The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1866-12-24

AS the supreme court mas now decided
that military courts arc illegal, we avail,
with interest the full report of the opinion
delivered by Judge Davis. This was the
case so ably argued by Judge Black, o.
Pennsylvania, of whose eloquent speech
we suhjoin the concluding portions. The
public will, We are sure, read 1t with much
pleasure
Come, Mr.. Attorney, "gird up thy lons
now like man; will demand OF thee and
thou shalt declare unto me If thou hadst
understanding. How is military com.
mission organized What shall be the
number and rank of its members VIVA,
offences come within its jurisdiction
What Is its code of procedure How shall
witnesses be compelled to attend ii Is il
perjury for witness to swear falsely
What is the function of the Judge advo.
cate Does he tell the members how they
must find, or does he only persuade them
10 convict Is he the agent of the Gov.
eminent, TO command them what evidence
they shall admit and what sentence
they shall pronounce or does he always
carry his point, right or wrong, by the mere
force Of eloquence and ingenuity : What
is the nature Of their puniShmentS? May
they confscate property and levy fines as
well as imprisou and kill : In addition TO
strangling their victim, may they also deny
him the last consultations of religion, and
refuse his family the melancholy privilege
OF giving him a decent grave
To none Of these questions can the At
torney-General make reply, for there is
no law on the subject. lie will not attempt
TO "darken counsel by words without
knowledge" and, therefore, like Job, he
can only lay his hand upon his mouth and
keep silence.
The power exercised through these mill
tary commissions is not only unregulatcd
by law, but ii is incapable of being so re-
gulated. What is it that you claim, Mr..
Attorney | will give you definition,
the correctness Of which you will not at
tempt to gainSay. You assert the right of
the executive government, without the in
terveution OF the Judiciary, to capture, i'm
prison and kill any person TO whom that
government or its paid dependents may
choose TO impute an offence. This, in its
very essence, is despotic and lawleSS. 1t
is never claimed or tolerated except by
those governments which deny the re-
straints of all law. 1t has been exercised
ty the great and small oppresSors of man
kind ever since the days of Nimrod. 1t
operates in different ways; the tools it
uses are not always the same; it hides It's
hideous features under many DISCUSSES; it
assumes every variety Of form;
at can change shapes with Proteus for ad-
yantages,
And set the murderous Machiavel TO school"
But in all its mutations Of outward appear
ance it is still identical inprinciple, object,
and origin. 1t is always the same great en-
CINE of deSpotism which Hamilton de-
scribcd it to be.
Under the old French monarchy the ia
vorite fashion of it was a lettre de CdChet,
signed by the King, and this would con-
sign the party TO loathSome dungeon until
he died, forgotten by all the world. An
Imperial ,kaSe will answer the same pur-
pose in Russia. The most faithful subject
OF that amiable autocracy may lie down in
the evening 10 dream OF his future pros
perity, and before daybreak he will find
himself between two dragons, on his way
10 the mines of Siberia. In Turkey the
verbal order of the Sultan or any of his
powerful favoritcs will cause a man to be
tied up in q sack and cast into the Bospho-
rus. Nero accused Peter and Paul Of
spreadinga "pcStilcnt superstition" which
they called the gospel. lie heard their de-
fence in person, and sent them TO the cross.
Afterwards he tried the whole Christian
Church III one body on a charge of setting
fire TO the city, and he convicted them,
though he knew not only that they were
innocent, but that he himself had com
mitted the crime. The Judgment was fol-
lowed by instant execution he let loose
the PrRtorian guards upon men, women,
and children, TO drown, butcher, and burn
them. Herod saw fit, for good political
reasons, closely affecting the permanence
of his reign in Judea, to punish certain
possible traitors in Bethlehem by anticipa-
ton. This required the death of all the
children in that city under two years of
age. He issued his general order," and
his provost marshal carried it out with so
much alacrity and zeal that in one day the
whole land was filled with mourning and
lamentation.
Macbeth understood the whole philoso-
ply of the subject. He was an unlimited
monarch. His power to punish for any
offence or for no offence at all was as
broad as that which the Attorney General
claims for himself and his brother officers
under the United States. But he was
more cautious how he used it. He had 4
dangerous rival, from whom he apprehend-
ed the most serious peril to the life Of
his Government" The necessity to get
rid of him was plain enough, but he could
not afford to shock the moral sense of the
world by pleading political necessity for
murder. He must
" Mask the business from the common eye
Accordingly he sent for two enterpris-
ing gentlemen, whom he took into his SER
vice upon liberal pay" made love to
their assistance :" and got them to deal
with the accused party. He acted as his
own Judge advocate. He made most
elegant and stirring speech to persuade his
agents that Banquo was their oppreSsor,
and had "held them so under fortune !"
that he ought to have died for that alone.
When they agreed that he was their
enemy, then said the King:
$50 is he mine, and though could
With barctaced poa0er sweep HIM from my
sight,
And bid my ,otH avouch it !; yet must not
For certain friends, who are both his ana
mine,
Whose loves may not drop"
For these, and "many weghty reasons"
besides, he thought it.beSt to commit the
execution of his design to subordinate
agency. The commission thus organized
in Banquo's case sat upon him that very
night at a convenient place beside the ROAD