Rutland Weekly Herald

The Rutland Herald.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1864.

And the Supreme Court,

Some time in April or May of last year Gen. Burnside, whose head quarters were at that time in Cincinnati, issued his famous Order No. 38, which, in a word, provided for the effectual discomfit of any person who showed signs of secession on the north side of the Union lines. Under this order, two men who had been recruiting in Kentucky for the rebel army, were 'tried as spies, condemned as spies, and hung as spies.' It was a time of gloom and perplexity to the friends of the Union. Misfortunes one after another had befallen our cause; the rebels were jubilant and the copperheads defiant. This was especially the case in some counties of Ohio. Not long after this stringent but necessary order was promulgated, Vallandigham made a speech in Dayton, in which he declared this order to be 'a base usurpation of arbitrary power,' that 'he despised it, spit upon it, trampled it under his feet, and would never submit to it.' In three days after this defiant and treasonable speech, he had an opportunity of showing whether he could trample the order under foot or not. He was arrested and arraigned before a court of eight officers, for violation of this order. convicted and sentenced to confinement in Fort Warren during the war. The President thinking it either a good joke, or good policy, commuted the sentence to banishment among the rebels where he belonged. For reasons best known to the rebels and to Vallandigham he embraced an early opportunity to run the blockade. and in due time was heard from in Canada. What a howl was set up by all rebel sympathizers ! How they were going to annihilate Gen. Burnside and the President-elect Vallandigham Governor and bring him from Canada in triumph! A plump Hundred Thousand majority of votes against him at the October election produced a slight change in the aspect of things. This verdict of the people and the soldiers was an element which the copperheads had not taken into their calculations. Their hopes now centered in the Supreme Court. They had already poured out vials of wrath upon the head of Judge Leavitt of Ohio, because he had refused the application for a writ of habeas corpus. But now the Supreme Court of the United States have solemnly decided against the application to annul the sentence of the Military Court. The Court declare they have no jurisdiction in the case! they can do nothing to relieve a man who has got himself into such a

such a comfort. So far as our knowledge extends, the copperheads have been very sparing in their abuse of the Supreme Court. They undoubtedly expected a different result in this case; and whether they will still continue to treat this body with due respect, or whether they will say of it as they did of Judge Leavitt that it is a 'minion' and a 'perjured betrayer of trust' remains to be seen. Whatever may have been the past antecedents of the Supreme Court, it is undoubtedly true that since the out-break of the rebellion, the opinion of this Court has never been given in opposition to the acts of the President.— This ought to put to shame and silence those who have been clamorous about his 'unconstitutional and tyrannical usurpations.'