Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 17.djvu/240

 232 Southern Historical Society Papers.

corpus ; or, in other words, to arrest and detain, without resort to the ordinary process and forms of law, such individuals as he migfht deem dangerous to the public safety."

We must add to the powers just enumerated those set forth in a special message to Congress on the 29th of May, 1862, after the pas- sage by the House of Representatives of a resolution censuring Mr. Simon Cameron for making contracts while Secretary of War with- out authority of law. Mr. Lincoln assumed the responsibility of the acts of Mr. Cameron, and informed Congress that in addition to the things enumerated in his message of July 4th, he had disbursed the public money at his own will, through government officials or private citizens, at his pleasure.

FULL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROCLAMATION.

As I desire to impress upon your minds the full significance of the proclamation of the 15th of April, I shall take the liberty to add to it, in words, the powers which Mr. Lincoln assumed in order to carry it into effect, so that it shall read as if those powers had been inserted in the instrument itself. It would have been about as follows :

" And to accomplish the objects of this proclamation I do hereby declare that I shall proceed to increase the regular army and navy of the United States to such an extent as I may think necessary. I shall set on foot a blockade of the ports of the States mentioned in this proclamation ; I shall take possession of the treasury of the United States and use the public money as I see fit, through such agents as I may select, whether they be agents known to the law or such as I may personally designate. And, finally, I shall arrest and detain, without regard to the ordinary processes and forms of law, all persons that I may consider dangerous to the public safety, meaning all persons who oppose the measures I hereby decree to be necessary for the public safety.'*

I know nothing that can be added to complete the picture of an absolute government.

The army, the navy, the treasury, the sword, and the purse all in the hands of the President, the security of personal liberty gone, what right that free government is intended to secure remained ?

The picture needs but one more touch to give it the coloring- of the most odious of all tyranny — the tyranny of numbers unrestrained by law.

And that touch is not wanting.