The Ebensburg Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1865-1871, 1866-03-01

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| shall have been committed" /"
/ The safeguards which the wisdom and
| experience of ages taught our fathers to
establish as securities for the protection
of the innocent, the punishment of the
guilty, and the equal administration of
| justice, are to be set aside, and for the
sake of a more vigorous interposition in
behalf of justice, We are to take the rest
| CT the many acts of injustice that would
of necessity follow from an almost count
less number of agents established in every
parish or county in nearly third of the
States of the Union, or over whose decis-
ion there is to he no supervision or control
by the Federal Court. The power that
would be thus placed in the hands of the
President is such as in time of peace
| certainly ought never to be entrusted to
one man. IF it be asked whether the Gre
alton of such tribunal within State is
warranted as measure of war, the ques-
ton Immediately presents itself whether
we are still engaged in war. Let US not
unnecessarily disturb the commerce, and
credit, and industry Of the country, by
declaring to the American people aud the
world that the United States are still In
condition of civil war. At present there
is no part of our country in which the
! authority of the United States is disputed.
Offences that may be committed by indi-
Viduals should not work a forfeiture of the
| rights of the same communities. The
country has entered or is returning 20 a
state of peace and industry, aud the re-
beliion is in fact at an end. The measure
therefore, seems to be as inconsistent with
the actual condition OF the country as it is
at variance with the Constitution Of the
United States. n-0
If, passing from general considerations,
we examine the bill in detail, it is open to
weighty objections. In time of war it was
eminently proper that we should provide
for those who were passing suddenly from
a condition of bondage to state of free
dom. But this bill proposes to make the
Freedmen's Bureau, established by the
act of 1865, as one of many great and
extraordinary military measures to sup
press formidable rebellion, a permanent
branch of the public administration, with
Its powers greatly enlarged. [ have no
reason to suppose, and ] do not understand
it to be alleged, that the act of March,
1865, has proven deficient for the purpose
for which it passed although at that time,
and for considerable period thereafter,
the Government of the United States
remained unacknowledged in the most of
the States, whose inhabitants had been
involved In the rebellion. The institution
OF Slavery, for the military destruction OF
which the Freedmen's Bureau was called
into existence as an auxiliary force, has
been already effectually and finally abro-
gated throughout the whole country by an
amendment of the Constitution of the
United States. and practically its eradica-
ton has received the assent and concur
renee of most of those States in winch it
at any time had existed. [ am not, there
fore, able to discern In the country any
thing to Justify an apprehension that the
powers aud agencies Of the Freedmen's
Bureau, which were effective for the pro-
lection or freedmen and refugees during
the actual continuance of hostilIties and
OF African servItude, will now In time
OF peace, and after the abolition of Slavery.
prove Inadequate to the same proper ends.
LII am correct in these views, there can
be 10 necessity for the enlargement of the
powers OF the Bureau, fov which provision
Is made In the bill. The third section of
the bill authorizes a general and unlimited
grant OF support to the destitute and suf-
fering refugees and freedmen and their
wives and children. Succeeding sections
make provision for the rent or purchase
of landed estates for freedmen, and for
the erection, for their benefit, of suitable
buildings for asylums and schools, the
expenses to be betrayed from the treasury
of the whole people. TIE Congress of
the United States has never heretofore
thought itself competent to establish any
laws beyond the limits of the District of
Columbia, excep. for the benefit Of our
disabled soldiers or sailors. 1T has never
founded schools for any class of our own
people, not even for the orphans of those
who have fallen in defence of the Union,
but has left the care of their education to
the much more competent and efficient
control of the States, of communities, of
private associations and of Individuals
1t has never deemed itself authorized to
expend the public money for the rent or pur-
chase OF homes for the thousands, not to say
millions, of the white race who are honestly
toiling from day to day for their subsist-
ence. A system for the sup port of indi-
gent persons In the United States was
never contemplated by the authors of the
Constitution. Nor can any good reason |
be advanced why, as permanent estab-
lishment, it should be founded for one
class or color of our people more than for |
another. Pending the war many refugees |
and freedmen received support from tho |
Government, but it was never intended |
that they should henceforth be fed, clothed,
educated and sheltered by thes United |