office of the Attorney General, March 23, 1891. S.
E. BLACKWELL.]

Hon. E. M. STANTON, _Secretary of War_:

Sir: I find that the Secretary of War and the President are
violently assailed for arresting certain parties in the loyal
States and suspending the writ of _habeas corpus_. It is
represented that a high judicial officer in the State of Vermont
has taken issue with the Administration on this question. It is
also intimated that the State authorities, in Vermont and
elsewhere, are to be invoked for the protection of the citizen
against military arrests. There is very great danger at this time
to be apprehended to the country from a conflict between the
military and the judicial authorities, because the opinion is
almost universal that the authority to suspend the writ of
_habeas corpus_ rests with Congress. The reason that this opinion
has so generally obtained is that in England, whence we have
derived much of our political and judicial system, the power to
suspend the writ is vested alone in Parliament; and our jurists,
without reflecting upon the distinction between the constitutions
of the two Governments, have erroneously made the English theory
applicable to our own.

I believe in my work on the "War Powers of the Government," etc.,
I was the first writer who has succeeded in placing the power of
the Government to arrest for political offences, and to suspend
the writ of _habeas corpus_, on its true foundation. In the
opinion of eminent men, if this work were now placed in the hands
of every lawyer and judge it would stay the evil which threatens
to arise from a conflict between the military and judicial
departments of the country. I therefore respectfully suggest the
propriety of authorizing me to circulate a large edition of this
work, or, what would be still better, that I should write a _new
paper_, specially on the power of the Executive to suspend the
writ of _habeas corpus_, and to arrest political offenders.

ANNA ELLA CARROLL.

* * * * *

In October, 1862, Miss Carroll wrote the following letter to the
Secretary of War, through the hands of John Tucker, Assistant
Secretary, on the reduction of Vicksburg:

"As I understand an expedition is about