But In A
Period Of Civil War, Or Even Of A Widely-Extended Civil Commotion,
Things Cannot Work In Their Accustomed Grooves.
A lady does not
willingly get out of her bedroom-window with nothing on but her
nightgown; but when her house is on fire she is very thankful for
an opportunity of doing so.
It is not long since the "habeas
corpus" was suspended in parts of Ireland, and absurd arrests were
made almost daily when that suspension first took effect. It was
grievous that there should be necessity for such a step; and it is
very grievous now that such necessity should be felt in the
Northern States. But I do not think that it becomes Englishmen to
bear hardly upon Americans generally for what has been done in that
matter. Mr. Seward, in an official letter to the British Minister
at Washington - which letter, through official dishonesty, found its
way to the press - claimed for the President the right of suspending
the "habeas corpus" in the States whenever it might seem good to
him to do so. If this be in accordance with the law of the land,
which I think must be doubted, the law of the land is not favorable
to freedom. For myself, I conceive that Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Seward
have been wrong in their law, and that no such right is given to
the President by the Constitution of the United States. This I
will attempt to prove in some subsequent chapter.
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