The star of the north. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1849-1866, 1865-07-19
III, Military Murders.


as high officer Of the Department of Ibe
Navy has declared such bodies to be, for
the purpose of conviction !" "the Military
Commission has terminated its lawIees We
olence in the blood of four American citi-
zens
The Military Commission we have de-
clared on authority of law to have been
usurpation Of the functions of the judiciary.
The malice which the law alleges, as q
general principle in that case, We have
shown TO have declared itself in the course
OF the proceedings under an undoubted ev,
idsnce Of fact. The violent attack of The
Bench upon one of the counsel for the ao-
cused. we repeat, showed malice. The
shaping of leading inierrogatives ty The
Court in manner calculated 10 obtain
specific answer, showed malice. The brow
beating of the Witnesses and the counsel
Tor The defense, we repeat. showed malice.
The disaPpearance, previous 10 recall for
cross-examination, of many of the leading
Witnesses, showed malice. The extraordi.
nary concurrence of the voluminous perjury
OF the Witnesses points, we re-sfiirm, to
unity of suggestion, demonslrative of mall
ice. The execution of the sentence almos;
Immediately afIer its approval, in anticipa>
ton OF public remonsirance, and in con-
tempt OF The order OF the Judge charged
with jurisdiction in the case, is incon:esti.
bic testimony in suppor: of the presump
ton Of law iha: the taking OF life which
has iost been perpetrated al Washington,
was characterized, in fact, by the malice
which makes the taking of life murder!
Bot forms, some men will say, in the sro-
lidiiy OF their souls, are of very little inn
porlance in cases that do not involve suit
slan'ial injustice The gross stupidity OF
those who meet the crime involved in the
death Of Mrs. Surrau and her associates
with expressions of indifference for the
forms Of law is precisely the stuff on which
power faitens into the grossness of despot-
ism |! Outside forms freedom can find no
dwelling place in the habitalioLs OF men
Technicaliles, rules OF law, bills of right,
declarations OF independence, constitutional
limitations of power. are themselves mol
merely the tenement but the very body !!
Indifferent 10 forms Forms are rights !;
forms are privileges; forms are freedom
Mrs. Surrsu, people will say, was inno-
cent. We care very little for Mrs. Surrstl !;
we care very little whether she was guilty
or innocent We ignore all know ledge, one
way or the other, presented in the chaos Of
truth and perjury which We have seen, in
the form OF testimony, taken before the
usurpalon which overthrew, in The City Of
Washington, both the law and The judiciary.
A committee executing the bloody code of
Judge Lynch, having seized party of our
fellow citizens, good or evil as they may
| have been, and having, after a pretext Of
trial, executed upon them the penalty OF
death, must not dare presume TO plead to
us reports of its Infamous proceedings, in
the ban Of both God and man. knows no
other name, in either morals or law, than
murder!
Whether Mrs. Surratt was or was not
guilty, we repeat we neither know nor care
TO know. Whether A'zerot, Payne, HeroId.
were, or were not co-conspirsiors with
Booth, we are not aware, nor al this mo-
ment are we disposed TO inquire. How can
we presume TO knowl In solemn duty 10
| our trust as an agent or "ihe eternal vigil
lance" which has been we'll said to be slhe
price of liberty" we are bound 10 reject
with scoru all the accounts of the proceed
inss Of the violent men who had the inso-
lence to subject Mrs. Surratt and her com.
panions 10 mocke,y of trial. The inno-
cence or the guilt Of that woman and her
associates has never been put in evidence
unless we are TO suppose lynch law 10 be
entitled TO the reverence due the civil law );
and, therefore, in determined adherence to
the sacred forms lhat enshrine liberty, we
shall hold Mrs. Surrall and all her fellow
victims, SO loEs as they stand so under q
beneficent presumption Of constitutional
justice, entitled still to the suppostion OF
their innocence
Lynch law can, we repeat, make no one
guilty. To accept its proceedings in justfi-
cation Of its murders is substantially to com
pound with felony! Innocent in the eye OF
the law, though all the conuicted and uncon.
vaefed persons who were yesterday put 10 a
violent death in Washington are, we hold
their acts and their persons alike indifer.
ent in dealing with the great crime of the
men who stand responsible Tor the taking Of
heir lives.
solemn duty is devoIved upon US by
the crime which has jusl been committed
al Washington. As q journalist We have
never shrunk from our duty and, with a
full knowledge Of the danger confronting MS
in the iawless violence which We deal with
here, We shall not shrink from that duty
aow. In the name of liberty, in the name
OF law, in the name of the eanciiiy Of hu.