Arbitrary arrests! The platform. "Under the pretence of a military necessity of a war power higher than the Constitution, the Constitution itself has been disregarded in every part, and public liberty and private right alike trodden down." The Democratic Party hereby declare that they consider the administration usurpation of extraordinary and dangerous powers not granted by the Constitution, the subversion of the civil by military law in states not in insurrection, the arbitrary military arrest, imprisonment, trial and sentence of American citizens--the suppression of freedom of speech and of the press--as calculated to prevent a restoration of the Union and the perpetuation of a government deriving its just powers from the consent of the governed. ..