American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1866-11-28

| Ing OF inc eiecuOh by tne amTmatlon OF
the most o'seura citizen, charging him
with the comDission of crime, and com
hitting hin, to jail to await his trial, by
means Of which proceeding, h, inciden-
tally looses his vote. Just SO is the de-
privation incidental in the other case. =
But having agreed with judges Thomp.
son and Woodward that no one can be
deprived of his right to vote without a
r4Fial for and conviction Of desertion, and
also having held the act of Congress to be
constitutional Judge Strong is COM
PEELED to assume for a fact, what we b C.
lieve has no foundation in fact-that Con-
gress, although the law is silent on the
sub ic,t-inteuded that there should be
such trial before anypfthel isqr a'ific t n
of he law tfch. To sustain t, i v:ew {
the case he quotes authorities to prove
that all the logislat ton on the same sub
ject matter must be taken together, as a
whole, for the purpose offnding the true
meaning Of any one enactment This,
as a general rule is al! right But to ap-
ply it in every case, would be to prevent
all change. Suppose that the uniform
legislation of the country, for half a cen,
tury, had been in one channel, and that
Congress, in its wisdom thoughta change
in circumst ance, requiring it to adopt
new policy had arrivel. Upon the princi>
pc upon which Judge Strong stands, in
this case, tie law making power of the
nation would never be able to change the
established order of things, because pre-
cedeuts in its favor were numerous, where
as there was only one exception, their res
cent act This would seem unjust and
adverse TO all progress, such we believe
to be the case now in question.
For half a century Congress had been
only called upon to pass laws for deser-
tion of the ordinary kind, an occasional
escape of a solitary soldier, once in
while, from the regular army. 1t
was all proper aud right that, for such
cases, trial and conviction should prccede
punishment. There was nothing unreas-
onaale or impossible in this. But the
case was quite different on the Sd of
March, 1868. We were then passing
through a most exacting civil war. One
third of the territory of the nation was
held, or claimed to Re held by a rebel gov
ernment. One third of the people of the
whole codntry were held by the Courts
to be "public enemies" Sherman was
confronted in North Carolina by Johnson's
army-which the CONSERVATIVES" would
have us believe quite outnum5 cred him.
Grants logions were being weakened by
their prctracted siege oS Petersburg. In
some parts of the north efforts had been
made at insurrection. Secret societies
had been organized over vast portions Of
the loyal Sttos, and n n os. of them were
found communities in which it was prac-
tically impossible to enforce the draft, or
to reclaim or arrest deserters. without
sending large quantities of troops into
these localities. This, the government
found ittelf unable to do, finding more
important wolk for them elsewhere. 1t
was under these painful surroundings, and
with full knowledge Of the ample pow
ers that they had, in the Constitution, to
do whatever was necessary for the life of
the nation, that Congress passed the act
3D. March, 1865. There is no compari.
son, therefore, between the circumstan-
ces which surrounded the country when
former acts were passed providing for a
court marital, and the circumstances sur
rounding Congress at the time of the
passage of this act. 1t is very easy,
therefore, to imagine why Congress
avoided to make any mention of a court
martial in this act. 1t was not pissed for
the purpose of inficting the usual pen
alties of desertion. But on the contra
ry to provide that in addition to ''the
other penalties, those who at that dread |
hour in our history, nigh t falter, should |
forever forfeit the political status of cit
izens! The Government had no time to |
organize court-martials all over the coun-
try, that. too, seemed more properly to
belong to the military department of the
government. Congress, therefore, chose
to pass this act partly, we suppose, as
war measure intending by its operations
to constrain all who set any value, or felt
any pride in being an American citizen
to sustain the Government. 1t was in
tended as public notification that unr
less they obeyed the law. and assisted in
suppressing the rebellion that at that
hour threatened the nations life, they |
should be forever after prevented from
claiming its protection, or the enjoyment
of any of the many Political rights loci, |