Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-02-20
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V II r. Q il ID!
THE FREEDMENS' BUREAU BILL!
THE PRESIDENTS MESSAGE
To &e Senate NJ the United States:

by the two Houses of Congress, to amend
an act entitled ian act to establish Bureau
| for the relief of freedmen and refugees and
for other purposes" Having with much
regret come the conclusion that II would
not be consistent with the public welfare to
give my approval to the measure, return
the bill to the Senate with my objections to
its becoming law. ......-.i
! i might call to mind, in advance of these
4 objections, that there is no immediate ne
cessity for the proposed measure. The act
to establish Bureau for the relief of freed
men and refugees, which was approved in
the month of March last, has not yet ex-
pired. 1t was thought stringent and ex-
tensve enough for the purpose in view be-
fore it came into effect. Further experience
may assist to guide us to a conclusion as
to the policy to be adopted in time of
peace. l have, with Congress, the
strongest desire to secure to the freedmen
the full enjoyment of their freedom and
their property, and their entire indepen-
dence and equality In making contracts for
their labor. But the bill before me contains
provisions which, In my opinion, are not
warranted by the Constitution and are not
well suited to accomplish the end In view
The bill proposes to establish, by authority
of Congress, military jurisdiction over all
parts Of the United States containing refu-
gees and freedmen. 1t would, by its very
nature,apply with most force to those parts
of the United States in which the freed
men most abound, and it expressly extends
the existing temporary jurisdiction of the
Freedmen's Bureau, with greatly enlarged
powers, over those States in which the or
dinary course of judicial proceedings has
been interrupted by the rebellion. The
source from which this military juris-
diction is to emanate is none other
than the President of the United States,
acting through the War Department
and the Commissioner of the Freedmen's
Bureau. The agents to carry out the mill
tary Jurisdiction are to be selected from the
armyor from civil lite. The country is to
be divided into districts and sub-districts,
and the number of salared agents to be
employed may be equal to the number of
counties or parishes in all the United States
where freedmen and refugees are to be
found. The subjects over which this mill
tary jurisdiction is to extend in every part
of the United States, include protection to
all employees, agents and officers of this
Bureau, in the exercise of the duties i'm.
posed upon them by the bill. In eleven
States it is further to extend over all cases
affecting freedmen and refugees discrimina-
ted against by local law, custom or preiu-
|
iects any white person who may be charged
with depriying a freedman of any civil
rights or immunities belonging to white
persons, to imprisonment or fine, or both,
without, however, defining the civil rights
and immunities which are thus to be
secured to the freedmen by militia
ry law. This military Jurisdiction
also extends to all questions that may arise
respecting contracts. The agent who is
thus to exercise the Office of military
Judge may be stranger, entirely ignorant
of the laws of the place and exposed to the
errors OF judgment to which all men are
liable. The exercise of power, over which
there is now legal supervision, by so vast a
number of agents as is contemplated by
the bill, must, by the very nature of man
be- attended by acts OF caprice. injustice
and passion. The trials having their origin
under this bill are to take place without
the Intervention of a jury and without any
fixed rules of law or evidence. The rules
on which Offenses are to be heard and de.
termined by the numerous agents are such
rules and regulations as the President
through. the War Department shall pre-
scribe. No previous presentiment is re.
quired, nor any indictment charging the
commission of a crime against the laws
but the trial must proceed on charges and
specifications. The punishment will be
not what the law declares, but such as q
court-martial may think proper; and from
these arbitrary tribunals there lies no ap-
peal, no writ of error to any of the courts
in which the Constitution of the United
States vests exclusively the judicial power
of the country. While the territories and
the class of actions and Offenses that are
made subject to this measure, are so ex-
tensive that the bill itself should-if it be-
come law will-have no Limitation in point
of time, but will form part of the perma-
nent legislation of the country.
| can not reconcile system of military
jurisdiction of this kind with the words OF
the Constitution, which declare that: "NO
person shall be held to answer for capital
or otherwise infamous crime unless on a
presentmentor or indictment OF grand jury,
except in cases arising in the land or naval
forces, or in the militia when in actual SER
vice in time Of war or public danger" and
that "in all criminal prosecutions the ac-
cused shall. enjoy the right to speedy and
pnblic trial by an impartial jury of the
State or District wherein the crime shall
have been committed" The safeguards
which. the wisdom and experience of
ages taught our fathers to establish as
securities for 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 more vigorous inter-
probation In behalf of justice, we are to take
the risk of the many acts of injustice that
would of necessity follow from an almost
countless number of agents, established in
every parish or county in nearly third of
the States of the Union, over whose decision
there IL to be no supervision or control bv
| Federal courts. The power that would be
thus placed in the hands of the President Is
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 a measure of war;
the question 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 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 au-
4 thority of the Uuited States Is Disputed
| Oifenses that may be committed by indi-
| Viduals should not work forfeiture of the
rights of the same communities. The
1 country has entered, or is returning to, a
state OF peace and industry, aud the rebel
lion 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. W1
4 If, passing from general considerations,
/ we examine the bill in detail, 1t is open to
i weighty objections. In time of war it was
II aminentlv nrnnpT that we should rrOVide