North Branch democrat. [volume] (Tunkhannock, Pa.) 1854-1867, 1864-05-18
TESTIMONY no RE-
PUBLICAN CRIMES
Letter from Judge Knapp of Utah.
La MEslLLA, New MEXICO. March

putatlon of being cOpperheaI Yet | am
half inclined to be provoked that you should
have had doubt upon that subject. You
with the Republican party since that party
was first formed in Madison. You also know
that belonged to the free soil wing of the
Democracy, thoagh never did go much on
| Booth.
| Abraham Lincoln was my. especial capdi
date for President, IN preference to all 9TH
ers before the Chicago convention, and he is
mine now for re election. | may be g an
will never consent to dissolution of the
Union, nor allow the Constitution of the Uni
ted States to be violated in the least part leu
lar, if | can prevent 1t; ard it is because
would not consent to violations of if that
! did not and could not go to Santa Fe on the
first of January last. to attend the Supreme
Court. | would not by any act or example
of mine, allow military despotsm to be
set up in New Mexico or elsewhere, in viola
ation of Constitution, the rights of the peo-
pie, and the laws of Congress. That is the
sum of the offending. Twice | attempted to
60 aud was prevented by the commanding
officers of the army here, even to being ar
rested and taken from the stage in which
| had engaged my passage while before and
after, others not in office were allowed to
| travel by the same conveyance, without com
nlynr with fhoir ap1 iIlanal do
| mands. P~ice | have been arrested by
them and sent to the guard house. under in
! dignties which none but copperheads or des
pots could invent. One of them has taken
| occasion to inform me that he did it because
he thought "1leeded q lille wholesome CO.
rectl0n." Because have steadily insisted
upon my rights, as an officer of the United
States government, the whole tribe of cow
| ards and traitors here have hooted after me; :;
and finally, to injure me in Washington,
some copperhead in Santa Fe has sent over
the wires, on the 2 of last month, dis
patch calling me a copperhead
In not going, | may have acted "absurd-
y," but did not act " inconsiderately," and
have the consolation of knowing that At
| torney-General Bates, to whom l have com
| muncated all the facts and the correspon-
| dence had with the general in command al
| this place, has approved my course and de
termination in the business. Hitherto
have only complained to the proper depart
ments for redress of the grievances Of the
! people, except by letters addressed to the
Generals themselves in what manner they
had violated their positive duties, and to
which they have attempted no replies.
GThere are but five Republicans in San a
Fe, not one of whom wrote this dispatch, as
| they know better, and all of them, suffering
like myself, approve of what have done.-
! So. | say it was written either by men who
always have been and now are in the ranks
of the cobp.,- ,-headS, or who at the outbreak.
ing of The rebellion ,v"ere cheek BY jowl with
the traitors, or by the comncc ccnder OF the ar
my, who has never Jared to meet the enemy
That you may know something of what
has been done in this out of-the-way place.
and what it is that | resist, will state
| few general facts which [ am prepared to
prove before any court where the rules of
law and evidence prevail. cannot ask you
to hear or read particulars, as they are le-
glon, commencing with the advent of Gener-
| ais Carelton and West into New Mexico, and
continued to this date and by whom | have
not been permitted to perform the duties
imposed upon me by law, unless | will &C
knowledge their illegal usurpations of pow
| ers-which will never do.
These Generals and their subordinates
have trampIed down all the laws of Congress
and the rights and liberties of the people,
and set themselves up as superior to the
Constitution and laws the United States.
They have usurped the power of the leg
islatlve, executive, and judicial departments
Of the government f.; stopped the members OF
the Legislature from attending its Sc sions,
and passed orders in direct violation of the
Constitution, which they enforce at the point
of the bayonet.
They have usurped the powers Of the
| court, ooth federal and territorial, and com
PEELED citizens to answer in courts martial
Tor acts not prohibited by any law, or even
military order as well for ofenscs against
the laws and which were cognizable
by courts established by Congress, as for
acts not evil of them selves, but which were
elevated into crimes and misdemeanors by
the imaginations of these officers, and pro-
aulgated for the first time. to the person
charged, at the time of the trial.
| They have for a money consideration
granted licenses to men to keep gambling ia
bl,2s, in direct violation of the laws of the
territory, and to the evil examples and morals
of the community.
They have forcibly taken citizen, bound