conferred upon military men down to the lowest grade. But this was done here by executive authority.

The laws of Congress require the United States judges to issue this writ when applied for in cases where they have jurisdiction. Every State, it is probable, has laws to the same effect. Mr. Lincoln's administration avoided the submission of the question of his authority to suspend the judiciary, by permitting or directing those having prisoners in custody from making any return, or obeying the judicial authority requiring their production. The Chief Justice of the United States, in John Merryman's case, issued a writ of habeas corpus, which was not obeyed by General Cadwallader, and his communication to Mr. Lincoln on the subject was unheeded. Other cases of defying the right of the writ of habeas corpus occurred. The Constitution and laws in this respect were ignored by Mr. Lincoln, his Cabinet, and all others acting under his authority.

Congress, by its Act of March 3, 1863, in conferring the power upon the President of suspending the writ of habeas corpus, furnished conclusive evidence that it did not believe the President had a right to exercise that power. If they believed he could suspend the privilege, why pass an act authorizing it? The judges of the Circuit Court, for the District of Columbia, expressed the opinion that they had the right to issue the writ of habeas corpus, whereupon the law creating the court was repealed by Congress, and approved by Mr. Lincoln, and they were thus legislated out of office, and more subservient men, under a new law, put in their places.

This Act of March 3, 1863, required a list of "state or political prisoners," to be furnished to the judges of the United States courts, and authorized the discharge of those not indicted within a certain time. But this part of the Act was never, in fact and good faith, executed. It contained other provisions not authorized by the Constitution-that whatever should be done in the name of the President, whether right or wrong, legal or illegal, or constitutional or not, should be a defence against all suits and proceedings claiming otherwise. Although the Constitution authorizes nothing of the kind, it being in conflict and in deroga

tion of that instrument, still, there was no means of resisting it. Laws tending to and in favor of liberty were not enforced during Mr. Lincoln's administration, by whatever name called, or however authorized. Military and executive tyranny had perfect sway, even beyond what he was permitted by his Cabinet to know—but if not, he was guilty with them, of impeachable offences. He acted without their knowledge, and they acted without his.

The great writ of civil liberty-the habeas corpus-was strangled by executive usurpation, in the land of liberty and law, and Congress confirmed it, and passed laws to protect all wrong-doers who acted under his authority. But Congress had no power to confer authority on him or any one else to suspend it. The suspension of this writ must be a legislative act. Congress is responsible to the people for the laws they make. A New York Legislature passed a bill concerning schools, which was to become a law, if a majority of voters should so determine at the election, which they did, but the courts held that the Legislature could not delegate any of their powers, but that they must take the responsibility of passing all laws. The suspension of the habeas corpus is not among the executive powers, nor does the Constitution authorize the delegation of legislative powers. Those framing that instrument, when seeking to restrain the suspension to two cases only, were not likely to provide that officers of the army, or any one else, should become judges, to determine whether the public safety required it. It was not intended to commit the question of individual liberty to the very persons designed to be restrained from suspending it, to protect their own wrongful acts in arresting and imprisoning a man. And yet thousands of military officers, probably, were authorized even to represent the Executive in this usurpation. In what age of the world before did usurpation of power delegate to others? Anciently men were thrust into dungeons, and detained there for years, with no means of redress. The executives then did precisely what was done in this country during the late civil war.

The fourth amendment of the Constitution is in these words: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures,

shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons and things to be seized."

Notwithstanding this provision, arrests were made upon mere suspicion, without oath or affirmation, and without the person arrested being informed of the cause. Colonel Berrett, the mayor of Washington, was thus arbitrarily arrested, and imprisoned in a Northern fort, without any accusations being made known to him. He was finally released, upon condition that he resigned the mayorship. An immense number of men were thus unlawfully imprisoned in various parts of the country, without ever knowing for what. As the habeas corpus was suspended, they had no means of relief. These illegal arrests and imprisonments tended to embitter the public mind against the Administration, and contributed very strongly to prolong the war. The secession leaders at the South, in their appeals to the people for men and means, pointed to the unlawful suspension of the habeas corpus, and the illegal imprisonments by the Administration, to show that liberty was crippled among us; and that the only means of avoiding such misgovernment and tyranny was, to sustain the war on their side to the end. Good Union men at the South were led to believe that liberty was at an end among us, and for that reason ceased to espouse our cause.

106.-SPIES AND SECRET-SERVICE AGENTS.

Recently it has become common to cite "necessity" as authority for whatever is done, not authorized by the Constitution; and it is often quoted as justifying its direct infringement by legislation and executive acts not authorized by it. For seven years this country has been filled with spies and secret agents, authorized neither by the Constitution nor laws. The country has swarmed with them; and they have dogged the steps of private individuals and public officers, from the President down to mere clerks and tide-waiters. The State and War Departments have been the principal sources of these agencies. The departments have employed spies upon each other, upon the President

and Congress, and the latter upon all branches of the Government, as well as upon private individuals. Whatever may be said or done by any person, which can be tortured into any thing objectionable to the Republican standard of thought or action, is reported with amplifications, sufficient to authorize arrest, and perhaps imprisonment. These spies and agents are, confessedly, selected from the rogues and vicious classes of society, upon the principle of "setting a rogue to catch a rogue." Their fidelity depends upon the temptation offered to overcome it. They inform when most advantageous, and are silent when silence is most profitable. Being destitute of elevated character, they have nothing to lose, but every thing to gain, from turning their situation to account. As they promise much to secure employment, they must manifest zeal, and make a show of efficiency, it being immaterial with them whether their accusations are just or groundless. These spies and secret agents are unauthorized by law, and not required by honesty and sound policy. All men are authorized to talk and act when they violate no law; but these creatures are designed to prevent or punish it. They travel all over the country, at Government expense, and enter all circles open to them, to learn the thoughts and wishes of public men in regard to their relations in public and private life. No place is so sacred as to be beyond their impertinence, and no character too elevated to prevent them from attempting its destruction. The inquisitorial espionage in other countries is authorized by their laws, but here it is in violation of law, and the rights and privileges of the people. Mr. Seward says secret agents are necessary in the formation of treaties; but he has paid out thousands of public money under that pretence, where nothing was accomplished. It is a convenient way of cancelling the claims of partisans without opening his own pocket. These spies and secret agents they are the same thing-are convenient when blackmail is to be levied, or adversaries are sought to be punished. They supply from their own mint all the coinage which truth does not furnish. No people can be truly free where this pernicious system has a foothold. Men must think and talk in conformity with some unknown standard, or be subject to the tyranny of some

unknown power, which makes unpublished rules, and convicts and executes under them in secret. If, when no public law is violated, it is criminal to talk, it must be equally so to think without conforming to the unknown standard. Unpublished laws cannot be enforced, and a legislative body which should seek to establish the contrary rule could never be reëlected. Unknown and unpublished regulations of an executive department do not stand upon as reliable a ground, because no one is authorized to make them. No human logic can justify this spy-system, and no department will venture openly to ask for the means of perpetuating it. Such institutions are anti-Democratic, and are unknown, except under Republican rule. Instead of affording the people protection, they constitute a complete system of unmitigated tyranny. Tyrants alone appeal to necessity as a source of power, and to secrecy, to prevent the people from understanding its concealed workings.

Among these spies and secret agents, it is to be regretted that women have been employed, and many of them of the most abandoned character. Not unfrequently they have practically led men "into temptation" and caused the acts which were made the grounds of accusation. Some, whose characters were above suspicion, became active agents in drawing men on, if not to criminal acts, to indefensible conversation, which, being rendered in its worst sense, was seized upon to gratify feelings of hostility and revenge. Men of high and pure characters have been the subjects of female entanglements, with more or less success, according to the depth of the plot and the skill of the actors. When these false women once enter dominions where they do not belong, those rightfully there are never safe either from misrepresentation, persecution, or black-mail. No elevation or purity of character is any protection from such snares. Innocent acts are so arranged as to suggest criminality, and half-seen transactions are so contrived as to seem criminal. Even children, in their simple honesty, are made to see what, standing by itself, would be wrong, when, if they had been permitted to see the whole, would prove a meritorious matter. None but tyrants resort to such means of acquiring that information which their necessities require. These