No Doubt Such A Measure Was By Them
Regarded As A Great Abuse.
One gentleman informed me that, in
addition to this, certain houses of his had been taken by the
government at a fixed rent, and that the payment of the rent was now
refused unless he would take the oath of allegiance.
He no doubt
thought that an abuse of power! But the worst abuse of such power
comes not at first, but with long usage.
Up to the time, however, at which I was at St. Louis, martial law
had chiefly been used in closing grog-shops and administering the
oath of allegiance to suspected secessionists. Something also had
been done in the way of raising money by selling the property of
convicted secessionists; and while I was there eight men were
condemned to be shot for destroying railway bridges. "But will they
be shot?" I asked of one of the officers. "Oh, yes. It will be
done quietly, and no one will know anything about it; we shall get
used to that kind of thing presently." And the inhabitants of
Missouri were becoming used to martial law. It is surprising how
quickly a people can reconcile themselves to altered circumstances,
when the change comes upon them without the necessity of any
expressed opinion on their own part. Personal freedom has been
considered as necessary to the American of the States as the air he
breathes. Had any suggestion been made to him of a suspension of
the privilege of habeas corpus, of a censorship of the press, or of
martial law, the American would have declared his willingness to die
on the floor of the House of Representatives, and have proclaimed
with ten million voices his inability to live under circumstances so
subversive of his rights as a man.
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