Could Any
Newspaper Be Produced In England Which Advocated The Overthrow Of
The Queen?
And why may not the passion for the Union be as strong
with the Northern States, as the passion for the Crown is strong
with us?
The Crown with us is in no danger, and therefore the
matter is at rest. But I think we must admit that in any nation,
let it be ever so free, there may be points on which opinion must
be held under restraint. And as to those summary arrests, and the
suspension of the "habeas corpus," is there not something to be
said for the States government on that head also? Military arrests
are very dreadful, and the soul of a nation's liberty is that
personal freedom from arbitrary interference which is signified to
the world by those two unintelligible Latin words. A man's body
shalt not be kept in duress at any man's will, but shall be brought
up into open court, with uttermost speed, in order that the law may
say whether or no it should be kept in duress. That I take it is
the meaning of "habeas corpus," and it is easy to see that the
suspension of that privilege destroys all freedom, and places the
liberty of every individual at the mercy of him who has the power
to suspend it. Nothing can be worse than this: and such
suspension, if extended over any long period of years, will
certainly make a nation weak, mean spirited, and poor.
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