This  authority  in  fact  belongs  to  the  President ;  and  it  assumes
the  war  to  be  still  raging,  and  the  final  status  of  the  conquered
province  to  be  undetermined,  so  that  the  apparent  exercise  of
civil  functions  is  really  a  measure  of  hostility.  "  Martial
Law  "  is  something  very  different.  It  acts,  if  at  all,  within
the  limits  of  the  country,  against  civilians  who  have  not
openly  enrolled  themselves  as  belligerents  among  the  forces  of
an  invading,  or  a  rebellious  enemy  ;  if  set  in  motion  at  all,  it
must  be  as  a  concomitant  of  war.  It  is  thus  described  by  a
late  writer  :^  "  Martial  Law  is,  in  short,  the  suspension  of  all
law  but  the  will  of  the  military  commanders  entrusted  with
its  execution,  to  be  exercised  according  to  their  judgment,  the
exigencies  of  the  moment,  and  the  usages  of  the  service,  with
no  fixed  or  settled  rules  or  laws,  no  definite  practice,  and  not
bound  even  by  the  rules  of  the  military  law."  If  this
description  bears  any  resemblance  to  the  fact,  every  American
citizen  must  hope  that  neither  President  nor  Congress  can  set
such  an  engine  of  abuse  and  oppression  at  work  within  the
limits  of  the  United  States.
1  Finlason  on  Mar.  Law,  p.  107


478  MARTIAL  LAW.
