HABEAS CORPUS. 



423 



made up of arbitrary seizures of individuals who 

 were dragged from their families without indictment, 

 without warrant, without form of law, without being 

 confronted with witnesses against them, without 

 being informed of the nature of the charges against 

 them, immured for weeks and months in dungeons 

 often a thousand miles from the State in which they 

 were seized, and finally turned loose without trial or 

 apology. The list includes no military offenders. It 

 is made up entirely of the names of citizens of the 

 loyal States, in which the courts of justice have never 

 been suspended, where every crime, whether treason 

 or other, could have been punished in due form of 

 law. The catalogue of orders made in relation to 

 these victims of autocratic power is a terrible book 

 for history. 



Pending the canvass for the election of 

 President, numerous arrests were made of per- 

 sons charged with attempting to defraud soldiers 

 of their votes, and of making false returns of 

 the votes of the soldiers of those States whose 

 laws permitted them to vote while in the field. 

 The most noticeable of these cases was that of 

 Col. Samuel Xorth and his associates, who were 

 the agents of the State of Xew York to pro- 

 cure and forward returns of such votes. These 

 parties were summarily arrested, their papers 

 seized, and they confined in the Old Capitol 

 Prison, where they were retained until after 

 the election, when they were tried by a mili- 

 tary commission and acquitted, on the ground 

 that there was no evidence to show guilt on 

 the part of either defendant. Immediately 

 after the return of Col. Xorth, his home friends, 

 by a spontaneous movement, united in solicit-' 

 ing him to permit some public demonstration, 

 in order to. manifest their regard and sympathy, 

 and also to express their abiding faith in his 

 incorruptibility. In pursuance of this a ban- 

 quet was given to him, at which, after con- 

 gratulatory remarks by the chairman, Col. Xorth 

 related the hardships of his imprisonment, the 

 injustice of the charges against him, and the 

 delays interposed to prevent the speedy investi- 

 gation of the alleged offences. 



In connection with the case of Col. Xorth, 

 the Ekuira (X. Y.) "Advertiser" presents a 

 case of similar outrage in the person of James 

 A. Creed, Esq., of that place, who, on the 3d 

 of Xovernber, was summarily arrested on the 

 authority of a telegram from "Washington, 

 hurried off to that city, and there kept in 

 prison. After having been imprisoned some 

 time it seems that Mr. Creed ascertained that 

 his arrest was based upon charge or suspicion 

 respecting the alleged forged votes of soldiers. 

 He therefore made a statement denying any 

 complicity in the matter, and his counsel, Mr. 

 Gillett, presented it to Judge Advocate Holt, 

 who said that no charges had been preferred 

 against Mr. Creed, but that he was held to 

 give testimony. After the conclusion of the 

 Xorth trial, Mr. Creed's unconditional release 

 was ordered, and shortly after he was set at 

 liberty. Instead of being detained to be a wit- 

 ness, Mr. Creed, it is said, was imprisoned to 

 prevent his giving testimony. 



During the summer there were numerous 



arrests, but in no State was the personal liberty 

 of the citizen so generally violated as in the 

 State of Kentucky. Civil and judicial officers 

 of the State, as well as private citizens, were 

 arrested and imprisoned. Lieutenant-Governor 

 Jacobs, Chief Justice Bnllit, John W. Leathers, 

 and J. K. Buchanan, delegates from the State to 

 the Chicago Convention Col. Woolford, who 

 had been in the service, were seized, and with 

 others placed in confinement. The Louisville 

 "Journal" gives the following general account 

 of these proceedings : 



In the course of the last three or four weeks the 

 military agents of the Government amongst us have 

 arrested a very unusual number of citizens, some of 

 whom, as they themselves allege, are totally ignorant 

 of the charge's against them, and all whom are held 

 in confinement, with the prospect of suffering ban- 

 ishment, indefinite imprisonment, or some other 

 severe punishment, without the privilege of a trial 

 of any description. Several of these citizens, as we 

 are assured, are notoriously conservative Union men, 

 strong, true, self-sacrificing friends of the Union, 

 who are conscious of no offence except that of op- 

 position to Mr. Lincoln as a candidate for the Presi- 

 dency. (See KENTUCKY.) 



Lieutenant-Governor Jacobs was banished, 

 and sent beyond the lines, but was subse- 

 quently permitted to return. 



In Missouri Congressman Hall was arrested 

 at a place called Mexico, for using language in 

 reference to the President, and sent to St. Louis 

 on the llth of August, under guard. 



The House of Eepresentatives instructed their 

 committee to investigate whether the act of 

 Congress requiring the trial of those arrested 

 and confined had been carried into effect. 



The Military Committee of the House made 

 a personal inspection of the Old Capitol Prison, 

 for the purpose of carrying into effect the reso- 

 lution. The committee found that officers, 

 even of high rank, and "having honorable 

 scars," were and had been constantly confined 

 there for months without any official notifica- 

 tion, as required by law, of charges preferred 

 against them, and sometimes put into close 

 confinement. In some instances those incarcer- 

 ated were totally ignorant of the causes which 

 led to their apprehension. In many cases the 

 commitments were signed by L. C. Baker, pur- 

 porting to act as agent of the War Department, 

 and his oral directions were sufficient to make 

 the terms of imprisonment more or less rigid, 

 according to his ideas in the premises. 



These violations of personal rights were not 

 allowed to go entirely unrehaked by the courts 

 and people. A suit was brought by Albert "W. 

 Patrie. a respectable farmer of Greene County, 

 against Eobert Murray, U. S. Marshal for the 

 Southern District of Xew York, and "William 

 Buckley, his deputy, for an " arbitrary arrest." 



It appeared on the trial that in August, 1862, 

 Murray sent Buckley from Xew York to Cairo, 

 Greene County, to arrest the plaintiff. Bik 

 ley had no legal process to justify the arrest, 

 though he had in his possession a paper sup- 

 posed to be a representation made to Murrav 

 against Patrie by some political opponents. 



