The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1866-03-01

our fathers to establish as securities for
the protection of the innocent, the pun
ishment of the guilty, and the equal
administration Of justice, are to be set
aside; and for the sake Of more Wig
orous intCrpOsition in behalf of Justice,
we are to take the risk of the many
acts Of injustice that would, Of necessi-
ty, follow from an almost countless
number of agents, established in every
parish or county, in nearly a third of
the States of the Union, over Whose
decision there is to be no supervision
or control by the Federal Courts. 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 any one man. If it be
asked whether the creation of such a
tribunal within a State is warranted as
measure of war, the question imme-
diately presents itself, whether we are
still engaged in war. Let us not un-
necessarily disturb the commerce. and
credit and industry of the country, by
declaring to the American people and
the world that the United States are
still in a 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 individuals, should
not work forfeiture of the rights of
the same communities. The country
has entered, or is returning to a state
Of peace and industry, and the rebel
lion in fact is at an end. The meas
ure, therefore, seems to be as incOn-
SiStent with the actual condition OF the
country, as it is at variance with the
Constitution of the United States. 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 o.
bondage to a state of freedom. But
this bill proposes to make the Freed.
mems Bureau, established by the act
! Of 1865, as one of many great and ex.
traordinary military measures to sup.
press formidable rebellion, perma.
nent branch of the public administra-
! ton, with its power greatly enlarged.
have no reason to suppose, and ]
do not understand it to be alleged, that
the act of March, 1865, has proved de-
| ficicnt for the purpose for which it was
passed, although ut that time and fol
a considerable period thereafter, the
Government of the United States re,
maincd unacknowledged in 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, has been al
ready cffectually and finally abrogatcd
throughout the whole country by an
amendment OF the Constitution of the
United States, and practically its Grad
ication has received the assent and
concurrence Of most of those States in
which at any time il had existed. lam
not, therefore, able to discern in the
country anything to justify an appre-
hensiOn that the powers and agencies
of the Freedmen's Bureau, which were
effective for the protection of freedmen
and refugees during the actual contin-
uatiOn Of hOstilities and of African
servitude, will now in a time of peace
and after the abolition of slavery
prove inadequate to the same proper
ends. If l am correct in these views,
there can be no necessity for the en-
largement of the powers of the bureau
for which provision is made in the
bill. .'a ..E
The third section of the bill autho-
| rizes a general and unlimited amount
of support to the destitute suffering
refugees and freedmen, and their wives
and children. Succeeding sections
make provisions for the rent or pur.
chase 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
The Congress of the United States
has never heretofore thought itsel
competent to establish any laws be
yond the limits of tie District of Co
lumbia, except for TIE benefit OF oul
disabled soldiers and sailors. 1t ha!
tnevGr founded schools for any class o
our own peoples not evenfortheorphan,
OF those who have fallen, in defence o
| the Union, but has left the care Of theil
education to the much more compe
| tent control of the States, of commu
mites, Of private associations, and o
individuals: 1t has never deemed it
self authorized to eXpend the public
money for the. rent or purchase o
homes for the thousands, not to So!
millions, of the white race who ar,
honestly toiling from day to day TO
their subsistence. ...r -r.
A system for the support Of indigen
persons in the United States was neve
contemplated by the authors of tn
Constitution; nor can any good reasol
be advanced why, as a. permanent es
tablishment, it should be founded 70
one class or color of our people NOR
! than for another. Pending the wa
! many refugees and freedmen receive,
support from the Government, but |
was never intended that they shoul
henceforth be fed, clothed, educated ant
sheltered by the United States. TIL
idea on which the slaves were assiste
to freedom was that on becoming fre