In November, 1867, General Ord, commanding the military district of Mississippi, arrested and imprisoned an editor named W. H. McCardle, for alleged libelous and incendiary publications. McCardle applied to the United States Circuit Court for a writ of _habeas corpus_ under the same act of Congress which Milligan had successfully invoked. The writ was granted, a hearing was had, and the prisoner was remanded to the custody of the military authorities. McCardle took an appeal to the Supreme Court. The Attorney-General of the United States, Mr. Henry Stanbery, decided not to appear in the case. General Grant was at this time Secretary of War _ad interim_, and Stanbery notified him of the pending case and suggested to him the propriety of employing counsel to represent the military authorities having McCardle in custody. As this was a case involving the validity of the Reconstruction laws of Congress, General Grant took steps to defend, and addressed a letter to Senator Trumbull, dated January 8, 1868, saying: "This Department desires to engage your professional services, for that object." Trumbull replied on the 11th, accepting the employment, and saying that he should desire to have other counsel associated with him. A few days later he secured the assistance of Matt. H. Carpenter, of Wisconsin. A brief was prepared, and both Trumbull and Carpenter made oral arguments. McCardle was represented by Jeremiah S. Black. Trumbull's argument was made on the 4th of March. He contended that the court had no jurisdiction, and that, therefore, the appeal should be dismissed. The legislation of Congress on the subject was as follows: The Act of 1789, establishing the judiciary, did not give the right of appeal to the Supreme Court in _habeas corpus_ cases. It was omitted in order to avoid lumbering the docket of the highest tribunal with petty details. On the 5th of February, 1867, Congress passed an act granting the right of appeal to the Supreme Court in such cases, in order to protect negroes and white Unionists in the South. The last clause of the act was in these words: This act shall not apply to the case of any person who is or may be held in the custody of the military authorities of the United States _charged with any military offense_, or with having aided or abetted rebellion against the Government of the United States prior to the passage of this act. It was Trumbull's contention that McCardle fell within this exception, and hence that the right of appeal, so far as he was concerned, did not exist.