e people, it is not merely a step
toward revolution, it is revolution; it will not only lead to military
despotism, it establishes military despotism. In this respect it must
be accepted, or in this respect it must be rejected. If it is upheld
our liberties are overthrown." Then he grew bolder. "The people of
this country now wait with the deepest anxiety the decision of the
Administration upon these acts. Having given it a generous support in
the conduct of the war, we now pause to see what kind of government it
is for which we are asked to pour out our blood and our treasure. The
action of the Administration will determine, in the minds of more than
one-half the people of the loyal States, whether this war is waged to
put down rebellion in the South or to destroy free institutions at the
North."[895]

[Footnote 895: Appleton's _Cyclopaedia_, 1863, p. 689.]

At great length Lincoln replied to the resolutions forwarded by
Corning. "In my own discretion," wrote the President, "I do not know
whether I would have ordered the arrest of Mr. Vallandigham.... I was
slow to adopt the strong measures which by degrees I have been forced
to regard as being within the exceptions of the Constitution and as
indispensable to the public safety.... I think the time not unlikely
to come when I shall be blamed for having made too few arrests rather
than too many.... Must I shoot a simple-minded soldier boy who
deserts, while I must not touch a hair of a wily agitator who induces
him to desert? This is none the less injurious when effected by
getting a father, a brother, or friend into a public meeting and then
working upon his feelings till he is persuaded to write the soldier
boy that he is fighting in a bad cause for a wicked administration and
contemptible government, too weak to arrest and punish him if he shall
desert."[896] This argument, undoubtedly the strongest that could be
made in justification, found great favour with his party, but the
danger Seymour apprehended lay in the precedent. "Wicked men ambitious
of power, with hatred of liberty and contempt of law," said Justice
Davis of the United States Supreme Court, in deciding a case of
similar character, "may fill the place once occupied by Washington and
Lincoln, and if this right [of military arrest] is conceded, and the
calamities of war again befall us, the dangers to human liberty are
frightful to contemplate."[897]

[Footnote 896: Appleton's _Cyclopaedia_, 1863, pp. 8