, every one of them is annihilated in every square mile of the
republic. We live to-day, every one of us, under martial law. The
Secretary of State puts into his bastille, with a warrant as
irresponsible as that of Louis, any man whom he pleases. And you know
that neither press nor lips may venture to arraign the government
without being silenced. At this moment at least one thousand men are
'bastilled' by an authority as despotic as that of Louis, three times
as many as Eldon and George III seized when they trembled for his
throne. For the first time on this continent we have passports, which
even Louis Napoleon pronounces useless and odious. For the first time
in our history government spies frequent our cities."--Lecture of
Wendell Phillips, delivered in New York, December, 1861.]

This brought to his feet Albert P. Laning of Buffalo. He was younger
by a score of years than Loomis, and although never as prominent,
perhaps, as the great advocate of legal reformative measures, his
remarkable memory and thorough grasp of legal principles had listed
him among the strong lawyers of Western New York. To the convention he
was well known as a clear, forceful speaker, who had been a student of
political history as well as of law, and who, in spite of his ardent
devotion to his profession, had revealed, when shaping the policy of
his party, the personal gifts and remarkable power of sustained
argument that win admiration.

At Syracuse, in 1861, Laning, just then in his early forties, was in
the fulness of his intellectual power. He had followed Douglas and
favored the Crittenden Compromise, but the fall of Sumter crippled his
sympathy for the South and stiffened his support of the Federal
administration. Moreover, he understood the difficulty, during a
period of war, of conducting an impartial, constitutional opposition
to the policy of the Administration, without its degeneration into a
faction, which at any moment might be shaken by interest, prejudice,
or passion. The motion of Loomis, therefore, seemed to him too narrow,
and he opposed it with eloquence, maintaining that it was the duty of
all good men not to embarrass the Government in such a crisis. Rather
than that bold rebellion should destroy the government, he said, he
preferred to allow the President to take his own course. The
responsibility was upon him, and the people, irrespective of party,
should strengthen his hands until danger had disappeared and the
gover