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Show 278 LIFE 01<' GEN. JACKSON. CHAP. and necessity required. They were assured his object ~was to defend the country, and that he should do it, 1814• at all hazards; that soldiers, who entered the ranks, should forget the habits of social life, and be willing and prepared to go wherever duty and danger called ; such he wanted, and none others would he have. Influenced by these, and other weighty considerations, which were daily disclosed; and from a conviction which he felt was not founded upon light considerations- that the country, without it, could not be saved ; he brought to the view of the legislature the propriety and necessity of suspending the writ of habeas corpus. They proceeded slowly to the investigation, and were deliberating, with great caution, upon their right and power to adopt such a measure ; when the general, Declara· sensible that procrastination was dangerous, and might ~~;,f:1 defeat the objects intended to be answered, suspended law. their councils, by declaring the city and environs of New Orleans under martial law. All persons entering the city were required, immediately, to report themselves to the adjutant general; and on failing to do so, to be arrested, and held for examination. None were to depart from it, or be suffered to pass beyond the chain of sentinels, but by 1)ermission from the commanding general, or one of the staff: nor was any vessel or craft to be permitted to sail on the river, or the lakes, but by the same authority, or a passport signed by the commander of the naval forces. The lamps were to be extinguished at nine o'clock at night ; after which time, all persons found in the ~treets, or from their respective homes, without per- LIFE OF GEN. JACKSON. 279 mission, ~n writing, signed as above, were to be arrest- CHAP. ed, as spies, and detained for examination. VITI. At a crisis so important, and from a persuasion that~ the country, in its menaced situation, could not be 1814• saved, by the exercise of any ordinary powers he be-lieved it best to adopt a course that should be ~fficient even if ~t ~)artially endangered the rights and privilege~ of the. Citizen. He proclaimed martial law, believing necessity and policy required it : " Under a solemn conviction that the country, committed to his care, co~ld b~ such a measure alone be s.wed from utter ~m; and from a religious belief, that he was perform- ~g the most important and sacred duty. By it, he mtend.ed t~ supersede such civil powers, as, in their op~rat10n, mterfered with those he was obliged to ex- ~cise. He thought that, at such a moment, constitu-bonal fo:ms. should be suspended, for the preservation of co.n stitutiOnal rights ; and that there could b e no quest10n, whether it were better to depart, for a mo-ment, from the enjoyment of our dearest privileges or have them wrested from us forever." ' ~his rigid course, however, was by no means well received. "\tVhether it had for its obiect good .1 wh th . . J or evi , e er spnngmg from necessity, or from a spirit of oppressim~ in its author, with many, was not a mate~ ~uestlo~ : it was sufficient for them to consider It~ .infractiO~ of the law, to excite their warmest opposit~ on ; whilst the necessitas rei afforded no sub~ ntml argument, to induce a conviction of its propnety. Whether the civil should yield to m'l'ta law h' h 11 ry '. or w. IC should have control, with those whose anxiOus Wishes were for the safety of the state, was not |