“The Constitution of the United States is a law for rulers and people, equally in war and in peace, and covers with the shield of its protection all classes of men, at all times, and under all circumstances. No doctrine, involving more pernicious consequences, was ever invented by the wit of man than that any of its provisions can be suspended during any of the great exigencies of government. Such a doctrine leads directly to anarchy or despotism; but the theory of necessity on which it is based is false; for the government, within the constitution, has all the powers granted to it, which are necessary to preserve its existence.... “... It could well be said that a country, preserved at the sacrifice of all the cardinal principles of liberty, is not worth the cost of preservation.”[727] This opinion by a Lincoln appointee to the Court was offset in part by the concurring opinion of Lincoln’s former Secretary of the Treasury. Chief Justice Chase could conceive of a situation in which Congress might find such measures “essential to the prosecution of the war with vigor and success,” and would therefore be entitled under the Constitution to resort to them. Independent of statutory authorization the President, however, could not employ such power. He was limited to executing the measures adopted by Congress.[728] Some eighty years later, in 1941, martial law was declared in Hawaii. From that time through the Fall of 1945, the Islands were ruled by the military. After bitter and protracted litigation, in which the federal courts in Honolulu were particularly outspoken against the type of military rule practiced in the Islands, the cases of _Duncan_ v. _Kahanamoku_ and _White_ v. _Steer_ managed to surmount the obstacle course to the Supreme Court.[729] Duncan and White were civilians who had been apprehended during the war and tried and convicted by the military, the former for assault against a Marine sentry, and the latter for embezzlement. Both were crimes under the Hawaiian civil code. Challenging the jurisdiction of the military to try these men, a lower federal court ordered their release upon petition for habeas corpus; and on appeal the validity of the District Court order was sustained by the Supreme Court in an opinion written by Justice Black. The case turned upon a narrow interpretation of the meaning of “martial law.” The term did not, Black said, embrace trial of civilians by military courts. He did leave the door ajar, however, implying that it is not inconceivable in a situation of dire necessity, that such trial of civilians by the military might be upheld.