The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1866-05-12
THE +" sECRET MOTIVES
Optnion or President Lincoln'a
Attorney General On the Vetoed
Bttl.s.ae WAS Planned to Over.
turn the Government,

IN aSteet W MeetluS VI cOusetNa
tive citiEeus Of st. Louis the Hon. Ed
wards Bates subjects tho Freedmen 5
Bureau bill to merciless analysis, in
which he exposes with unmistakahle dis
tinctnees the ulterior revolutionary object
Of the proposed statute, and denounces
with appropriate but logical severity the
subterfuge of its contrivers, which was
counteractcd BY the prompt and bold IN
lterpositiou of the President. We subjuin
the letter referred TO:
ST. LOUIS, February "a, 1866.
Gen E. b. Brown, President of the State
Central Committee Conservative upion
Party,
SlR: am honored BY the receipt of
your note of this day, inviting me to be-
present ~ = mass iseafing Of The citIsesis
of st Louis, TO be held at the Court House
this evening At halfpast seven O'clock
far the purpose ui endorsing the action of
President johnson in vetoing the Freed
mems Bureau bill. and in support of his
general policy OF national reconstruction.
am very sorry that the bad state of
my health torbids my attendance. and the
more 50 because | believe there will hot
be man at the meeting who feels a great
er adherence than do Tor the bill whose
wicked career has been stopped By the
Presidents timely veto. My feeling up
on this subject does not spring entire
| ly from my disgust Of the faetious
spirit and ridiculous egotism OF the clique
which now domineers over Congress, but
| from the intrinsic dement's of the bill. :.
ascertained by careful examination OF
It's provisions. | think | understand IT,
eau see (the most casual reader can sec
Its glaring aud defiant breaches oil the
IConstitution-and think can see also
the hidden motive, the secret design OF
the Oouspirators, who planned the scheme
TO overturn our Government OF Law, and
set up in its stead trighttul military oli-
Igarchy. And this wicked purpose be.
trays itself in several provisions OF the
b,li, which are 50 arranged in the context
as To seem, to hasty observer. to be SEQ
iondary and subordinate to the ostensible
Ioblect, the protection Of the freedmen.
The bill provides Tin It's FIRST section
for the continuance of the original act (of'
March Sd, 1862 to establish Freed
mems Bureau. and extends il to all refu-
gees aud freedmen in all parts of the
United States. IL empowers the Presi-
dent 70 divide the United States into dis
tricts. not to exceed twelve. and with the
advice and consent OF the Senate, to ap-
point an assistant commissioner tor each
Edlstrict Twelve districts That is the
exact number into which Cromwell di-
vlded the Commonwealth of England,
and governed each district, despoucally,
by one ot his own Major Generals This
lsectlon goes on" or the said Bureau
may, in the discretion of the President,
be placed under commissioner and as
Isistant commissioners, To be detailed fFum
1.-THE army" And the act does not specl-
ty either the rank or the color Of the per-
sons SO to be detailed from the army TO
rule the nation through The freedman $
Bureau.
Section two empowers the commission
Ter to divide each district into sub-dis-
Itricts, (not less than county OF parish,
aud to assign to each sub-district " At least
lone agent, either citizen, officer Of the
larmy, OF enlisted man" The section
lgoes On to say. each assistant commis-
sioner may employ not exceeding 81
clerks; aud each agent Of sab-district
being one or more ior each sub-district,
rs suits the pleasure of the commissioner
may employ two clerks. AID so in the
twelve districts the clerks will amount TO
lseventy-two, aud in the sub-districts the
agents viii to at least as many tholsand
as there are counties aud parishes IN the
nation; and their clerks to double that
number, besides the employees mentioned
in the bill.
And the same section provides that the
President, through the Var Department
and the COMMISSIONER, shall ex.ead mill
ltary jurisdiction over all the employees,
agents, aud officers of this Bureau, in the
lexerciss of al the duties imposed OF an
thorized by this act or the act to which
this act is supplementary. And here |
viii draw your attention to that paFl OF
) their duties especially imposed aud au-
lthorized BY the eighth section of the bill,
thus: :. And il shall be the duty of the
. officers and agents Of this Bureau, lall of
them, great aud small, without disllnc.
sion !, 10 lake jurisdiction OF aud hear aud
determine all offences committed against
the provisions Of this secuon; and also of
all cases affecting negroes, nlulattoes,
Ifreednen. refugees, OF other persons who
lare not discriminaied against. in any Of
1.-THE particulars mentioned in the preced-
ling section Of this act, under, not the
Constitntion and laws, but under such
lrules and regulations as the President OF
1.-THE United States. through the War De-
partlnent, shall prescribe"
These are some Of the enormities Of the
vetoed bill, framed in the Wantonness of
partisan power, in contempt of the writ
ten Constitution, and in open violation Of
the historical opinions and Evolutionary
faith of the people of the United States.
As all these thousands Of officers, agents,
land employees Of the Bureau may, At the
ldiseretsen Of the President, be deiailed
from the army, it is plain that every man
lof them snay be an enlisted man IN the
army, and white or black, u may best
suit The fancy of the detailing eficer.
Only imagine such ! military orgapi-
zataon. With despotic head - fhe seat0f
the Government, and despotic members
IBeryadInv tha wh0ie gllase Of the c0lsling-