Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/607

1863] Special powers conferred on the President. 575 every parent who had a son in the Federal army, while it also described with precision the character of Vallandigham, who had rendered himself conspicuous as a " wily agitator " in behalf of the South and its action ever since, and even before, the Presidential election which furnished the pretext for secession. The people of the State of Ohio returned an emphatic answer at the October election of 1863, in which Vallandigham was defeated for the governorship by a majority of 101,000 votes, 39,000 of which were cast by Ohio soldiers in the field. In sustaining General Burnside's arrest of Vallandigham, President Lincoln had acted not only within his constitutional, but also strictly within his statutory authority. The question of his right to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus came up immediately at the beginning of the Secession, at which time he authorised General Scott and other military officers to order the suspension within specified limits when it might become necessary. Chief Justice Taney of the Supreme Court of the United States questioned his right, and, in the case of ex parte Merryman, filed an opinion denying it. By a law passed on March 3, 1863, after considerable discussion, Congress legalised all orders of this character made by the President at any time during the present rebellion, and accorded him full indemnity for all searches, seizures, arrests, or imprisonments made under his orders. The Act further provided " that during the present rebellion, the President of the United States, whenever in his judgment the public safety may require it, is authorised to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in any case throughout the United States or any part thereof." Under authority of this Act, the President, by proclamation of September 15, 1863, formally suspended the writ throughout the United States in cases relating to prisoners of war, spies, aiders or abettors of the enemy, and deserters, and other cases relating to the military service. Though the terms of the proclamation were general and comprehensive, the chief object for which it was issued was to prevent continued appeals to the civil courts for process to be utilised in hindering or delaying the prompt execution of the Draft Law. While much public clamour occurred from warm Southern sympathisers and over-zealous Democratic partisans, the arbitrary power of the President was used so seldom and with such circumspection both before and after the formal suspension that neither oppression nor noteworthy public protest arose under it. (3) NEGOTIATION AND INTRIGUE. Under date of December 15, 1862, Secretary of State Seward wrote in one of his dispatches : " the political atmosphere begins to exhibit phenomena indicative of a weariness of the war, and a desire for peace on both sides." It was a period of uncertainty and inaction ; to each of CH. XVIII.