The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1866-03-23

MAJOR Generals. This section goes on
"or the said Bureau may, an the discretion
of the President, be placed under COM
missioner and assistant commissioners, to
be dctailed from the army" And the act
does not specify either the rank or the
; color or the persons to be detailed from
the armyto rule the nation through the
Frecdmrn's Bureau.
Section two empowers the commission
err to divide each district into sub-districts,
(not less than county or parish, } and to
assign to each sub-district "at least one
ageut, either citizen, officer of the army,
or cnlstcd man." The section goes on to
say, "clch assistant commissioner may
employ not exceeding six clerks and
each agent Of 4 sub district (being one or
more for each sub.district, as suits the
pleasure of the commissioner may en-
ploy two clerks. Aud so in the twelve
districts the clerks will amount to seven
ty-two ; and in the subdistricts the agents
will amount to at least as many thousand
as there are counties and parishes in the
nation; and their clerks to double that
number, besides the employees mentioned
10 the bill.
And the same section provides that the
President, through tic Var Department
AMI the Commissioner, shall extend mill.
tary Jurisdiction over all the employees,
agents, and officers of this bureau, in the
exercise of all the duties imposed or au-
thorized by this act, or the act to which
this act is supplementary" And here l
will draw your attention to that part of
their duties especially imposed and au-
thorized by the eighth section of the bill,
thus: "And it shall be the duty of the
officers and agents of this bureau, fall of
them, great and small, without distinc-
ton to take jurisdiction of and hear aud
determine all offences committed against
the provisions Of this section; and also
of all cases affecting negroes, mulattoes,
freedmen, refugees, or other persons
who are Disseminated against, in any
of the particulars mentioned in the
preceding section of this act, under, not
the Constitution and laws, but under such
rules and regulations as the President of
United States, through the War Depart
ment, shall prescribe"
These are some of the enormities of
the vetoed bill, framed in the wantonness
OF partisan power, in contempt of the
written Constitution, and in open viola
ton of the historical opinions and tradi.
tionary faith of the people of the United
States.
AS all these thousands of officers,
agents, and employees Of the bureau may,
at the discretion of the President, be de-
tailed from the army, it is plain that every
man OF them may be an enlisted man in
the army, and white or black, as may
best suit the fancy of the detailing officer.
Only imagine such a military organiza.
ton, with despotic head at the seat of
the Government, and despotic members
pervading the whole mass of the commu-
nifty and exhibiting its power in organized
form, in every county and parish, aud the
President bound, by Trumbull's bill, to
extend military protection over them,
against every effort to restrain, by legal
and civil means, the wantonness of their
arbitrary power
Think you that the people of the Uni.
ted States are already so far degraded into
passive obedience as to submit tamely to
such an advantage, even if sanctioned by
the unanimous voice of factious Con-
gress, and approved by asubservient Presi-
dent No verify. They are not yet rea-
dy to abandon their Constitution and re-
nounce all hope of legal liberty by giving
over their lives, liberties, and properties,
to be disposed of at the caprice of petty
cD'cers and agents Of a petty subdivision
OF the War Department, called a bureau.
They will insist upon their legal rights as
freemen and American citizens; they will
demand the protection of the laws of their
country and if charged with crime, or
drawn into controversy about property or
contracts, they will insist upon a court and
: jury, and will refuse to be tried by any
petty despot, "detailcd from the army"
whether he be white or black.
Constitutional government aud liberty
by law are worth fighting for. We have
just passed through bloody war to main
tain them against a set of traitors, and l
make no doubt that the people will be as
ready, if need be, 10 resist in the same
way any other set of traitors who seek to
destroy the legal Government by insidi.
Gus artifce and bold usurpation.
An eminent English publioist, (Mill)
on representative government, gives it as
his opinion, that "rep' esentative institu-
tons depend for their permanency upon
the readiness of the people to fight FIR
them in case of their being endangered
If too little valued for this, they seldom
obtain footing at all, and if they do, are
almost sure to be overthrown as soon rs
the head of the government or any party
leader who can muster force for coup de
n,din is willing to run some small risk for
ais lutte power?
| think it fortunate thing for the
country, that the Radical faction is SO
demonted as to pick quarrel with the
President because he refuses to be their
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