The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1863-05-23

approval OF the Ohief Executive, pfONueu
the urgency of the case does not require
a speedier execution, and then only with
the approval Of the chief commander.
10, Military jurisdiction is of two
kinds; first, that which is conferred and
defined by statute second, that which is
derived from the common law Of war. Mill
itary oifenses under the statute law must
be tried in the manner therein directed
but military offence which do nc
como within the statue must be trie
and punished under the common law ot
wrn Th. character Of ti.e courts wbicn
exercise these jurisdictions depends upon
the local news Of each particular coun-
try.
In the armies of the United States the
Grstis exercised by court martial; while
cases which do not come within the
Rules and Articles of War;" or the
jurisdiction conferred by statute on
cOurts-martial, are tried by military
commissions.
II. Military necessity, as understood
by modern civilized nations, consists in
the necessity of those measures which
are indispensable for securing the ends
of the war, and which are lawful accord.
ing to the modern law and usages of
war.
10. Military necessity admits of all
direct destruction of life or limb of
armed enemies, and of other persons
whose destruction is incidentally una
U0iddJle in the armed contests of the war !;
it allows of the capturing of every armed
enemy, and every enemy of importance
to the hostile Government, or of peculiar
danger to the captor; allows of all de-
slruction of property, and obstruction
of the ways and channels of traffic,
travel, or communication, and of all
Withholding Of sustenance or means Of
life from the enemy; of the appropria-
ton of whatever an enemy's country
affords necessary for the subsistence and
safety of the army and OF such decep-
zion as does not involve the breaking of
good faith either positively pledged, re-
garding agreements entered into during
the war OF supposed by the modern law
of war TO exist. Men who take up arms
against one another In public war do not
cease on this account to be moral beings,
responsible to one another, and to God.
10. Military necessity does not admit
of cruelty, that is, the infliction of suf-
| fering for the sake of suffering or for
revenge, nor of manning or wounding
except in fight, nor of torture to extort
confessions. 1t does not admit of the
use of poison in any way, nor of the
wanton devastation of a district. 1t
admits of deception, but disclaims acts
Of perfdy; and, in general, military
necessity does not include any act of
hostility which makes the return to peace
unnecessarily difficult,
| IL. Warts not carried on by arms alone.
1t 10 lawful TO starye the hostile belliger-
ent, armed or unarmed, so that it leads TO
the speedier subsection of the enemy.
10. When the commander of besieged
! place expels the non combatants, in order
TO lessen the number Of those who con
sumo bis stock of provisions, il is lawful,
though an extreme measure, to drive them
back, so as TO hasten on the surrender.
10. Commanders, whenever admissi-
BILE, inform the enemy of their intention
to lombard a place, so that the nom
combatants and especially the women and
children, may be removed before the
bombardment commences. But it is no
ingraction of the common law Of war 10
omit thus to inform the enemy. Surprise
may be a necessity
20 Public war is state of armed
hostility between sovereign nations OF
governments. 10 is a law and requisite
of civilized existence that men live in
political continuous societies, forming
organized units, called States or nations,
whose constituents bear, enjoy and suffer,
advance and retrograde together, in peace
and in war.
81 The citizen or native of hostile
country is thus an enemy, as one of the
constituents of the hostile State or ma
ton, and as such is subjected TO the
hardships of the war.
%. Nevertheless, MS civilization has
advanced during the last centuries, 90 has
likewise steadily advanced, especially in
war on land, the distinction between the
private individual belonging TO a hostile
country and the hostile country itself,
with its men in arms. The principle has
been more and more acknowledged that
the unarmed citizen is 10 be spared in
person, property and honor, as much as
the eXigencies Of war will admit
% Private citizens are no longer MUIR
dered, enslaved or carried off to disiant
parts, and the inoifensive individual is as
little disturbed in his private relations as
the commander of the hostile troops can
afford 10 grant in the oyerruling demands
Of vigorous war.
"A. The almost universal rule in remote
times was and continues to be with bar
barous armies, that the private individual
Of the hostile country is destined TO suffer
every privauon Of liberty and protection
and every disruption of family ties
Protection was, and still is, with uncivi.
hzed people, the exception.
%. In modern regular wars Of the Eu
ropeans, and their descendants in othe
portions Of the globe, protection of th,
inottcnsive citizen of the hostile countr,
is the rule privations and disturbance
OF private relations are the exceptions.
20. Commanding generals may caus
the magistrates and civil officers of tn
hostile country to take the oath of tenn
p0rary allegiance or an oath Of fidelit,
TO their own victorious government o.
rulers, and they may oXpel every one VIII
declines 20 do so. But whether they d
g, or not, the people and their civil OIL
GERS owe strict obedience TO them as lon
as they hold sway over the district o
country, at the peril Of their lives.
27. The law of war can no more Who'll
J ly dispense with retaliation than ca
j the law Of nations, of which il is
branch Yet civilized nations acknowl
edge retaliation as the stearnest featur
, Of war. A reckless enemy often leave