The Object In Hand Now Is Rather
That Of Getting Rid Of Political Prisoners Than Of Taking Others.
This assumption by the government of an unconstitutional power has,
as I have said, taught many lookers on to think that the Americans
are indifferent to their liberties.
I myself do not believe that
such a conclusion would be just. During the present crisis the
strong feeling of the people - that feeling which for the moment has
been dominant - has been one in favor of the government as against
rebellion. There has been a passionate resolution to support the
nationality of the nation. Men have felt that they must make
individual sacrifices, and that such sacrifices must include a
temporary suspension of some of their constitutional rights. But I
think that this temporary suspension is already regarded with
jealous eyes; with an increasing jealousy which will have created a
reaction against such policy as that which Mr. Seward has attemped,
long before the close of Mr. Lincoln's Presidency. I know that it
is wrong in a writer to commit himself to prophecies, but I find it
impossible to write upon this subject without doing so. As I must
express a surmise on this subject, I venture to prophesy that the
Americans of the States will soon show that they are not indifferent
to the suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus. On
that matter of the illegality of the suspension by the President, I
feel in my own mind that there is no doubt.
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