e not so generally
understood, and it is well that they should be. Nobody can be better
qualified than our historian to give the information, nor to obtain
implicit belief of all he narrates. We shall here see again that the old
practice of _shipping off_ obnoxious individuals was resorted to by a
military commander; as if there was something in the climate of
New-Orleans to excite men in power to this mode of punishment or
revenge. We cannot present these transactions better than in the
language of our author.

"On Sunday, the fourteenth, Dr. Erick Bollman was arrested by
order of Wilkinson, and hurried to a secret place of
confinement, and on the evening of the following day
application was made on his behalf, for a writ of habeas
corpus, to Sprigg, one of the territorial judges, who declined
acting, till he could consult Mathews, who could not then be
found. On the sixteenth, the writ was obtained from the
superior court; but Bollman was, in the meanwhile, put on board
of a vessel and sent down the river. On the same day,
application was made to Workman, the judge of the county of
Orleans, for a writ of habeas corpus, in favour of Ogden and
Swartwout, who had been arrested a few days before, by order of
Wilkinson, at Fort Adams, and were on board of a bomb ketch of
the United States lying before the city. Workman immediately
granted the writ, and called on Claiborne to inquire whether he
had assented to Wilkinson's proceedings: Claiborne replied he
had consented to the arrest of Bollman, and his mind was not
made up as to the propriety of that of Ogden and Swartwout.
Workman then expatiated on the illegality and evil tendency of
such measures, beseeching Claiborne not to permit them, but to
use his own authority, as the constitutional guardian of his
fellow-citizens, to protect them; but he was answered that the
executive had no authority to liberate those persons, and it
was for the judiciary to do it, if they thought fit. Workman
added, that he had heard that Wilkinson intended to ship off
his prisoners, and if this was permitted, writs of habeas
corpus would prove nugatory.

"From the alarm and terror prevalent in the city, the deputy
sheriff could procure no boat to take him on board of the
ketch, on the day the writ issued. This circumstance was made
known