The struggles to maintain the chartered rights of the people against the encroachments and usurpations of kingly prerogative, have been many, great, and even revolutionary. It has only been by an unconquerable will, and severe contests, that they have again and again been reasserted and re-established, enlarged and secured.

Encroachments upon the rights and liberties of the people by Charles I., who caused the arbitrary imprisonment of his subjects, gave birth to the enactment of the Petition of Right, and also brought the head of that unhappy monarch to the block.

To enforce the provisions contained in the Magna Charta and Petition of Right, for securing the subject in his personal rights and personal liberty, against arbitrary imprisonments by command of the King or the Privy Council, the Habeas Corpus Act was passed, in the 31st Charles II. It may be called the bulwark of English liberty.

For nearly five centuries, the contests between sovereign and people, the one for royal prerogative, the other for the rights of personal liberty, were many and violent.

If the King would threaten with the Star Chamber, the people would point to the Magna Charta. If the King would commit by the High Commission Court, the people would unfold the Petition of Right. If the King would imprison by the Privy Council, the people would release through the Habeas Corpus.

In 1688, these struggles culminated, and ended in the adop tion of the Declaration of Rights and the Act of Settlement, in the dethronement of James II. and the establishment of William and Mary, by a Civil Revolution, in which “not

a single new right was given to the people or a single flower of the crown was touched."

Since then, wise and sagacious legislation may have added strength to the perpetuity of the Crown; but at the same time, it has maintained and enlarged the rights and liberties of the people. It has firmly established a triune government-a monarchy, an aristocracy, and a democracy-in which, happily, democracy is the controlling element and monarchy a mere formality, while the aristocracy leans towards the democracy for protection.

The acts of the Sovereign are dependent on a ministry responsible to the Parliament, which has grown so much in power, especially the Commons, that it may be said the safeguards of personal liberty, under the English Constitution, repose in the breasts of the English people.

After the expulsion of the kings, the Romans, being careful of their liberties, erected and dedicated a temple to the Goddess of Liberty, and it was then esteemed an honor to call oneself a Roman citizen- Civis Romanus.

In our own country, there was a time when the proudest appellation a man could bear was that of American citizen. "I am an American citizen," implied liberty and safetyprotection and justice. Then, the national shield was, indeed, a shield with arms--a shield which defended the citizen against every act of tyranny and usurpation- a shield which guarded him on land and sea, at home and abroad. Then, personal liberty was a citizen's birthright. Then, free speech was unshackled. Then, Mr. Webster could exclaim: "It" (free speech) "is a homebred right -a fireside privilege. It has ever been enjoyed in every house, cottage, and cabin in the nation. It is not to be drowned in controversy. It is as

undoubted as the right of breathing the air and walking on the earth. It is a right to be maintained in peace and in war. It is a right which cannot be invaded without destroying constitutional liberty. Hence, this right should be guarded and protected by the freemen of this country with a jealous care, unless they are prepared for chains and anarchy." What are the protections of the law now?

When the arteries which convey the life-blood from the heart of the constitution to all parts of its body once become paralyzed, the most skilful treatment can never restore it to its original vigor and healthful condition. A partial recovery may be effected, but the disease remains.

Oppressive and illegal acts by one Administration may be adopted as established precedents for similar encroachments by succeeding ones; and who can gainsay the right? Surely, not the people, when they not only encourage, but are accessories in the wrong. Therefore, without a proper and conscientious regard for the majesty of the law, and the observance of personal rights, there is no security for permanence in free gov

ernment.

From the organization of the Government, until the administration of the late Mr. Lincoln, we know of no case in which an American citizen was arrested without warrant, imprisoned without charge preferred, and released, after months and years of incarceration, without trial; although he who will take the trouble to turn over the leaves of American history will discover that, in many cases, there was not only imaginary, but real "disloyalty" among citizens, dangerous to the common interests of the Government, during former Administrations.

Educated in the principles of republicanism, intelligent

beyond comparison, and heretofore governed by conservative magistrates, whose wisdom, experience, and characters commanded respect and confidence-a people who had always supported the Government with alacrity, unselfish devotion, and fidelity, was unprepared to be obliged to submit, without redress, except by physical resistance, to an arbitrary and tyrannical prerogative, unrestrained by law, reason, or justice.

The Administration of Mr. Lincoln having been ushered into existence under the banner of universal freedom, it was to be expected, from the enlightened condition of the age, and the conservative and patriotic disposition of the people in the "loyal" States, that the Government would be administered in accordance with the promised reforms. In this, however, the people were disappointed. Legislative enactments were unrestrained by constitutional provisions. The President assumed quasi plenary power, to make and enforce laws without the interference, assistance, or aid of the legislative or judicial branches of Government; and, in a word, drew around his official personas he would his mantle. around his individual person all the powers of government, Municipal, State, and National, which he enforced through his obsequious Secretaries. Consolidation of interests, and centralization of power, were complete. The Government was the President - the President was the Government.

But we forbear to criticise. We present facts. Let them speak. Let the people answer. No words we could use would bring relief to the harrowed feeling of, or redress the wrongs perpetrated upon, thousands of unoffending citizens, by their unwarranted incarceration in American Bastiles during the Administration of the late President Lincoln. We contemplate the cruelties, oppressions, persecutions, and imprison

ments, committed during that long night of political despotism, with alarm. We shudder for the future of the country, when we take a retrospect of the late past.

If a truthful presentation of the facts, as contained in this volume, will in anywise prevent in the future a repetition of the wrongs and crimes committed against the rights and liberties of the people, in the name of liberty, then our highest ambition has been satisfied. To prevent flagitious wrongs from being committed against the constitutional rights of individuals is the duty of every good citizen in a free State. Liberty is too valuable a privilege, and, as we have endeavored to demonstrate, has been too costly an inheritance, to be bartered away for the gratification of personal or political animosity.

May the time never again arrive in the history of this country, when it may be said to Americans, as was said by Camille Desmoulins to the Parisians during the French Revolution: "Ye worship the Goddess of Liberty, not in principle, but in stone, and never was a more stupid or costly idolatry. Liberty, heaven-descended, is neither a nymph of the opera, nor a bonnet rouge, nor yet a dirty shirt and ragged clothes. Liberty is happiness, reason, equality-the declaration of rights-in a word, the Constitution. If you would have me worship it, open your prisons; set free the two hundred thousand ye have incarcerated as suspects. I find no such crime in the Constitution or the law."

That has always been in the past, and ever will be in the future, the sincere prayer of

THE AUTHOR.