, and
Lincoln in turn found themselves in exigencies where they held it to
be their duty to decide for themselves on their high political
responsibility in matters of constitutional power and duty. Lincoln
suspended the privilege of _habeas corpus_ by his own proclamation,
and adhered to his view, although Judge Taney in the Circuit Court
for Maryland denied his power to do so. When Congress passed a
regulating act on the subject which seemed to him sufficient, he
signed the statute because he was quite willing to limit his action
by the provisions embodied in it, and not because he thought the act
necessary to confer the power.

An incident in the history of the treasonable organizations believed
to exist in Indiana emphasizes the change of mental attitude of
Judge Davis between 1863 and 1866. During the progress of the
Vallandigham case, General Burnside conceived a distrust of the
wisdom of the course pursued by Brigadier-General Carrington, who
commanded at Indianapolis, and sent Brigadier-General Hascall there
to command that district. Carrington had been the right hand of
Governor Morton in ferreting out the secrets of the Golden Circle,
and applying Order No, 38 to them, but Burnside's lack of confidence
in the cool-headed caution and judgment of his subordinate led him
to make the change. Hascall was a brave and reliable Indiana
officer, who had seen much active field service, and with whom I was
associated in the Twenty-third Corps during the Atlanta campaign. He
was ardently loyal, but an unexcitable, matter-of-fact sort of
person. He did not suit Governor Morton, who applied to the
Secretary of War to have him removed from command, declaring that
immediate action was important. Judge Davis, who was in
Indianapolis, was induced to co-operate with the governor in the
matter, and telegraphed to Mr. Stanton that Hascall's removal was
demanded by the honor and interests of the government. [Footnote:
Official Records, vol. xxiii. pt. ii. p.369. See also _Id_., p.194.]
Hascall was sent to the field, and after a short interval Carrington
was restored to duty at Indianapolis. In the continued investigation
and prosecution of the Golden Circle, and finally in the trial of
Milligan, General Carrington was, under Governor Morton, the most
active instrument; and it was, of course, to keep him at work on
that line that the changes in command were secured. Yet it was the
fruit of this very work of Carrington that was so s