February 23, 1861; The New York Herald
We are informed, by telegraph from Savannah, that, in consequence of the refusal of the police authorities of New York to give up the eight cases of muskets illegally taken from a vessel lying in this port and bound for Georgia, Governor Brown of that State, has seized several New York ships and detained them in the harbor of Savannah, to the great damage of their owners.
As a matter of course, the republican presses will make a great tirade against Governor Brown, but it is not easy to see how he could have pursued any course other than that which he has adopted. The action of the police of New York was altogether unjustifiable, and the refusal of the General Superintendent to give up the arms is a flagrant abuse of power. We take it for granted that whatever may be the case at the South, the North is still at peace with all mankind. No foreign Power menaces us, and it is not presumed that the Southern people are coming here to fight with us any more than that we are going there to whip them. Under such circumstances, we all have certain rights which cannot be infringed. One of these is the right to keep and bear arms; another, to be secure in our person, houses and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures – all searches and seizures to be made by virtue of a warrant issued upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched and the person or things to be searched. We have been careful to quote here the exact words of the organic law of the land, as the republicans claim that they will support the constitution as it is. Under that constitution the Police commissioners have been guilty of an offence which can only be properly named by the use of a very disagreeable term – to wit, piracy. We are told that the Governor of the State disavows all connection with the matter, and throws the blame upon the Police Commissioners. Kennedy, the Superintendent, has been very officious in this affair, but his motive probably is to curry favor with the Commissioners, whose pliant tool he is. They (the Commissioners), in the absence of any declaration of war, had no more right to seized upon the arms and declare them contraband than they would have to enter the house of a private citizen and take away his fowling piece or revolver. Latterly, the Metropolitan Police seem to have assumed despotic functions, and to have instituted a sort of martial law over all of us. They seem to forget that there are any such things as laws, and ignore altogether the Bill of Rights. They assume powers which even the Paris police, the most arbitrary in the world, never pretended to have, except in revolutionary times. In the South there is a revolutionary movement, sanctioned by the popular voice; but the people of this Metropolitan Police district have not declared themselves as opposed to the laws of the land. This is the whole gist of the matter: – the powers of the police do not extend beyond this district; they are strictly defined by law, and they have no more right to go one step beyond them than the President has to declare war against England tomorrow.
So far as local matters are concerned, the conduct of the police, the favoritism and corruption in the department, the rudeness and brutality of the pets of the Commissioners, have made it sufficiently unpopular without this last and most outrageous step. Not only do we have to pay an immense sum for a notoriously inefficient, lazy, and impertinent body of men, who are secure in their berths, and who snap their fingers at public opinion, but it appears that our intercourse with Southern ports is to be suspended, in order to make a little capital for the republicans in the rural districts.
Now, the duty of the Police Commissioners clearly is to compel Kennedy to subside, to restore the arms to their rightful owners, and to stop the disgraceful and unlawful espionage over vessels bound for the Southern ports. We believe that there is still a United States government quite capable of exercising all proper powers and duties under the constitution – a document which we recommend to the especial attention of the Police Commissioners. If they do not understand their duty, Governor Morgan, who appointed them, may as well fill their places with men who have not bidden an eternal farewell to the first principles of common sense, equity, justice and law.