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ARBITRARY ORDERS.

ment upon their liberties, were, however, disquieted by the subsequent "orders" of the Government "to prevent the evasion of military duty."

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able to be drafted into the militia to go to a foreign country, or even to absent himself from his county or State. Arbitrary as were such orders, there

These orders* forbade any citizen li- would have been, perhaps, a ready com

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WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C.,
August 8th, 1862.

Ordered, First-That all United States marshals and superintendents, or chiefs of police, of any town, city, or

district, be, and they are hereby, authorized and directed

to arrest and imprison any person or persons who may be

engaged, by act, speech, or writing, in discouraging volunteer enlistments, or in any way giving aid and comfort to the enemy, or in any other disloyal practice against the United States.

Second-That an immediate report be made to Major

L. C. Turner, Judge Advocate, in order that such persons

may be tried before a military commission.

Third-The expenses of such arrest and imprisonment will be certified to the Chief Clerk of the War Department

for settlement and payment.

EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War.

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WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON CITY, D. C., August 8th, 1862. Ordered, First-By direction of the President of the

United States it is hereby ordered that, until further

orders, no citizen liable to be drafted into the militia shall be allowed to go to a foreign country, and all marshals, deputy marshals, and military officers of the United

States are directed, and all police authorities, especially at

the ports of the United States on the seaboard and on the

frontier, are requested to see, that this order is faithfully carried into effect. And they are hereby authorized and directed to arrest and detain any person or persons about

to depart from the United States in violation of this order, and report to Major L. C. Turner, Judge Advocate, at Washington City, for further instructions respecting the

person or persons so arrested and detained.

Second-Any person liable to draft, who shall absent

himself from his county or State before such draft is made, will be arrested by any provost marshal or other United States or State officer wherever he may be found within the jurisdiction of the United States, and conveyed

to the nearest military post or dépôt, and placed on military duty for the term of the draft; and the expenses of his own arrest and conveyance to such post or dépôt, and also the sum of five dollars as a reward to the officer who

shall make such arrest, shall be deducted from his pay.

Third-The writ of habeas corpus is hereby suspended in respect to all persons so arrested and detained, and in

respect to all persons arrested for disloyal practices.

EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War.

pliance had the necessity of their issue been manifest to the common sense of the people. Universally stirred as they were by an unexampled spirit of patriotism, they were conscious that none but the exceptional few, the cowards and the disaffected, would seek to avoid the call of duty. It seemed, therefore, an unnecessary stretch of authority on the part of Government to take so largely from the rights of the citizen to accomplish so small an object as the prevention of the escape of that paltry number who had the disposition. to leave the country. To hinder the flight of perhaps a few hundred, the patriotism of a great and loyal nation was insulted, and millions of citizens were deprived of a right which has thus been emphatically declared by an authority that none are disposed to question: "No citizen," says Chancellor Kent," can be sent abroad, or, the existing law of the land, prevented from going abroad, except in those cases in which he may be detained by civil process or upon a criminal charge. The constitutions of several of the United States have declared that all people have a natural right to emigrate from the State, and have prohibited the interruption of that right."

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It was soon manifest that it was impracticable to execute the orders. If faithfully carried out, they would have

In the mean time, while plans for a draft were being organized, and the severe orders to secure it were being executed, the people were so promptly volunteering as to prove, if not that the former was unnecessary, that the latter were superfluous. With the additional reinforcements, supplied by the patriotism of the country, the Government was ena

paralyzed at once all the movement of trade and the intercourse of society. The resident of Brooklyn, for example, arrested on the route to his countinghouse or shop in New York, might be forced to fail in his engagement at the bank or in the market, or, seized on his return home, be suddenly torn from all companionship of wife and children. The Government finally becoming con-bled to pursue its military operations with scious of the impracticability of the orders, strove to render them less offensive by enjoining in their execution the exercise of sound judgment.*

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• WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C.,
August 11, 1862.

TO MILITARY COMMANDANTS, PROVOST MARSHALS, U. S.
MARSHALS, AND POLICE OFFICERS:

renewed vigor. This revival of activity was first displayed in Central Virginia, where the several corps d'armée of Major-Generals Fremont, Banks, and June McDowell had been consolidated 26. into one army, and placed under the command of Major-General Pope, whose energy in the West gave hope of in

You will receive herewith an order from the War De- creased enterprise in the East. partment to prevent the evasion of military duty, and for the suppression of disloyal practices, dated the 8th of August, 1862.

This appointment of Pope led to a request on the part of Fremont to be

This order, to be efficient, is necessarily very compre-relieved from his command, which was hensive in its terms, and its proper execution requires the

exercise of sound judgment and discretion by the officers to whom its enforcement is intrusted; and, to guard you in its execution, the following instructions are to be ob served:

First-The order comprises two classes of persons, viz. : those who are about leaving the United States to evade military duty, and those who, for the same purpose, leave their own State. Leaving the United States, until the military draft is perfected, is absolutely prohibited; but it was not the intention of the order to interfere with the transit, from State to State, of any persons but those who designed to evade military duty. Whenever you have reason to believe that the purpose is to evade military duty, the order will authorize the detention of any person leaving his own State, county, or military district.

Second-Any person detained may be released on giving bonds to the United States, with sufficient security, in the sum of $1,000, conditional for the performance of military duty if he should be drafted, or the providing of a proper substitute.

Third-Immediate report is to be made to this office of all persons detained, with the cause of their detention.

Fourth-You will exercise the powers of arrest and detention with caution and forbearance, so as to avoid giving annoyance or trouble to any persons excepting those

granted by the President.+

General

who are seeking to evade the performance of their duty to their country.

Fifth-The Governors of the respective States are authorized to give passes and permits to their own citizens desiring to leave the State without intent to evade military duty.

By order of the Secretary of War.

L. C. TURNER, Judge Advocate. + The following was the order granting the request of General Fremont :

"WAR DEPARtment, WashinGTON, June 27, 1862. "I.-Major-General John C. Fremont having requested to be relieved from the command of the first army corps of the Army of Virginia, because, as he says, the position assigned him by the appointment of Major-General Pope as commander-in-chief of the Army of Virginia is subordinate and inferior to that heretofore held by him, and to remain in the subordinate command now assigned would, as he says, largely reduce his rank and consideraation in the service, it is ordered that Major-General John C. Fremont be relieved from his command.

"II.-That Brigadier-General Rufus King be and he is hereby assigned to the command of the first army corps

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Prtered according to act of Congress 418 by Vire & Yorsten, in the arkis office of the distrot court of the United States for the southern district of New York

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