The evening Argus. [volume] (Rock Island, Ill.) 1861-1871, 1865-07-19
the War DEPARTMENT AND FoRD'S
THEATRE.
the LAST UNWARkANTAbLE EAEh'
else OF ARsITRARY POWER.
A Protest Against II from the Right
Quarter. q.
From the New York Tribune, July Is.

From the New York Tribune, July 10.
A Mr.. Ford appears to be the owner of
theatre in Washington city, wherein Presi-
dent Lincoln was assassinated. Being there
upon closed, Mr.. Ford attempted to open It
some DAYS afterward, but was forbidden and
prevented. He next sold it for church, but
the purchasers were unable to fulnil their
engagement, and the property reverted
Last Monday evening he tried once more to
reopen. but was peremptorily shut up by an
order from the war department. The Herald
says of Ford's attempt TO resume his regular
business
at was an attempt to coin the blood of
the great man. People in Washington as
we'll as elsewhere felt that that theatre was
deodand that it was morally, if not in
| taot involved in the crime committed in it,
| lust like murderer's weapon, which from
time immemorial has been forfeited to the
| law. The war department forbade the per-
| Torrance and closed the theatre; and in
doing 80 it only acted up to the popular
thought; and though we shall on this sub
| lest hear many copperhead bowls, the act
will receive the full approval of the people"
| 1t is quite probable that ''the popular
thought" accords with the above assumption;
but there is at least one journal which dares
defy popular" impulses when they contra
| vene law and justice. We had intended to
|
many similar yagaries of the war depart
ment; but its plump Justification by the
Herald imposes the duty of emphatic dis
| sent.
| Under what law, by what right, did Edwin
| M, Stanton thus deprive John L. Ford of the
use of his private property 1t surely will
not be pretended that an eminent. overriding
| public danger dictated the secretary's high
| Landed course. We have heard that he ap-
Il
| opened-so he arbitrarily closed it. in pursu-
ance of a policy to which abolitionists OF
other days were long accustomed without
becoming reconciled. The police fear your
property will be injured if you use it; So
instead of protecting you in the use-they
forbid and prevent your using it at all ! 1t
would take long and severe training to en-
tighten US as to the beauties of such legal
protection.
Mr.. Ford, it is said, evinoed bad taste, or
a deficient sense of propriety. in undertaking
to reopen his theatre within three months
after Mr.. Lncoln's assassination. Very
likely. But in what clause of the constitu-
ton, what chapter of the statute at large, do
/ we find the regulation of public or private
taste, the enforcement of due regard for
propriety, made duty of the secretary OF
WARP If he ia to regulate other mems regard
tor appearances, for decorum who is to regu.
late-or educate-his?
We know nothing of Ford nor of his thea
tre but what is everywhere current. But
suppose he is in debt, and his creditors
want their pay suppose his property heavily
mortgaged, and the interest eating him up
suppose him to have a theatrical company
On his hands and no means of paying them
except from his receipts. His loss by the
suspension of his business for eleven or
twelve weeks, while Washington was full Of
idle soldiers just paid of, must already
amount to many thousands of dollars /; who
is TO reimburse it? Aud by what right is be
forcibly deprived of the use of his property
the means of paying his debts, IN obedience
to others sense of fitness? Why should they
evince their regard for our late president
memory at his expense rather than THEN
own?
We urge these considerations with no idle
conceit of influencing the course of Secretary
Stanton. That functionary seems incapable
of comprehending that our country has, OF
should have, any other law than his own ar
bItrary will. But he cannot remain in Office
forever and, when he retires. we hope to
have a restoration of the privilege of habeds
corpus and the supremacy of law and then
we shall hope for legal scrutiny of some oil
his many fantastic tricks" and an adiudica-
ton between them and the personal rights
| they have ruthlessly violated Meantime,
we only wish it to stand record that we
hold this assumption of power utterly I'M
warranted and without excuse.