In the Matter of Keeler.
What would be sufficient grounds to issue a writ of habeas corpus, must, to a great extent, depend on each particular case; and while the court or judge, so far from throwing obstacles in the way, would undoubtedly afford every reasonable facility to an injured person to obtain the benefit of this great and salutary remedy, yet too willing an ear should not be lent to these applications, backed as they generally are by our sympathies, lest a doubtful wrong or fanciful injury should be redressed at the expense of public justice. And moreover as these applications are hurtful to the military service, productive of serious inconvenience, not unfrequently attended with great expense, besides encouraging an idea among soldier, ignorant of law, that a discharge may easily be obtained by appealing to the judicial authorities of the United States; it would seem to follow as a necessary consequence, that a strong case should be made out, and all the requisites of the law at least substantially complied with, before this extraordinary power can be successfully invoked. The proof of the facts alleged in this application, before a court or judge of the United States, would certainly entitle George B. Keeler to be discharged. But in the exercise of a sound discretion it would not be proper, as it seems to me, to award a writ of habeas corpus in the case at present, because the application must be treated as unsupported by affidavit or oath, since judicial notice cannot be taken of a justice of the peace of a sister State, and there is no proof of any kind to show that the person before whom this application purports to have been verified, was in fact a justice of the peace, and as such authorized to administer oaths, for the false swearing of which a person could be prosecuted for perjury. The certificate of the justice simply, cannot be received as evidence of his authority, because he is not an officer of such grade and rank as to make his official acts prove themselves. He is not like a notary-public, whose acts prove themselves in all commercial countries, when verified by his notarial seal. 3 Wend. 178.
These applications should be supported by oath, taken before some competent person authorized to administer the same, and of whom judicial notice will be taken, or who is shown to be so by proper evidence; and this application failing to show that, must be denied, but without prejudice to another application.
