History of Westchester County, New York, Vol. I
August 16th begins the bitter controversy on the suspension of the habeas corpus, when the sheriff of Kings County tried to get out of Fort Lafayette the Baltimore police commissioners, confined there under an order of General Banks, for treasonable action in Maryland. From this time it seems that the Republican papers, recently established in the county, are beginning to "strike back," for the editor is very indignant at being classed with the Yonhers Herald and Highland Democrat as " three penny-whistle, traitor sheets." He indignantly asks, " if all the men opposed to the Mexican War and that of 1812 were traitors ?" and answers :
"No, we are not traitore. We admit that the secessionists forced the war on ns. . . . Bat we hate Abraham Lincoln's principles. . . , We have exposed corruption wherever we have found it. . . . If this be treason, make the most of it. . . . If hatred of the Chicago platform be treason, we are traitors. So are three-fourths of our soldier's, and they would refuse to march a step if they thought that their loyalty was to be measured by such a standard, . . ."
Next week the White Plains paper, with the Highland Democrat and Yonkers Herald, were formally presented by the grand jury in the following terms :
THE PIIESENT.MENT.
" The Grand Jury of the county of Westchester, recognizing the existence of the war in which the country is now engaged, with an armed rebellion in a portion of the confedeiacy ; and the necessity for its vigorous prosecution, until an honorable peace is conquered ; and desirous of having public opinion so fixed, and individual action so shaped, in the hitherto loyal county of Westchester, in regard to the war, as to prevent breaches of the peace ; feel it a duty to call the attention of all loyal citizens and the magistracy of the county to the importance of every one within its borders contributing every honorable effort to the sustaining of the Federal arm, in maintaining the supremacy of the laws of the land and in crushing out the rebellion of the southern traitors.