mply
expeditious for the purposes of undisturbed and tranquil periods. But in
times of rebellion or invasion, the waiting and delay which are often
essential to the prosecution of forms prescribed for undisturbed epochs
are, as has been said, simply impossible. War is a period in which
methods and procedures are required diametrically opposite to those
which are so fruitful of good in days of peace. The lawbreaker who comes
with an army at his back cannot be served with a sheriff's warrant, nor
arrested by a constable. War involves unforeseen emergencies, to meet
which there is no time for calling Congress together, or taking the
sense of the populace by a ballot. It is full of attempted surprises,
which must be guarded against on the instant, and of dangers which must
be quickly avoided, but for whose guardance or avoidance the statutes
make no provision. Hence arises a necessity for a mode of ascertaining
the will of the people other than the slow medium of formal legislation
or of balloting.

The Government of the United States is the servant of its people. It was
ordained to insure for _them_ 'domestic tranquillity, provide for the
common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of
liberty to' themselves and their posterity. Its laws and statutes are
but the forms by which the people attempt to secure these things. But
the people are sovereign, even over their laws. As they have instituted
them _for their own good_, so may they dispense with them for their own
good, whenever the national safety requires this. As they have
established certain modes of lawful procedure _for their own security_,
so may they adopt other modes when their safety demands it. Their laws
and their codes of procedure are for their _uses_, not for their
destruction. 'When a sister State is endangered, red tape must be cut,'
said Governor Seymour, when it was telegraphed to him that some delaying
forms must be gone through in order to arm and send off our State
troops who were ordered to the defence of Harrisburg; and all the people
said, Amen! The people of the United States inaugurated a government,
whose forms of law were admirably suited to times of peace, but have
been found inadequate to seasons of intestine strife. They have, as we
have seen, superadded, in some degree, other methods of action,
indorsing and adopting those to which the Executive was compelled to
resort as better adapted to changed conditions. They h