CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 





taken i!p. 15 v it nil acts, proclamations, nnd 

 the President. i'! 1 tin- l'nilr.1 Sfat.-s, 

 by his authority nr approval after 

 March I, \^>'< 1. and before -Inly I, I Slid, re-p.-ct- 

 ::rtial law, military trials hy courts-martial 

 itary commi inns nr tin- arrest, inprison- 

 . and trial i'f persons char<rcd with partici- 

 i in the late iv!>clliuii au'ain^t the Tinted 

 . r a- aiders or abettors thereof, or as 

 guilty of any disloyal practice in aid thereof, or 

 of any violation ot'the laws or usages of war, or 

 of allurding aid or comfort to rebels against the 

 authority of the United States, and all proceed- 

 ed acts done or had by courts-martial or 

 ry commissions, or arrests or imprison- 

 ments made in the premises by any person by 

 thority of tbe orders or proclamations of 

 the. President, made as aforesaid, or in aid 

 thereof, were declared to be approved in all re- 

 spects, k-g:ili/ed and made valid, to the same 

 extent and with the same effect as if the orders 

 and proclamations had been issued and made, 

 nnd the arrests, imprisonments, proceedings, 

 and acts had been done under the previous ex- 

 mthority and direction of the Congress 

 of the 1'nit.ed Stat'-s, and in pursuance of a law 

 f previously enacted and expressly au- 

 nd directing the same to be done. 

 And no civil court of the United States, or of 

 any State, or of the District of Columbia, or of 

 any district or Territory of the United States, 

 have or take jurisdiction of, or in any 

 manner reverse any of the proceedings had or 

 acts done, nor is any person to be held to 

 answer in any of the courts for any act done or 

 omitted to lie done in pursuance or in aid of the 

 proclamations or orders, or by authority or with 

 the approval of the President within the period 

 aforesaid, and respecting any of the matters 

 aforesaid ; and all officers and other persons in 

 the service of the United States, or who acted 

 in aid thereof, acting in the premises shall be 

 held i'1-i'ita facie to have been authorized by 

 the PrcMdent ; and all acts and parts of acts 

 heretofore passed, inconsistent with the'pro vis- 

 ions of this act, are hereby repealed. 



Mr. Johnson, of Maryland, said : " I move to 

 strike out all of the bill after the word ' done" 

 in the twenty-sixth line to the word ' Presi- 

 dent' in the thirty-eighth line, in these words : 



And no civil court of the United States, or of any 

 State, or of the District of Columbia, or of nny dis- 

 trict or Territory of the United States, shall have or 

 take jurisdiction of, or in any manner reverse any of 

 the proceedings had or acta done as aforesaid, nor 

 shall any person be held to answer in any of said 

 courts for any act done or omitted to be done in pur- 

 suance or in aid of any of said proclamations or orders, 

 or by authority or with the approval of the President 

 witli'in the period aforesaid, and respecting any of 

 the matters aforesaid : and all officers and other per- 

 sons in .the service of the United States, or who acted 

 in aid thereof, acting in the premises shall be held 

 }'t'ii/ia facie to have been authorized by the President. 



" Mr. President, I have very great doubt 

 whether we can pass that part of the bill which 

 I do not propose now to strike out, at least 

 in one particular. The Supreme Court have 



(hcid<l that, its the laws now tainl. or did 

 Maud at the period when th- ; 

 which I am al-oiit to jvf.-r w, ;.- in-tilnted, there 

 1Q law which author!/, -d | m j|;. 



tary court of any description of a citizen who 

 was not a soldier. The. 

 so thinking. The only difference between th- 

 judges was, that a majority thought it w. 

 in the power of Congress to provide for tin- 

 trial of a citizen charged \vith an otli-ii'-e by n 

 military court in a State where, the civil conrte 

 were in the exercise of their ordinary jurisdic- 

 tion; but the whole court say that under tin- 

 act which was supposed to authorize these 

 military commissions they were illegally held. 

 I have some doubt, therefore, whether this 

 act of indemnity would.be sanctioned by the 

 judges; but I am perfectly willing to leave 

 that to the determination of the courts if the 

 (Hie-tion should be presented before them. 

 What I object to is, that we undertake, if we 

 pass this bill, to prohibit the courts from enter- 

 taining any jurisdiction at all,. from hearing the- 

 case. 



" I admit that we should go to the very verge 

 of the Constitution in protecting the officers 

 who have acted under the authority of the Gov- 

 ernment, in all acts which they hone.tly be- 

 lieved were necessary to preserve the Govern- 

 ment from the effort which was then being 

 made to destroy it ; but this bill goes ranch 

 further than that. It provides that wherever 

 a person has acted in point of fact under the 

 authority of the President, no matter how he 

 acted, no matter in what manner he performed 

 the duty which the President's proclamation 

 or order authorized, no matter how cruelly, 

 with what unnecessary severity, he executed 

 the order, the citizen who may have been in- 

 jured shall be debarred the privilege of having 

 the propriety of his arrest or the propriety of 

 the manner in which the arrest was conducted 

 examined by a civil tribunal. It therefore 

 assumes, by prohibiting, that there might be 

 cases which the courts would hold were not 

 justified by any orders of the President, be- 

 cause there was no authority to issue such 

 orders, or cases in which there would be no 

 justification under the orders, because of the 

 manner in which the orders had been carried 

 out. I have heard of very many cases- of most 

 unnecessary hardship, uncalled for severity on 

 the part of agents of the Government in the 

 exercise of what they supposed to be tbe orders 

 of the President of tbe United States. 



"If this bill passes, and is regarded (and we 

 should pass no bill that we do not think will 

 be regarded), the question of the validity of 

 the President's orders, or the question as to 

 the legality of the manner in, which the orders 

 have been executed, can never be brought be- 

 fore the courts of the United States for inves- 

 tigation. 



"So that, no matter how unconstitutional 

 those orders of the President of the United 

 States may have been in the judgment of the 



