Act. Resolutions were also adopted in both Houses protesting against every proposition of foreign interference, by proffers of mediation or otherwise, as. "unreasonable and inadmissable," and declaring the "unalterable purpose of the United States to prosecute the war until the rebellion be overcome,' passed the Senate thirty-one to five; in the House, one hundred and three to twenty-eight.

This session closed March 4, 1863. It was characterized by the same fixed and marked determination to prosecute the war by the use of the most effective and vigorous measures for the suppression of the rebellion and the perpetuity of the Union, and by the same full and prompt support of the President, which had been so signally manifested by the preceding session of Congress. Perhaps the most important measure passed at this session of Congress, on the recommendation of the President, was its financial policy, establishing National banks, a National currency secured by United States stock, or bonds, for the redemption thereof. The growth and prosperity of the country, unequaled in its former history, attests the wisdom and utility of those measures. Some adherents of the administration party becoming impatient of the delays and the slow progress which seemed to mark the conduct of the war and the suppression of the rebellion, were disposed to find fault and censure the President for his caution, and to insist upon bolder and more sweeping assaults upon the persons and property of the people of the rebel States, and especially upon the institution of slavery. On the other hand, the opponents of the administration denounced everything like coercion or severity as calculated to exasperate the South and prolong the war. The great body of the people, however, manifested a steady and firm reliance on the patriotic purpose and the calm sagacity evinced by the President in his management and conduct of public affairs. About this time two ladies, wives of rebel officers imprisoned on Johnson's island, called at the Executive Mansion and obtained an audience with the President, and applied for the release of their husbands with great opportunity, one of them urging that her husband was a very religious man. As the President granted their requests, he said to the lady who had testified to her husband's religion: "You say that your husband is a religious man; tell him when you meet him, that I am not much of a judge of religion, but that in my opinion the religion that sets men to rebel against their Government, because, as they think, that Government does not sufficiently help some men to eat their bread in the sweat of other men's faces, is not that sort of religion upon which men can get to Heaven." This, at least, was not Mr. Lincoln's religion. His was that which sympathized with all human sorrow, which lifted, so far as it had the power, the burden from the oppressed in every age and condition of life, without regard to age, sex or color. It may be expressed in the case of a

poor woman who sought at the hands of the President, with the persistent affection of a mother, for the pardon of her son, condemned to death. She was successful in her petition. When she left the room the President turned and said: 'Perhaps I have done wrong, but at all events I have made that poor woman happy." A friend called upon Mr. Lincoln, and found him busily engaged in counting greenbacks. "This, sir," said he, "is something out of my usual line, but a President of the United States has a multiplicity of duties not specified in the Constitution or Acts of Congress; this is one of them. This money belongs to a poor negro, who is a porter in one of the departments, and who is very sick at present with the small-pox. He is now in one of the hospitals, and could not draw his pay because he could not sign his name. I have been to considerable trouble to overcome the difficulty and get it for him, and have succeeded in cutting red tape, as you newspaper men say. I am now dividing the money, and putting by a portion labeled in an envelop with my own hands, according to his wish."

CHAPTER XXXIII.

SUSPENSION OF WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS-ARRESTS FOR DISLOYALTY.

One of the most formidable difficulties among the many which President Lincoln was compelled to face in the loyal States from the very outbreak of the rebellion, was that political, sympathetic, disloyal feeling, which was in harmony with the principles and actions of the conspirators against the Government. The toleration of President Buchanan's administration, while active preparations were being made for armed resistance to the Government, encouraged the secessionists in their nefarious designs, and evidences are not wanting that the rebels expected active co-operation of men and parties in their rebellious movements. When, in January, 1861, the rebels were preparing to ship large quantities of arms and munitions of war from New York for the contest, on which they had resolved, to the State of Georgia, and the same were seized by the police of New York, Fernando Wood, the Mayor of New York, apologized to Senator Toombs of Georgia, and assured him that, "if he had the power he should summarily punish the authors of this illegal and unjustifiable seizure of private property."

Upon the advent of President Lincoln's administration, prominent presses and politicians throughout the country began, by active hostility, to indicate their sympathy with those who sought to overthrow the Government, and it became manifest that there was sufficient treasonable sentiment in the loyal States to paralyze the authorities in their efforts, aided only by the ordinary machinery of the law to crush the secession movement. In this condition of affairs it was deemed necessary by the President that the "writ of habeas corpus" should be suspended, and that it was his duty to exercise the extraordinary powers with which the Constitution had clothed the Government. It was there provided that “the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus should not be suspended unless when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety might require it." When the necessity arose, of course, the Government charged with the public safety must be judge of the necessity. And that branch of the Government, legislative or executive, when and where the

emergency arose might or should perform the act. The first act of President Lincoln in that direction was his proclamation of May 3, 1861, directed to the commander of the United States troops on the Florida coast, "if he should find it necessary, to suspend the writ of habeas corpus and remove from the vicinity of the United States fortresses all dangerous or suspected persons." It was very soon found necessary to resort to the exercise of the same power in other sections of the country. One particular case was that of John Merryman of Baltimore, known by the Government to be in communication with the rebels, and to be giving them aid and comfort. He was arrested and imprisoned in Fort McHenry. He applied to Chief Justice Roger B. Taney for the issue of the writ of habeas corpus, which was granted, with an order to General Cadwaller to bring the body of Merryman before the Chief Justice. The General said, in reply, that he was "authorized by the President of the United States to suspend the writ of habeas corpus for the public safety," and that, while he fully appreciated the delicacy of the trust, he was also instructed, "that in times of civil strife, errors, if any, should be on the side of safety to the country." He therefore declined to obey the writ, whereupon the Judge issued an attachment against him for contempt of Court, and the Marshal charged with serving the writ made returns that he was not admitted within the fort, and therefore he could not serve the writ. Similar cases arose and were summarily disposed of in a similar manner in other sections of the country.

This course of the administration was bitterly assailed by the party opposed to the Government and in sympathy with the rebellion, and violent and bitter assaults were made on the President by the public press holding disloyal sentiments. On the 5th of July, 1862, Attorney-General Bates transmitted to the President an elaborate opinion, prepared at his request, upon his power to make arrests of persons known to have criminal complicity with the rebels or those against whom there is probable cause for suspicion of such criminal complicity, and also on his right to refuse to obey a writ of habeas corpus in case of such arrests. The Attorney-General discussed the subject at great length, and his arguments were conclusive and favorable to the action of the Government. From that time the administration, with vigor and energy, exerted its power to prevent the rebellion from receiving aid from those in sympathy with its action in the loyal States. A large number of persons in various sections of the country, known to be in complicity with the rebels, were arrested, but were released upon taking an oath of allegiance to the United States.

Baltimore still continued for some time to be the headquarters of the conspirators and of movements of various kinds in aid of the rebellion, and

on the meeting of the House of Delegates on the 16th of September, nine secession members, with the officers of both Houses, were arrested by General McClellan, then in command of the army, with his full approbation, and the session was not held. The President at that time gave the following statement relative to those arrests: "The public safety renders it necessary that the grounds of these arrests should at the present be withheld, but at the proper time they will be made public. Of one thing the people of Maryland may rest assured, that no arrests have been made, or will be made, not based upon substantial and unmistakable complicity with those in armed rebellion against the United States. In no case has an arrest been made on mere suspicion or through personal or partisan animosities; but in all cases the Government is in possession of tangible ånd unmistakable evidence which will, when made public, be satisfactory to every loyal citizen."

Arrests continued to be made by the State Department, not without complaint from large numbers of people, but with the general approbation of the whole country, and, beyond all question, to the advantage of the administration and the country. On the 14th of February, 1862, the whole matter of arrests was transferred to the War Department. In the Executive order by the President, the whole circumstances which made those arrests necessary are stated with so much clearness and force that it would be interesting to insert here the whole order, but a short extract must suffice. He says:

"Meantime a favorable change of public opinion has occurred. The line between loyalty and disloyalty is plainly defined; the whole structure of the Government is firm and stable, apprehensions of public danger, and facilities for treasonable practices have diminished with the passions which prompted heedless persons to adopt them.

"The rebellion is believed to have culminated and to be declining. The President, in view of these facts, and anxious to favor a return to the course of the administration, as far as regard for the public welfare will permit, directs that all political or State prisoners now held in military custody be released on their subscribing to a parol engaging them to render no aid or comfort to the enemies in hostility to the United States. To all persons who shall keep their parol when so released, the President grants an amnesty for all past offenses of treason or disloyalty which they may have committed."

On the 27th of February a commission was appointed by the War Department, consisting of Major-General Dix and Hon. Edward Pierrepont of New York, to examine into the cases of State prisoners, and to determine whether, in view of the public safety and the existing rebellion, they should be discharged, or remain in arrest, or be remitted to the civil tribunals for trial. These commissioners entered at once upon the discharge of their duties, and