Daily national Republican. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1862-1866, 1865-11-25
EDITION
FOUR O'CLOCK. p. M
OUR GOVERNMENT DETEcTIvE
SYSTEM

| .bhSThFs
We are In receipt Of responses from oil
parts Of the country to the article in our
Issue of Thursday upon the above subject,
indicating that the people most heartily do.
sire to see the present expensive and unne.
cessary detective system abolished. There
Is no longer a necessity for an organisation
like that which has existed throughout the
war by authority Of the War Department
for the purpose Of detecting blockade run
ners, spies, defsulters, and secret enemies Of
the Government, armed as IL Is with extra
ordinary powers Of arrest and imprisonment.
This institution was accepted and acquiesced
in by the people Of this country only because
II was deemed to be one Of the expedients
necessary for the preservation of the Gov.
ernment against q monstrous insurrection.
II was only because We were in fearful
peril that we adopted extreme measures like
this. The law of selfpreServstion tempo
rarily dominated all other laws, and the nat
ural liberty-loving instincts of the people
were suppressed in order that wo might crush
the rebellion.
The people held their breath in pain and
suspense while tho bloody work of shifting
down the insurgents was going on, and now
they ask to bc relieved from all those arbitrary
processes SO repugnant in themselves to our
ideas of free government, and which they
submitted to for the sake Of carrying the
Government through our great disaster. The
people have permitted arbitrary power to be
exercised by their officers in n great emer.
eenoy; and the emergency having passed.
they will never allow that arbitrary power to
be made permanent. Their submission to
these arbitrary powers has been Welded
through their patriotism. and now tho patri.
otism of the people cries out for their abol.
ishmept, -
So much for the general principle on which
the people ask for the abandonment Of our
overshadowing military detective system.
But there is another expression Of the people
in regard to IL. II has not been so magnif-
Gently successful that the people have been
dAzzled by 1t and made to regret the ap-
proach Of its demise. Its achievements have
not led to desire for its preservation on ac-
count Of the "good it has DONE" We have
no doubt that this department has accom-.
plished much work, but larger share of the
credit belongs to parties outside of tho dc.
tective force than has appeared on the sur
face of things. And In many of their trims.
actions IL seems that they have detected the
rogue by assisting him in the contamination
of hi, crime.
This seems to be one of the cardinal prin-
ciples Of the craft, and some cases have 90.
Cured in which, according to the instructive
sentiment Of the people, Justice has soiled
her own robes for the sake Of bringing q
criminal to punishment. Meantime crimes
against the Government, Of that character
which the detective force were instituted to
discover, have not been prevented, and to
one in particular may that organization at
tribute large portion Of the satisfaction
with which the country contemplates the
promise Of its speedy annihilation.
When the nation was suddenly plunged
into the most terrible grief that ever af-
aicted any nation upon the earth-when our
good President LINCOLN was murdered, and
other leading members of the Govern
ment SO narrowly escaped death by the
hands Of assassins after the first revul-
sion of sorrow-the questions Immediately
arose in all minds -" Where was the
great detective force Of which we have
read so much, which wields the power of the
Government, and which is supposed to be
almost omniPresentE why did they allow
these vulgar and clumsy eonspirators to
hatch and rear and bring to maturity plot
for the assassination Of the President and his
Cabinet and the deneral-in' Chief under their
very eyes and noses ? OF what use and value
Is such an organization as that, whom such
crimes can go through long course Of pre-
paration and finally be accomplished in their
midst ~
The anguish of the people was intensified
and their alarm increased by the thought
that here in the capital, surrounded by their
police, which had become a terror to evil.
doers, the lives Of those who were guiding the
ship of state were not safe-that an assassin
could kill the President in theatre, notwith-
standing the detectives, and, but for the ac-
cident of broken leg, could have escaped
from the country. What wonder that the
LII