The Idaho world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1864-1918, 1866-05-05
A PLOT BY THE RADICALS TO Es-
TABLISH MILITARY DESPOTIsM.
The Conspiracy Shown JTpby All Ex-C Cab
met Officer.

AGN A'pOy dA LA N><A4S~
met Officer.
~
The suhjoined letter of Hon Edward Bates,
Of Missouri, one Of Mr. Lincoln's constitu-
tiobal advisers, upon the Freedmen's Bureau
Bill, exposes the real intent and designs Of
the Radical Party in Congress upon our pres
ent fern Of government, and is well worth
the perusal of every considerate and inteIli-
gent citizen. 1t shows US. 10 what dangers
we are exposed, while the Radicals are. ia
power:
fa ST. Louis. February a. 1866.
General E. B. ByOacn, Presidfnt Of the State
Central Committee Conservative Union Party:
SIR am honored by the receipt Of your note
of this day, iiv.tiEg Inc TO be present at mass
meeting of tile citizens Of st. Louis to be held at
tie Court house this evening, for the purpose of
irdorsirg tile action of President johnson ~ veto
imp Tie Fytedmens Bureau Bill, and IN support OF
his general policy of OF national reconstruction:
E am very sorry that tlie bad state OF my health
forbids my attendance, and the more so because /
believe there will not be man atthe meeting,
who feels "a greater abhorrence then do fer the
liIVyt,se wick cd career has been stepped by the
Presidents timely veto. My feeling upon this
fnl ieet does not spring entirely IRON my disgust
ofthe factions spirit and f1dlcalouS egotSm OF the
CLIQUE Which row domiiietrs over Congress, but
fre The intrinsic deiHeris of the bill aseertained
by careful examination OF its provisions. L
think / GEder. tand it. eau see (the most casual
reader can sce) its glarng and defiant breaches
OF the Constitution, ard think can also see tie
b;dIen na0tiUe the secret dOsfgnot the eOnSp5Ta-
tors WHO planned the scheme to overtmn our gov
ftsmtut Of law aid set up III its stead frlghtu
military aligarehy. And this wicked purpose be
rays itself in several provisions of the BILL which
are SO arranged in the context as to seem, to
hasty observer, to be secondary and subordinate
to The osteusble ect the protection OF the freed
men.
continuance of the original act March Sd 1861 to
establish Frecdmens Bureau, and to extend 1t
to all refugees and freedmen an all parts OF the
limited States 1t empowers the President TO dI-
vide the United States into districts, not to ex-
ceed twelve and with the advice and consent OF
the Senate to appoint an assistant commissioner
for each district. Twelve districts That IS the
exact number into which Cromwell divided the
Commonwealth of England and governed each dis
trict. despotically by one of his own MajOrGene-
r,ls The section goes on-''or the said bureau
NAV, in the discretion OF the President be placed
under commissioner and assistant commission
ers, to be detailed from The q1my" And the act
does not specify either the rank or the cot0r OF the
nersons SO detailed from the army to rule the na
tion through the Freedmen's Bureau.
Section two empowers the commissioner to divide
enrh district into sub districts, not less than
county or parish, and to assign to each bids
trict sat least agent either citizen, an officer
of the army, or an enlisted man." This section
goes On to say, "each assistant commissioner may
employ not exceeding six clerks; and each agent
OF sub district, (being one or more for each sub
district as suits the pleasure OF tile COMMISSIONER
may employ two clerks" And so in the twelve
districts the clerks will amount to seyenty-two;
and in the sub-dstricts the agents will amount to
at least as many thousand as there are counties
and parishes in the nation; and their clerks to
double that number, besides the employees men,
toned in the bill.
And the same section provides that the Presi-
dent Through the Uar Department and Commas
sioner shall extend military jur1Sdiftion over all
the employees, agents, and officers OF this bureau,
in the exercise of all the duties imposed or author
lied bv this act or the act to which this act Is
supplenleltary." And here | will draw your at
fontion to that part of their duties especially i'm
posed and authorized by the eighth section OF the
bin thus: ''And it Shall be the duty of the
officers and agents of this bureau, all OF them,
GREAT and small, to take jurisdiction Of and hear
and determine all offenses committed against the
provisions OF this section; aud also of all cases
affecting negroes mulattoes, freedmen, refugees,
ar other persons who are Disseminated against,
in any OF the particulars mentioned IN the preced-
ing section of this act under not the Constitution
and laws, but under such rules and regulations as
the President of the United States, through the
War Department, shall prescribe.
These are some of the enormities of the vetoed
bill, framed IN the Wantoness Of partisan power in
contempt Of the written Constitution, and in open
violation of the historical opinions and traditions
ary faith of the people of the United States.
AS all of these thousands of officers agents and
employees of the bureau may at the discretion Of
the President, be detailed IRON the army it is
plain that every man of them may be an enlisted
man of the army, and white or black, as may best
suit the fancy of the detailing officer.
= Only imagine such military organization, with
q . despotic head at the seat of government, and
despotic members pervading the whole mass Of
the community and exhibiting its power in organ
ized form. in every county and parish, and the
President bound, by Trumbull's bill, to extend
military protection over them, against every effort
to restrain, by legal and civil means, the Wanton-
ness of their arbitrary power!
Think you that the people of the United States
are already so far degraded into passive obedience
as to submit tamely to such an atroclous outrage
even if sanctioned by the unanimous voice OF
factions Congress, and approved by su5serVient
president? No verify. They are not YET ready
to abandon their Constitution and renounce all
hope Of legal liberty, by giving oyer their llVes'