n indictment or in a
civil suit? Never. It never performed one single act of government. It
never did a thing in the world! All was patriotism, and all was paper;
and with patriotism and with paper it went out on the 4th of May,
admitting itself to be, as all must regard it, a contemptible _sham_!

I have now done with the principles involved in this case, and the
questions presented on this record.

In regard to the other case, I have but few words to say. And, first, I
think it is to be regretted that the court below sent up such a list of
points on which it was divided. I shall not go through them, and shall
leave it to the court to say whether, after they shall have disposed of
the first cause, there is any thing left. I shall only draw attention to
the subject of martial law; and in respect to that, instead of going
back to martial law as it existed in England at the time the charter of
Rhode Island was granted, I shall merely observe that martial law
confers power of arrest, of summary trial, and prompt execution; and
that when it has been proclaimed, the land becomes a camp, and the law
of the camp is the law of the land. Mr. Justice Story defines martial
law to be the law of war, a resort to military authority in cases where
the civil law is not sufficient; and it confers summary power, not to be
used arbitrarily or for the gratification of personal feelings of hatred
or revenge, but for the preservation of order and of the public peace.
The officer clothed with it is to judge of the degree of force that the
necessity of the case may demand; and there is no limit to this, except
such as is to be found in the nature and character of the exigency.

I now take leave of this whole case. That it is an interesting incident
in the history of our institutions, I freely admit. That it has come
hither is a subject of no regret to me. I might have said, that I see
nothing to complain of in the proceedings of what is called the Charter
government of Rhode Island, except that it might perhaps have discreetly
taken measures at an earlier period for revising the constitution. If in
that delay it erred, it was the error into which prudent and cautious
men would fall. As to the enormity of freehold suffrage, how long is it
since Virginia, the parent of States, gave up her freehold suffrage? How
long is it since nobody voted for governor in New York without a
freehold qualification? There are now States in which no man can vote