The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1865-05-15

They and their friends have certainly
been rs much put on their guard by the
Presidents proclamation as they are tC
be by anything else that can occur.
What makes the matter all the worse
/ is, at OH the very day on which this
l tribunal begins its proceedings. the state
| of things which alone could justify II. II
ANYTHING could Justify II, had been for
mally been declared al an eud ny procsa,
| nation, under the Presidents hand and
seal. Foreign powers We're warned thai
| the war Was over at the very moment
i that tribunal WAS assembling. for whose
constitution and procedure nothing bnt
overwhelming imminent danger 10 the
national existence would be sufficient
warrant. VIII they really believe that
peace has been restored when most
atrocious crime has 10 be tried and pnn-
shed by military court sitting In sec net
in the National Capital, and in country
in hich all secret things, and above all,
secret trials, have always been held in
adherence
THE MILITARY STAR CHAMBER Ar WASH
INGroN
From the World
The odious machinery Of tyranny
which brought the head of Charles |. TO
the block. consisted of two principal
parts, viz the Star Chamber, which was
secret tribunal for the trial of offences.
and Martial Law. which did away with
the safeguards of ordinary criminal pro-
ceedings. Some persons were condemn
ed by the Star Chamber; some, by Mar
tial law: hut to combine the abomnable
features of both in the trial of the same
persons was refinement TO which ty-
ranny, in those days of its apprentice
ship, was not equal II was reserved for
the genius of discovery which marks the
enlightened Nineteenth Century, and
for the rulers of a nation whose chief
boast has always been their Freedom, to
devise this modern improvement" by
which the worst features of these sepa-
rate engines of oppression are combined
into one. There is in full operation at
Washington IA Star Chamber to try by
Martial Law. in time ofpeace. the ac-
completes in a murder--a murder com
mitted, not in camp, but in place OF
public amusement thronged by. we'll
gloved gentlemen in the evening dress OF
civilians, and ladies in the gay aud gos.
samer costumes of fashionable French
modistes
By the COZ ious extracts given i'll other
columns, il will he seen that the whole
press of this city with the exception of
the cringing, lickspittle Herdid)-that
every press in this city which has any
pretensions to manliness, comments on
this strange proceeding in spirit OF re-
gret, astOnishment, and denunciation.
The Republican Tribune Times and Eren-
ing Post speak of it in the same terms OF
trenchant and unmitigated rebuke as do
papers which have not displayed for
ward zeal in supporting the admnistra'
ton.
We, of course, assent to and indorse the
unanswerable argument urged by our
contemporaries, that the imminent dan
ger of the overthrow of the government,
which was the sole original pretext for
such proceedings, having ceased, their
continuance is monstrous and whslly
inexcusable abuse Of power. For our
selves, we never admitted the disgrace
ful necessity We scOrned the plea.
We never believed that anything
could justify the furnishing of
these new calumnics against re-
publican government; the giving these
new excuses to the detested despotisms
of the old world, crumbling under the
force of our previous example. We defy
any man to day, now that the war is past,
to show that the success which has final
ly crowned it is in the slightest degree
due to, OF has been in the slighted degree
hastened by, over riding the civil tribu-
nails and trampling under foot the Con
stitution, in dealing with suspected per
sons Ii has been an abominable engine
of oppression; it has brought odium upon
the cause of free government throughout
the world; it has caused infinite heart
burnings and disaffection at home; ii
has nursed aud encouraged pestilent
tribe of slanderers and informers; it has
clothed deyilish malice in the gaIb of
public ZEAL it has lowered the tone OF
liberty and debauched the public mind;
it has been enabled usurpation to in
trench itself behind vast body OF pre-
cedents: but no good has il done that
anybody can point ont.