Shreveport semi-weekly news. [volume] (Shreveport, La.) 1865-18??, 1865-09-05
From the New Orleans Bee.
A Straight Out Military Rule.

a SIT0lS0t O0l Mljltary kules
The Cincinnati Commercial Sc
vercly condemned the interference of
Gen. Palmer in the late Kentucky
election. Commenting in recent
article on that Generals proceedings.
it makes the following forcible and
suggestive remarks:
1.-The point that we desr~ in this
connection is simply that, in quarters
where the conditions Of society are
such tina, in order to protect the
purity Of the ballot-box it is necessa-
ry to have military guards at voting
places. and allow no voting done ex-
cept at the point of til. bayonet.
there should be no voting at all. If
kentucky requires absolute military
rule, let US have it straight, under
martial law and without atfectation
of civil rule"
1t Is useless to argue, tor practical
purposes, the question of military
dominance in civil affairs, when there
is no appeal from the acts of the
military authority. and wien the de-
cision of any military tribunal
against its legal power. in a given
case is destined to be null and inef-
ieciive from the very nature Of the
circumstance in which such a decis-
ion is given Laws cease to exist
when there is no power to enforce
them, and right becomes mere moral
abstraction, perhaps Iebatable
proposition, when not upheld by op-
-rative law.
Where civil law and civil right
come to stand in this relation to the
military authority. 1t Seems TO us
only matter of exp"diency, Of con
v-nirnce and economy, to what ex-
tent civil authority shall BE- tolerated
and its forms deserved Viewing the
question in this light. it is difficult
no, to conciud. in favor of a straight
out and unnixed military rule.
! Such an arrangement would. on
/ the score Of economy alone, eminent
commend itself to n p.op'e stagg-r
ing under a loa of taxation. Its
/ simplicity would be obviously calcu-
J la-d - secure All administrative
/ efficiency not to be expected from d
combination with civil system
J which had b-come supertiuous ad-
junct Of gov-rnlnent--a -Ickety and
useless but costly machinery, which
can serve no other purpose than TO
be contemplated by the curious as a
rnem-nto Of faded dignity and obso-
l.t- power. After the power for
whose exclusive purposes this rra-
/ chinery was constructed had been
suppressed, there would appear no
practical reason for not entirely sup
/ pressing the machinery itself.
The mass Of men Ike n simple
. government. 4 confused and con
/ tiicting system, such as has arisen in
some part. of this country. harnesses
tn. people with suspense, and bu,
/ TOO IL Iu"ntly acts as a SHARE for the
frank and c"nhdhg and a pittall for
III" rhuugh,t"ss and unwary.
I Not long since Judge Lott. Of thu
Kings County Supreme Court. in the
State of New York, where MARTA
law Wa never proclaimed, issued Il
writ of h0hcaS corYus for a Mr.. Ch-S
lrr, sentenced by a court martial to
six months imprisonment on the
charge ot accepting brib while a
member OF a board ct .urollmrut.-
The execution ct the wit was de
t-atrd b. thu tprcihl,. removal from
the jurisdiction of tn. Court of the
body of the prisoner by agents Of
the War Department, and in a man
n-r tina, lei, his counsel without
knowledge of where he was Hav-
ing occasion subsequently to refer 10
this affair from til" bench, Judge
Lott remarked, IF the Government
Of the United States havc no con-
iidruc" in the administration Of the
laws by the judiciary Of the several
States. then our Government nigh,
a. we'll be- at an end
Ii thu Cove rnmrnt of the State of
New York i 50 far uul,iiicd by the
military authority "a 70 render its
continued cxist-ncr of no practical
Importance OF value, can there b,.
any other conclusion in respect 10
= States with which that authority has
been in much more intimate contact,
and in which civil administration is
4 mere auronaton, VIGOROUSLY lncap-
ab. OF acting except in a subsidiary
or collateral relation to the military
representatives of the. National Gov
eminent
\ travelling Yankee lately put up