GDG- Ex Parte Vallandigham - Prequel
Margaret D. Blough
mdblough1 at comcast.net
Sun May 18 14:42:20 CDT 2008
>>I am in no way arguing that Habeas Corpus was not suspended by both
sides during the ACW, however, I challenge anyone to prove definitively that it
was anything more than political eyewash.<<
I'm not in a position to either defend or attack much of what happened, but I'm not sure, either, that we are in a position to say that all of the fears were sheer paranoia. John B. Floyd was in Confederate uniform within months of resigning under pressure as Buchanan's Secretary of War in the last months of that administration. He was accused of ordering arms to be shipped well ahead of schedule to federal forts under construction in states likely to secede. The Commander of the Department of the West in 1860-1861, David Twiggs, who was one of the four generals in the US Army at the outset of hostilities ranking second only to Winfield Scott, surrendered the entire US garrison and its stores to Ben McCulloch, commanding forces of the secessionist Texas state government. The Army dismissed Twiggs on March 1, 1861 (Buchanan was still president on this date) for this action. By May, Twiggs was commissioned a Major-General in the Confederate Provisional Army. However, Twiggs was i
ll and aging (he was born in 1790) and soon, effectively, retired and died in July 1862. Ironically, the greatest service either of them may have done for the Confederacy was while they were still in U.S. government service. Of Floyd, it can be said that he could not have performed any greater act for the ultimate success of the Union cause than by going with the Confederacy.
Regards,
Margaret
-------------- Original message --------------
From: Richard M Kadas <rkadas at sbcglobal.net>
> Esteemed GDG Member Contributes:
>
>
> In 1798 responding to a perceived threat of France, Congress passed the Alien &
> Sedition laws. The Sedition Act, The last of the Alien and Sedition laws,
> passed by Congress on July 14, declared that any treasonable activity,
> including the publication of "any false, scandalous and malicious writing," was
> a high misdemeanor, punishable by fine and imprisonment. Due to this legislation
> twenty-five men, primarily editors of Republican newspapers, were arrested and
> their newspapers forced to close. These laws proved to be so offensive that they
> were never again revisited after the immediate danger had ebbed. We are again
> left with Madison's paradox as enunciated in the federalist Paper #51 and as
> posed in Plato's Republic, "Who will guard the guardians?" Please do not
> mistake me. I am in no way arguing that Habeas Corpus was not suspended by both
> sides during the ACW, however, I challenge anyone to prove definitively that it
> was anything more than political eyewash.
> Dick
>
> jack wrote:
> Esteemed GDG Member Contributes:
>
>
> Greetings.
>
> That quote has been, in many forms, used for decades now. I think the
> original quote was "We had to destroy the viollage in order to save it",
> IIRC. As It has been attributed to many people, including Peter Arnett, who
> attributed it to an unidentified army officer. ETC ETC Etc. As history, it
> is most likely a myth. As a metaphor for war, its scarily right on.
>
> Regards,
>
> Jack
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Richard M Kadas"
> To: "GDG"
> Sent: Sunday, May 18, 2008 12:03 PM
> Subject: Re: GDG- Ex Parte Vallandigham - Prequel
>
>
> > Esteemed GDG Member Contributes:
> >
> >
> > What an interesting rational. It harkens back to the U.S. Army junior
> > officer who was caught on TV circa 1968 saying, "We had to burn the
> > village to save it." Tacitus put it more succinctly when he wrote, "They
> > created a wasteland and called it peace.(he was referring to the Roman
> > army campaigning in Britain).
> > Dick
> >
> > "Margaret D. Blough" wrote:
> > Esteemed GDG Member Contributes:
> >
> >
> > Dennis,
> >
> > It should be noted that Confederate authorities arrested the fiery East
> > Tennessee Unionist William G. "Parson" Brownlow in December 1861 and
> > "escorted" him into Union lines in early 1862. Civil liberties quite
> > frequently take a beating in wartime, even in republics and/or
> > democracies, and civil wars, which make distinguishing friend from foe
> > difficult and fear of the enemy within that much more intense, are
> > particularly problematical for civil rights and liberties.
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Margaret
> >
> > -------------- Original message --------------
> > From: Dennis Lawrence
> >
> >> Esteemed GDG Member Contributes:
> >>
> >>
> >> To Edwin M. Stanton
> >> Executive Mansion, Washington,
> >> Hon. Secretary of War May 13, 1863.
> >>
> >> My dear Sir Since parting with you I have seen the Secretaries of
> >> State and the Treasury, and they both think we better not issue the
> >> special suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus spoken of. Gov. Chase
> >> thinks the case is not before Judge Swaine, that it is before Judge
> >> Levett, that the writ will probably not issue, whichever the
> >> application may be before; and that, in no event, will Swaine commit
> >> an imprudence. His chief reason for thinking the writ will not issue,
> >> is that he has seen in a newspaper that Judge Levett stated that
> >> Judge Swaine & he refused a similar application last year. Yours
> >> truly A. LINCOLN
> >>
> >> Annotation
> >>
> >> [1] ALS, DLC-Stanton Papers. On May 4, Clement L. Vallandigham had
> >> been arrested, on orders of General Burnside. On May 8, Burnside
> >> telegraphed in reply to a non-extant telegram from Lincoln, ``Your
> >> dispatch just rec'd. I thank you for your kind assurance of support &
> >> beg to say that every possible effort will be made on my part to
> >> sustain the Govt of the United States in its fullest authority.''
> >> (DLC-RTL). The furor in Ohio and throughout the North over the arrest
> >> and ensuing trial was such that Secretary Stanton feared the impact
> >> on Union morale if the U.S. district judge should ignore the general
> >> proclamation suspending the writ of habeas corpus. On May 13, he
> >> therefore prepared an order especially suspending the writ in
> >> Vallandigham's case and drafted an accompanying despatch to Burnside.
> >> Both documents, unsigned, are
> >>
> >> http://www.civilwarhome.com/vallandighambio.htm
> >>
> >>
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