Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1865-10-12
The Ntartx Comm I.sIon.

Gen. Wallace and his confreres on the
Nirtz Military Commission never reapeu
: lory as soldiers, bat they are harvesting a
tentiftil crop of disgrace in their new oc-
upation. Since they seized the tools Oh
lrisprudence they have shown themselves
efficiently ignorant and insolenb put ior
ne last few days they have out-commis-
oned the Commission. Captain Wlrtz Is
ccused of starving bis. prisoners. Mr.
Baker proposes to show by General Lee,
3eneral Johnston and others, that the Con-
aederate soldiers themselves were starving
ut the same time, and this was Wnavoida-
BILE. This evidence seems relevant and i'm
portant. Colonel Chipman objects on
grounds that would seem absolutely laugh,
able to any lawyer OF average learning and
ability, were 1t not that they are sooerly
urged, soberly heard, and will proDa-
bly, be soberly allowed, by the august
board of potent, grave and reverend
dolts who compose the court. He cites In
disputable authority to the point "that
party in the same indictment cannot DC
witness for his co-defendant until ne mas
first been acquitted or convicted, whether
they plead jointly or separately" From
which he springs Ikea chamois, over whole
Alps of reasoning and chasms OF law, to the
conclusion that 1.-THE rebellion has been one
KlSdutlC dCb vi blCuoObs OhO WI
spiracy to overthrow our Government
Not a single rebel engaged In 1t, according
to the strict rules OF law, is competent
witness for another on trial, charged with
q reasonable 0ffenses, as he is an accessory
before or after the fact, or co-conspirat0r
or an accomplice, and therefore excluded.
say, then, until they are purged by special
pardons, by general pardon, or by ac-
quittal before a competent court, no one OF
them ought to be permitted to testify for
: his associates" r I.
= In other words, Capt. Wirtz, being tried for
murder and III treatment Of prisoners, can not
have Gen. Johnston for witness, because
Gen.Johnston, in Col. Chipma1's opinion,
has committed treason, 1t being utterly i'm
material that the prisoner and witness are
not parties In the same Indictment" that
the crimes are different, that the criminal
acts of the two men are different, that Gen.
Johnston has never been convicted OF any
crime, or even so much as indicted. And
the man who advances such trash as this,
is, according to the Nep York Times, a
lawyer of fine ability and pleasing, digni-
fled address, who tries his case with inn
pressive earnestness, but justly and fairly"
When the evidence was going in for the
prosecution every one who had even
the dimmest vaguest ideas of the law
of evidence, was amazed at the kind OF
testimony which Colonel Chipman of
fered and the commission admitted.
Still it was a military Commission"
No one expected them to follow the
law. 1t had been decided by the high
est legal authority that "what the soldier
said is no evidence" (Bardell VS.. Pickwick,
Dick. Sc. Stareleigh, J.) But here not
only what the soldier said, but what the
bakers daughter in the pink bonnet heard
from the carpenters grandmother, in reply
to the question whether her cousin had the
clergyman's pick-aX, could "be evidence"
provided only it was against Capt. WirtZ.
Now that evidence is going in Tor the ac-
cused, unheard-ot stringency is substituted
for unheard-of laxity. Important, essen
tial, relevant evidence in Wirtz's favor is
ruled out with promptitude only paral-
leled by that with which irrelevant hear
say testimony against him was before ad-
mitted. General Wallace and his confreres
have turned themselves from court Of old
women gossips into stringent set of star
chamberers. The Military Commission it
self was a piece OF disgraceful illegality ;
but its injustice has become so brazen,
shameless, arrogant and infamous, that the
disgrace of its origin has ceased to offend
the public sense-as if batch of bastards
had wiped out their shame with success
sion of homicidal slaughters.-Nep York
World. ....