Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1866-04-14
THE VETO.
CONCLUDED FxoM lsT PAGE.


necessary and proper to maintain invoate
this great law Of freedom. The fourth section
of the Bill provides that officers and agents of
the Freedmen's Bureau shall be empowered
to make arrests and also, that other officers
may be specially commissioned for chat pur-
pose by the President of the United States
It also authorizes Circuit Courts Of the Uni
ted States and the Superior Courts of the Ter
ritories to appoint, without Limitation, Com
missioners who are to be charged with the
performance Of quasi judicial duties, The
fifth section empowers the Commissioners so
to be selected by the Court to appoint in wri-
ting one or more suitable persons from time
to time, to execute warrants and other process
ca desirable by the Bill. These numerous
official agents are plade to constitute sort of
police in addition to the military, and are au-
thorlzcd to summon Il posse comltdtuS, and
ever to call to their aid such a portion Of the
land and naval forces of the United States, or
of the militia, Gas may be necessary to the
performance of the duty with which they arc
charged" This extraordinary power is to be
conferred upon agents irresponsible to the
G vernment and to the people, whose number
the discretion of the Commissioners is the only
limit, and in whose hands such authority
might be made terrible engine of wrong,
oppression and fraud. The general statutes
regulating the land and naval forces of the
United States, the militia and the execution
of the laws, are believed to be lcquate for
any emergency which can occur in time Of
peace. If it should prove otherwise Con
gress can at any time amend those laws in
such manner as, while subscribing the public
welfare, not to leopard tue rights, interests
and liberties of the people.
The seventh section provides thai fee of
ten dollars shall be paid to each Commissioner
in every case brought before him, and fee
of FIVE dollars to his deputy, or deputies, for
each person he or they may arrest and take
before any such Commissioner, with such 9th
or fees as may be deemed reasonable by such
Commissioners in general for performing such
other duties as may be required in the premi-
ses. All these fees are to be paid out of the
Treasury of the United States, whether there
is a conviction or not; but in case Of convjc-
tion they are to be recoverable from the de-
fendant. 1t seems to me that under the in
huencc Of such temptations bad men might
convert any law, however benefcent, into an
instrument Of persecution and fraud BY the
eighth section of the Bill the United States
Courts, which sit only in one place for white
citizens, must migrate with the marshal and
district attorney, and necessarily with the
clerk (although he is not mentioncd), to any
part Of the district upon the order of the
President, and there hold Court for the more
speedy arrest and trial Of persons charged with
violation of this act; and there the Judge
and officers Of the Court must remain, upon
the order ofthe President, for the time there
in designated.
The ninth section authorizes the President,
or such other person as he may. empower for
that purpose, to cnlploy such part Of the land
and naval forces Of the United States, or of
the militia, as shall be necessary to prevent
the violation and enforce the due execution :"
this act. phis language seems to imply
permanent military soIoo chat is to be always
at hand, and whose only business is to be the
enforcement Of this measure over the vast re-
gion where it is intended to operate.
[ do not propose to consider the policy of
this Bill. TO me the details of the Bill are
fraught with evil The white race aud the
black race Of the South have hitherto lived
together under tho relation Of master and
slave-capital owning labor Now that rela-
ton is changed, and as to ownership. capital
and labor are divorced They stand now, each
master Of itself. In this new relation-o,e ,e
being necessary to the other-there will be a
new adjustment, which both are deeply inter
cstcd in making harmonious Each has equal
power in settling the terms and, if left to the
Jaws that regulate capital and labor, it is con
6dnntlv hol;evni th,t tbo, mill ,,t;,f, ,n+or;l,,