The life and public services of Abraham Lincoln ... together with his state papers, including his speeches, addresses, messages, letters, and proclamations, and the closing scenes connected with his life and death. By Henry J. Raymond. To which are added anecdotes and personal reminiscences of President Lincoln, by Frank B. Carpenter.

088 TiI: LIFE, PUBLIC SERVICES, AND
tioii of all free government, they are the elements of the enduring stability of the Republic." No one denies that they have so stood the test
up to the beginning of the present rebellion, if we except a certain occurrence at New Orleans; nor does any one question tlat they will stand
the same test much longer after the rebellion closes. But these provisions
of the Constitution have no application to tle case we have in hand, because the arrests complained of were not made for treason-that is, not
for the treason defined in the Constitution, and upon conviction of which
tile l)unishnent is death-nor yet were they made to hold persons
to answer for any capital or otherwise infamous crimes; nor were the
proceedings following, in any constitutional or legal sense, "criminal
prosecutiois." Tile arrests were made on totally different grounds, and
tlhe prlceedlinlgs following accorded with the grounds of the arrest. Let
us c(oisider the real case with which we are dealing, and apply to it the
lLarts of the Constitution plainly made for such cases.
Prior to my installation here, it had been inculcated that any State had
a lawful right to secede from tlie National Union, and that it would be
exledlient to exercise the right whenever the devotees of the doctrine
should fail to elect a President to their own liking. I was elected contrary to their liking, and accordingly, so far as it was legally possible,
they had taken seven States out of the Union, had seized many of the
United States forts, and had fired upon the United States flag, all before
I was inaugurated, and, of course, before I had done any official act whatever. The rebellion thus began soon ran into the present civil war;
and, in certain respects, it began on very unequal terms between the parties. The insurgents had been preparing for it more than thirty years,
while the Government had taken no steps to resist them. Tlhe former
had carefully considered all the means which could be turned to their
account. It undoubtedly was a well-pondered reliance with them that,
in their own unrestricted efforts to destroy Union, Constitution, and law
altogether, the Government would, in great degree, be restrained by the
same Constitution and law from arresting their progress. Their sympathizers pervaded all departments of the Government, and nearly all communities of the people. From this material, under cover of " liberty of
speech," "liberty of the press," and "habeas corpus," they hoped to
keep on foot among us a most efficient corps of spies, informers, suppliers,
and aiders and abettors of their cause in a thousand ways. They knew
that in times such as they were inaugurating, by tile Constitution itself
the "habeas corpus" might be suspended; but they also knew they had
friends who would make a question as to who was to suspend it: meanwhile, their spies and others might remain at large to help on their cause.
Or if, as has happened, the Executive should suspend the writ, without
ruinous waste of time, instances of arresting innocent persons might occur,
as are always likely to occur in such cases, and then a clamor could be
raised in regard to this which might be, at least, of some service to the