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sentences, cease to be in the Custody, or under the control of the Sheriff altogether—From thenceforth the liability rests upon the Superintendent. I have always considered, and so stated to your immediate predecessor, that the ward of the convicts from the Penitentiary in this place to Alaba-ma was wholly without warrant of law. The urgency in his view, and in my own, demanded the assumption of respon-sibility in placing them beyond the reach of the enemy, as he was convinced, by what had occurred in Louisiana, that they would be released, if the enemy occupied the seat of Govern-ment, an event which seemed to be impending, and did occur in a few days. It was a Contingency which the law had failed to provide for. I incline to the opinion that they would all have been discharged on writs of Habeas Corpus in Alabama, if such writs had been applied for and granted, as the Superin-tendent of the Penitentiary then could have shown in answer to such writs, no legal authority in him to detain them.

In case they had escaped, on their journey there, or after being there confined, would not our Superintendent have been liable, as he could not have justified on the ground