The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1865-05-26


undertakes this dangerous innovation upon the
established institutions which every man has
harmed to respect, and which he himself is
lound to recognize and defer to by his oath of
Cfice. There is no functionary in this country
shove the laws, and the strength of power in
tle heads of the Government, IS in adhering
t3 them and administering them in their integ-
nty and as the people have created them.
From the ~. !. EUeaing Post, 10thiaSt.l
+ THE TRIAL AT WASHINGTON.
The Government is making prodigious and
fearful mistake in the mode Of trial 1t has adopt
ed log the conspirators in the late assassination.
Il makes double bunder. in fact, first in re-
sorting to a military tribunal, and secondly, in
cnusng the proceedings to be held in secret -
What law is there tUr these military courts, now
that the war has ceased now that the President
himself has declared in a formal proclamation
4 that the EARNED resistance in certain States is
/ virtually at on end" now that the plea of ne
ccssity is wholly Yoided? The civil law is every
j where in the ascendant, and the ordinary courts
4 are competent to any criminal inquest and de-
d cision They possess the confidence OF the peo-
/ pie, because their methods of arriving at jus
! tice, matured by the experience Of centuries,
are regular, effective, well understood. But
I these military commissions are new things, as
foreign to our habits as they are unknown to
I our laws, and whatever is done by them takes
that color of force or Of Government dictation,
whichIendcrs them suspectelin in the popular miId.
Judge and jury we know; but Major Generals
and Judge Advocates, not with swords in their
\ hands, bat with pens behind their ears, we DO
not know.
, The offences, moreover, for which these con-
I spirators are to be tried are not all military Of
! fences. The killing Of the President, who IS
talso Commander-ln-Chief of the army and ma
Ivy may be constituted 10 Il military offence, but
1.-THE attempt upon the life Of the Secretary of
Estate, aa exclusively evil officer, was not of
Ithat character. As crime it comes wholly un-
der the coenizance of the civil law, and the
perpetrators OF Il, criminal and atr0cious as
they may be, are yet sheltered by that provision
Iol the Constitution which declares that ''no
person shall be held to answer for a capital or
Iotherwise infamous crime, unless on a present
Iment Dr indictment OF grand jury, except In
leases arising in the land OF naval service, or in
1.-The militia, sheh in actual service in time of
war or pubic danger" This is a positive un-
repealed, Invaluable muniment of the liberty
LOT the individual, and no administration has a
Irgl. 10 set Il aside without answering for 1t to
the people President Johnson has just as much
right to proclaim himself emperor tomorrow rs
Secretary Stanton has to enact these strange
forms Of procedure.
What renters this resort 10 an unusual tri-
hunal the more offensive is, that the doors are
to be closed during the trial. 4 military court
Is sufficiently Objectionable, but military court,
sitting with closed doors, is infinitely more so;
T,,orf,,, from our laval
and disgrace 10 nation that boasts of It's
liberal, free and open institutions. The pre-
text that it will not be prudent 10 publish the
evidence about to be given, because Of the fears
of the witnesses that :hey may expose them
selves to the malice of the unknown accomplices
Of the criminals, seems TO us a feeble one. II
is pretext that would defeat all l.pnblic trials
in eases involving great deal Of personal o1
political passion. No community should give
way to it. Is not our government strong e.
nough, and our society orderly and well dispos
ed enough, to protect any man who does hi;
duty Every loyal house in the nation would
furnish HIM a shelter, every loyal heart be ready
10 defend his person. Besides, let proper eX
ample be made Of the assassins we have caught
/ already; let them be hung speedily, after fail
trial. and those we have not caught viii disperse
Not one of them is likely to be in position OIL
a mood to pursue his criminal ends, after tht
Conlederacy that hired him has been exploded
and the leading scoundrels that conspired with
him have had their necks stretched
We want public trial, because it is due tc
the people at home, to the people of the South
and to the people of foreign nations, that thei
judgments be satisfied of the entire fairness ant
Justice Of the procedure. Il the fate of Payne
Atzeroth and other wretches depended on
only, il would be matter Of some importance
but not of so much Importance as it is in othe
relations. Our Government, on the strength
= of evidence drawn from the confessions Of thes
, offenders, ana from the witnesses to be used il
this trial, has proclaimed to the world the com
= plicity Of Jefferson Davis, Thompson, Clay
: Tucker Sanders and Cleary, in the awful mur
, der OF Mr. Lincoln. It is a charge that mus
) be fully sustained not to recoil unpleasantly o
! iniuriously upon the heads of its auth ors Th
) proof OF it must be ample, direct, uncquivoca
= Of kind to convince the general mind, to JUST
5 fy the issuing Of such proclamation. IF it b,
deficient doubtful indirect, or liable to suspicio
t Of having been procured and manipulated fol
5 effect, we shall have put weapons into the hand
of the friends of those distinguished rebels to b
. welded in aid of their cause and in sympath,
for their persons. For ourselves we have ittl
I doubt that the proof is complete and satisfac
: tory, and ii must be given to the public also /
b the most complete and satisfactory way.
: What an Inconsistency it is that we, VIII
S boast Of the free and popular character Of ou
S institutions should revive these secret courts
j these military conclaves. these mysterious Vehn
g Gertchte at a time when they have been discard
: ed even by the monarchies and despotisms {
j. Europel When Henry the Fourth of Franc
: was assassinated by Ravaillac, though it W;
;, supposed that the whole Jesuit society stood b.
h hind the criminal, he was yet publicly tried
r the regular courts. Balthaser Gerard, VIII
,e murdered tie good William the Silent, was trie