal or ministerial civil agents, as well as of the whole land and naval forces of the Union, and that, invested with those ample powers, he is charged by the Constitution and laws with the absolute duty of suppressing insurrection as well as of preventing and repelling invasion; and that for these purposes he constitutionally exercises the right of suspending the writ of habeas corpus, whenever and wheresoever and in whatsoever extent the public safety, endangered by treason or invasion in arms, in his judgment requires. The proceedings of which the British Government complain were taken on information conveyed to the President by the legal police authorities of the country, and they were not instituted until after he had suspended the great writ of freedom, in just the extent that, in view of the perils of the State, he deemed

necessary. For the exercise of that dis-markable for so long an enjoyment by its

cretion he, as well as his chief advisers, people of the highest immunities of peramong whom are the Secretary of War sonal freedom, war, and especially civil and Secretary of State, is responsible by war, cannot be conducted exclusively in law before the highest judicial tribunal the forms and with the dilatory remedies of the Republic, and amenable also to provided by municipal laws, which are the judgment of his countrymen and the adequate to the preservation of public enlightened opinion of the civilized world. order in time of peace. Treason always A candid admission contained in your operates, if possible, by surprise, and. letter relieves me of any necessity for prudence and humanity therefore equally showing that the two persons named require that violence concocted in secret therein were neither known nor sup- shall be prevented, if practicable, by unposed to be British subjects when the usual and vigorous precaution. I am proceedings occurred, and that in every fully aware of the inconveniences which case subjects of her Majesty residing in result from the practice of such precauthe United States, and under their pro- tion, embarrassing communities in social tection, are treated during the present life, and affecting, perhaps, trade and introubles in the same manner, and with tercourse with foreign nations. But the no greater or less rigor, than American American people, after having tried in citizens. The military prison which was every way to avert civil war, have acused for the temporary detention of the cepted it at last as a stern necessity. suspected parties is a fort constructed The chief interests, while it lasts, are not and garrisoned for the public defence. the enjoyments of society, or the profits The military officer charged with their of trade, but the saving of the national custody has declined to pay obedience life. That life saved, all the other blessto the writ of habeas corpus, but the re-ings which attend it will speedily return, fusal was made in obedience to an express direction of the President, in the exercise of his functions as Commander-in-Chief of all the land and naval forces of the United States. Although it is not very important, it certainly is not entirely irrelevant to add, that so far as I am informed, no writ of habeas corpus was attempted to be served, or was even sued out or applied for in behalf of either of the persons named; although in a case not dissimilar the writ of habeas corpus was issued out in favor of another British subject, and was disobeyed by direction of the President.

"The British Government have candidly conceded, in the remonstrances before me, that even in this country, so re

with greater assurance of continuance than ever before. The safety of the whole people has become, in the present emergency, the supreme law; and so long as the danger shall exist, all classes of society equally, the denizen and the citizen, cheerfully acquiesce in the measures which that law prescribes. The Government does not question the learning of the legal advisers of the British Crown, or the justice of the deference which her Majesty pays to them. Nevertheless, the British Government will hardly expect that the President will accept their explanations of the Constitution of the United States, especially when the Constitution, thus expounded, would leave upon him the sole executive

MR. SEWARD'S CIRCULAR ON HOME DEFENCES.

25

zens hastened to foreign countries to awake their intervention for the overthrow of the Government and the destruction of the Federal Union. These agents are known to have made their appeals to some of the more important States without success. It is not likely, however, that they will remain content with such refusals. Indeed, it is understood that they are industriously endeavouring to accomplish their disloyal purposes by degrees and by indirection. Taking advantage of the embarrassments of agriculture and manufacture and commerce in foreign countries, resulting from

responsibility of suppressing the existing insurrection, while it would transfer to Congress the most material and indispensable power to be employed for that purpose. Moreover, these explanations find no real support in the letter, and much less in the spirit of the Constitution itself. He must be allowed, therefore, to prefer to be governed by the view of our organic national law which, while it will enable him to execute his great trust with complete success, receives the sanction of the highest authorities of our own country, and is sustained by the general consent of the people for whom alone that Constitution was established." the insurrection they have inaugurated In this correspondence it was generally conceded that Mr. Seward gained an easy diplomatic triumph. His letter was also valuable at home for its clear exhibition of the position of the Government in the matter of arrests. Simultaneously with this correspondence between Mr. Seward and Lord Lyons, a circular, issued on the 14th of October, directed to the Governors of the Northern States on the seaboard and lakes, was thought to exhibit some uneasiness on the part of the Government as to the possible military interference of foreign powers, especially of England; though it was probably intended only to call the attention of the people to the serious responsibilities of the struggle in which they were engaged, and to show foreign powers that the nation was fully resolved to maintain its independent action. The circular invited attention to the improvement of the defences of the loyal States, and suggested an immediate expenditure for the purpose. The motives for this request were thus presented: "The present insurrection had not even revealed itself in arms when disloyal citi

at home, they seek to involve our common country in controversies with States with which every public interest, and every interest of mankind, require that it shall remain in relations of peace, amity and friendship. I am able to state, for your satisfaction, that the prospect of any such disturbance is now less serious than it has been at any previous period during the course of the insurrection. It is, nevertheless, necessary now, as it has hitherto been, to take every precaution that is possible to avoid the evils of foreign war, to be superinduced upon those of civil commotion, which we are endeavoring to cure. One of the most obvious of such precautions is that our ports and harbors on the seas and lakes should be put in a condition of complete defence for any nation that may be said to voluntarily incur danger in tempestuous seasons when it fails to show that it has sheltered itself on every side from which the storm might possibly come."

A correspondence of this period between two eminent bishops of the Roman Catholic Church in America, the Right