Progress of the War.
The United States Constitution--the closing act of its destruction.
The New York World has a scathing article on the final act of the Senate in closing the life of that excellent document, the United States Constitution. It says the act is the most infamous and barefaced a front that has yet been offered to the liberty of the Northern people. It adds: ‘ The bill, if it passes the House, (which it will,) and receives the signature of the President, (which it will,) is nothing less than an act for the establishment of a despotism in these once free and happy United States, and taking from the people the protection of the Constitution. It authorizes and justifies arbitrary arrests at the will of the Executive, in defiance of explicit provisions of the Constitution forbidding such arrests. It puts every man's liberty and property out of the protection of the fundamental, law, it annihilates the power of the State Governments to protect their citizens against illegal violence; it tells the President and his minions that they may with impunity perpetrate all these acts of despotism by which the most odious tyrants in the worst ages have earned the execration of mankind. This may be deemed strong language, but it is no more than adequate to characterize the infamous act of combined perjury and despotism which we print this morning, and which challenges the attention and must provoke the indignation of every man who is not base enough to confess himself a cowering slave. ’ The proceedings in connection with the pass age of this bill prove that every Senator who voted for it committed conscious perjury; that he knowingly and willfully violated the solemn oath he had taken to support the Constitution of the United States. We ask the deliberate attention of the country to the facts we will now recite, and which appear on the record. Mr. Carlite, of Virginia, moved to amend the first section of the bill by inserting after the phrase "President of the United State," the words "in the constitutional authority," an amendment which would give that officer immunity for all acts, arrests, and proceedings which he has done or ordered in the exercise of his authority, but leaving him and his subordinates to the full consequences and penalties of acts done in violation of the Constitution. The Republican Senators saw that the adoption of this amendment would render the bill nugatory, that this confession of allegiance to the Constitution would render it of no more effect than so much blank paper. The amendment was accordingly rejected by eleven ayes against twenty-nine nays, as follows: Yeas--Messrs. Anthony, Bayard, Prowning, Carliste, Cowan, Harding, Powell, Sanisbury, Turple, Wall, and Wilson of Missouri--11. Nays--Messrs. Chandler, Clark, Collamer, Dixon, Doolittle, Fessenden, Foot, Foster, Grimen, Hale, Harian, Harris, Henderson, Howard, King, Lane of Indiana. Lane of Kansas, Merrill, Pomercy, Sherman, Sumner, Ten Eyek, Trumbull, Wade, Wilkinson, Willey, Wilmot, and Wilson of Massachusetts--29. By this stiff and brazen vote the Senate of the United States declared their determination to treat the Constitution, which they have sworn to support, and the guarantees it throws around the liberties of the people, as a nullity. The vote of these twenty nine Senators is a damning and indelible record, not only against themselves, but against the President of the United States. It in effect declares him quite guilty of numerous, frequent, and repeated violations of the Constitution. It is a plain confession that the design of the bill is to shield that officer and his underlings from the legal consequences of such violations. If that were not his object Mr. Carille's amendment would have been readily accepted, for the insertion of that amendment could in no way impair the effect of the bill, in exempting the President and his subordinates from penalties for acts which were not violations of the Constitution. These Senators in effect declare that he has violated the Constitution; that they consider violations of the Constitution meritorious acts on the part of an officer sworn to support and defend it; and that they will stand between him and all parties ordained by State or Federal laws for wanton and illegal trespasses on the rights of citizens. If we proceed from this shameless confession of intentions to examine the particular provisions of the bill, we shall find that the structure harmonizes with the plan. Every part of it puts fetters on the feet of liberty, while it sets tyranny on horseback. In every case of prosecution for false imprisonment, it allows the defendant to appeal from court to court, but takes away the right of appeal from the plaintiff. If the sufferer, from wanton acts of arbitrary power, is defeated in the State courts, it denies him all address against the misfortune of a prejudiced court or a packed jury, while it treats proceedings in a State court against his persecutor as null and of no effect. It even inflicts penalties on the plaintiff for daring to assert his rights and bring a suit. If he happens to be defeated, no matter whether justly or unjustly, he is not only denied the right of appeal which is granted to the defendant, but is compelled to pay double costs. It not only thus outrages the rights of the injured party by this inequality, which would be sufficiently monstrous if the law were allowed to take its course; but it interposes to annul the law on which he relies for his protection, and to insure the infliction of those heavy penalties for bringing a suit. It declares that the authority or order of the President shall be a valid and complete defence in all such suits; but as if this was not broad enough to cover and protect the numerous acts of despotism which have been perpetrated in violation of the Constitution, it also declares that if "there was probable cause for the arrest, imprisonment, or other act complained of," that also shall be "a full and complete defence to the action, and it shall be the duty of the court trying the act so to instruct the jury, and that their finding must be accordingly." That is to say, the most malicious stories told by a man's personal or political enemies, no matter whether true or not, are to be "a full and complete defence" for arbitrary arrests and imprisonments by every deputy provost-marshal, even if he cannot make it appear that he had authority of the President for his daring violation of the Constitution. If there was ever anything in legislative history which deserved to be characterized as a "bill of abominations," it is this which to the disgrace of American legislation, we print this morning. And the party which passes this infamous, this abominable bill, defying the Constitution and annulling all State laws for protecting personal liberty, is the same party that two or three years ago was passing so-called liberty bills in behalf of the Northern States to protect runaway negroes against the provision of the Constitution which requires their surrender. So dear and sacred did they profess to hold individual liberty that they would not allow it to be violated even in the person of an escaped slave, and they set up State legislation against Federal legislation for his protection. These sensitive philanthropists and doughty champions of freedom then professed to be shocked at the denial of the habeas corpus to these fugitive blacks, and made that a pretext for resisting, by mob violence, the execution of a law of the United States. And now we see these same champions of personal liberty, these same sticklers for the habeas corpus, these same justifiers of State resistance to Federal power, passing an act which degrades the white citizen below a condition which they then thought intolerable for slaves as black as the ace of spades. It is for the citizens of the loyal States to determine whether they will submit to this overthrow of the Constitution.Arrests in Maryland.
A number of persons were arrested by the Yankee troops near the Point of Rocks, on the line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Feb. 24th, some upon the charge of coming from the South after serving in the Confederate army, and others for being engaged in smuggling goods through the lines. The following are the names of the parties and the charges preferred against them: Meredith Gilmor, of Baltimore county, upon suspicion of having been to the Confederate army; R. M. McVeigh, a smuggler, of Londona county, Va., attempting to get to Baltimore — had $1,900 in Southern money in the lining of his coat; John Campbell, a smuggler, of Middleburg Va., with $800 in Southern bank bills; Marcus Barr, smuggler, of Wilmington, N. C., with $000 in southern bank notes; Isaac Gottsuhelmer, of Richmond, with seven bonds and other made, making an aggregate of $ Henry Gottsuhelmer, with $560. Harman Heist, smuggler, with $454. 35; David Hulster, smuggler, with $1,500; Julius Levy, smuggler, with $320; Francis Mannent with jewelry and other articles, trying to smuggle them through. These parties were carried to Baltimore on the 24th, and the money was delivered to Gen. Schenck. The following persons were committed to the old Capitol prison on the 25th. The captain and crew of the schooner Kate, captured by the Potomac fictile, attempting to run the blockade; also, Mrs. Eliza Volent, Mr.Dickets and Mrs. C. Dickets, A L Retnack, J Isaac, J. Lipman, Mrs. L. Codisant, Mrs. Kirthover, and Mrs. E. Sanvasire, all refugees from Richmond. Col. Chas. Carvol Hicks has also been committed to the same prison to await his trial as a spy.The blockade at Galveston.
Com. Bell, commanding the Federal fleet, sends Mr. Theron the following proclamation, in reply to Gen. Magruder's proclamation declaring the blockade of Galveston removed and the port open: U. S. Sloop of War Brooklyn. Off Galveston Bar, January 20th, 1863.
Whereas, a proclamation, dated Galveston.
Texas. January 4th, 1863, and signed J. Bankhead Magruder, Major-General Commanding, declares the said port of Galveston to be open for trade with all friendly nations, and invites their merchants to resume their usual commercial intercourse with the said port of Galveston:
Therefore, the undersigned warns all concerned that the port of Galveston, and also Sabine Part, as well as the whole coast of Texas, are under an actual blockade, by a sufficient force of U. S. vessels and any merchant vessel appearing off the aforesaid ports, or attempting to pass out from said ports, under any pretext whatever, will be captured, notwithstanding the aforesaid proclamation, and sent into an open port of the United States for adjudication.
A copy of Bolleau's apology.
The following is a copy of the apology made by Albert D. Bolleau, editor of the Philadelphia Journal, to Gen. Schenck, and which procured his release: Headq'rs Middle Department, 8TH Army Corps, Baltimore, Md., Feb. 1, 1863.
I. Albert D. Bolleau, citizen of Philadelphia, editor and publisher of the Philadelphia Evening Journal, now confined in Fort McHenry for the publication of an editorial article, under the title of "Davis's Message," in that newspaper, January 20, 1863, and for the publication of other articles of like dangerous character, tending to the support and encouragement of the rebellion against the Government of the United States, do hereby freely and voluntarily express my regret for the publication of that article, or for any other article of like tendency or character, and distinctly disavow such article or articles being published with my proper authority or knowledge, and declare that such publication has been made by other persons, agents or employes, without my consent and intention: and I do hereby further give to Major-General Robert C. Schenck, commanding the middle department and 8th army corps by whose order, in behalf of the Government, I have been arrested, my sacred parole of honor that upon being discharged from my present imprisonment, and the suppression of the publication of my newspaper removed, I will not write, print, or publish any articles having such dangerous character, or tending to the support or encouragement of the rebellion, but will demean myself in all things as a true and loyal citizen of the United States, intending only to support the Government, the Constitution, and the Union, as a faithful citizen should; and it is to be further understood that these declarations and pledges are made as well to relate to matter hereafter to be published in the weekly newspaper called the Democratic Leader, made up from the Daily Philadelphia Evening Journal itself, and to any other newspaper that may be published or controlled by me.
Given at Baltimore this 1st day of February 1863. 