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THE

CA

COLL

LIBE

SUSPENDING POWER

AND

The Writ

OF

HABEAS CORPUS.

PHILADELPHIA:

JOHN CAMPBELL, BOOKSELLER,

419 CHESTNUT STREET.

1862.

Ringwalt & Brown, Printers, 34 South Third St.

SUSPENDING POWER

AND

The Writ

OF

HABEAS CORPUS.

+

PHILADELPHIA:

JOHN CAMPBELL, BOOKSELLER,

419 CHESTNUT STREET.

1862.

us 5466.14

1874, Oct.10.
Gift of

Samil A. Green, M.D."
of Bostore.

(4.2.1851)

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THE people of the United States, through State Conventions, ordained that the Constitution should be the supreme law of the land; and to secure the blessings of liberty to themselves and their posterity, by the 1st clause of the 9th section of the 1st Article, declared that

"The privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it."

It will be observed that this does not, nor does the Constitution elsewhere, grant this privilege to the people. It assumes that they have it.

It prohibits the Government of the United States, and all its departments, under any and all circumstances, from totally depriving the people of this, their privilege; but it does grant the power to suspend that privilege when, but not till, two things shall concur and have been determined by the competent authority, viz:

1. A rebellion, (or an invasion,) and

2. That the public safety requires it to be then suspended. This clause grants, that, under these concurring conditions, that power may be exercised by—whom? That is the inquiry.

It is affirmed by some, that that power is granted to the President, and by others that it belongs to the Congress. No one has thus far contended that it belongs to each of them, nor yet to the Judiciary. It follows that the power can be exercised only by the Congress or by the President.

For the President's power it has been said:

I. That the phrases, "privilege of the Writ," and "suspended” as predicated of that privilege, are expressions unknown to the common or to parliamentary law-and that "suspending the Habeas Corpus Act" is an "inaccurate expression," as the Act "was never for a moment suspended." That "suspending the privilege"

(3)

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