Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1866-08-23
twelve months, plead t+trumpet-tongued in our

twelve months, plead Trumpet tongued - in our
behalf
We give room to the following sensible article
from the Richmond Dispatch instead of further
remarks of our own.
| The remarkable resemblance of the pro camation
issued yesterday by the President to the one issued
| by him in April last caused us to doubt, while we
read 1t, whether the latter meant any more than
the former. But just before reaching the end, we
found the words which the Southern people have
so long desired to hear from the Executive office.
They are these
"And do further proclaim, that the said insurrection
authority exists in and throughout the whole of the
United States of America"
Civil authority So exists. That is well said. It
was previously dead. It did not exist at ALL The
co-exisence of civil authority and of military law
is thus declared TO be an irapossibilty Yet this
has been the state of things III the Southern
States, III time of profound peace, for than
twelve months. We have had military officers
who totally ignorant of the law sitting some
times in courts of justice to see that no wrong
was done to class OF our people that had been
taken under the peculiar of the Freedmen S
Bureau, and at other times cooliy informing our
Judicial officers that their decisions not APP
proved, and would not be submitted to- We have
had enforced an order from General Grant requir-
ing the military to arrest persons whom the civil
authorities considered guilty of no offence, and
imprison them until some civil tribunal was found
willing 10 Try Lhc1n we nave nau clClZeiS dragged
up before military tribunal composed of men
acting without authority of law, to answer for i'm
agnary offences against the peace and dignity
not of the Commonwealth but of Sambo. In
fact have had the forms of law without the
substance, and the enforcement of cdicts instead
of the execution of Justice From the day when
at Runymede King John, who was only prinaas
inter- TCn'es, conceded that no freeman should be
deprived of life or liberty without first having
been condemned by jury of his peers, until the
reign of Charles H., Englishmen were, notwth-
because there had been discovered no means of
compelling the speedy trial of persons charged
with offences But when the great writ of
n0beas corpus became subject to the call of
any and every man, prison doors refused
to remain shut, and Englsmen became
free indeed. So with us To tell us, as
the President did i'll his first proclamation, that
the insurrectOn at an end, and peace restored
to the people of all the States except Texas at the
same time leaving the military superior to the CT
vii authorities, was to give us Magma Cho1tu with
out the writ Of habeas corpus. But the second
proclamation 6 ives freedom. ''Civil authority
exists - And the Constitution of the United
States provides that 1" the privilege of the writ of
habeas corpus shall not be suspended " when the
civil authority exists. The judicial ermine now
takes precedence OF the sword. Judge Meredith
ranks General Schofeld. God be praised for
Peace. There is healing in her wings.
1t becomes the southern people SO to act to
prove that the confidence of the President in their
peaceful intentions has not been misplaced. The
Radio lis have 1)rofessed to believe that we were
peaceable and orderly only because the strong arm
of military power WAS suspended over us. We
shall show them that can be more orderly I'M
der civil rulers THAI all their soldiers
could make us.