Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-04-21
VOLUME XXXIII.
TIE EMIGRANrs FOR MExICO.

by military orders at this port The per
sons interested did rot resign the hope thai
there would be change of action at Wash
ington, as the prejudices which grew out o.
the late war came TO be sOftened, and that
gentler counsels towards the unfortunate
would prevail on the rule Of civil authority
When the veto on the Civil Rights bill
came they were encouraged 10 expect this
concession, and anxiety 10 obtain it has not
been lessened by the overruling of that veto
in Congress. Some Of them have been in
the city, endeavoring to complete the ar
raDgements for the renewal Of the enter
prise, and obtain the assurance Of the mill
tary authorities here that it will not be
interrupted again. When the Presidents
first proclamation appeared by which the
State Of Louisiana and the port Of New
Orleans were relieved from the martial law
incident to the state of instruction, which
was declared TO be at an end, they had full
confidence that they would no longer be
forcibly detained in the country.
On application TO Gen Sheridan, how
ever, they have been informed that the
same restrictions will be rigidly enforced,
and that no clearances will be permitted to
vessels carrying passengers from this port,
intending TO settle in Mexico.
1t is well 70 make this known to parties at
a distance who have been getting ready to
join the expedition, not doubling that the
Government would withdraw the restrictions
on their right of locomotion, which were
adapted TO a state of things which has ceased
altogether. 1t was certainly a fair presump-
ton that Government would not continue
a,yfr 10
retain in the country a class of persons
against whom its main ground Of discrimi-
nation, Justly or not. is that they would be
unsafe citizens at home. The logical de-
duction should be that they ought to be per-
mitted to go into exile voluntarily. Other
Governments make a punishment for polit-
ical offenders by banishing them; it would
be a strange trait in the character of the
American Government if it should, from no
political necessity, when the country is at
peace at home and abroad, inhict it upon a
class as a penalty for crimes that have been
pardoned in all other respects, that they
should not quit the country.
If any of these persons are in that condi-
ton that their departure would be an escape
from responsibility 10 any law or any lawful
authority, there are means for OBTAINING the
accused and the vigilance which arrests
them woul1 be cOmmendable; but the deni-
al Of the right Of expatriation to individu-
ais upon whom law has no claim, and to
whom the authorities have no further ground
of complaint than they are unhappy and
poor and discontinued, and are unwise
enough TO hope for repose in strange and
ungenial country, is a denial of one of those
elementary American doctrines which have
never before been questioned. If there were
any one cause more potent than the rest for
precipitating hostilities between Great Bri-
tain and the United States in 1912, it was
the pretension of the British crown that its
subjects could not change their domicil at
will, and its practice of retaining natural
lied Englishmen and lrishmen by impress
ment from American merchant vessels.
"Once a subject, always a subject" is not the
doctrine of even monarchial governments at
this day. England abandons il, else she
would have, on the principles which flow out
of the American practice, if continued into
a system in times Of peace, the right to pro-
hibit the emigration of any lrishman to
America, because, as stated broadly in the
late debates in Parliament on the Fenian
question, every lrishman carries to the Uni
ted States sentiments of animosity toward
England which make him ready to enter in
to any schemes of his countrymen abroad
against English interests and English pos
sessions
But the United States, if they were so to-
tally changed in their ideas on this ques-
ton Of personal liberty as to be more rigid
than England is, in a matter where England
is really threatened with some dangers by
the consequences, have less cause than
England, for they have no ground for at
tributing TO these Southern emigrants any
purposes, or any capacity, or any inclina-
ton 10 plot in Mexico against the United
States. They are simply unfortunates, if
not absolutely ruined, seriously impover-
ished and unhappy, who are looking for
homes where their own labor may secure
for them subsistence and quiet for the re-
mainder of their lives. They have no POI
litical projects whatever; and in the pres
ent condition of Mexico, we 90 not perceive
ON what grounds they could desire to take
sides with either of the contending parties
there, nor what sufficient interest the Uni
ted States have in taking extraordinary
measures to weaken one party more than
the other, 10 the extent of the little these
colonists could bring TO bear for either. Be
tween Macmillan and Juarez the pledged
policy of the Government is non-interven-
tion-its acknowledged duty, strict neutral
ity. The popular sentiment may be other
wise, but this is the public attitude of the
Administration. To espouse the side of one
of the parties so ardently as TO prohibit the
transit Of persons, merely because it is sus-
pected they might at some future day at
tach themselves TO the other, is so palpable
a departure from that policy, that we think
it will not be sustained at Washington.
If it be intended as a prelude to hostile
measures against Macmillan, that is an
other matter
We have no doubt that General Sheridan
acts in the spirit of his instructions, and
has warrant from his superiors for what he
has done in this instance. But we are in
c!ined TO believe that these prohibitions and
restrictions, on the right of travel and ex-
patriation, which grew out of the state of in
surrection, and emanated from the war pow
er, will be removed before long, in accord
ance with the Presidents proclamation of
peace.
Contending for the liberty of these people
TO seek their fortunes elsewhere, we must not
be considered as intending to encourage such
movements for depopulating the South by
the voluntary exile of an industrious and
intelligent population, who are more needed
here for the good Of their own country, and
can, we verify believe, do better here for
themselves than in Mexico. Nor do we
concur in the suspicion that they would be
unsafe citizens of whose fidelity to their en-
gagements and perfect obedience to the laws
there is any ground for the slightest doubt.
But if they have a fixed desire TO 60 and
caunot be dissuaded, we see nothing in law,
policy or justice which should compel them
10 stay.
MAKING SHORT SHRIFT OF THEM.
On Saturday morning last, a man named
Newt Morrison was found hanging by the
neck and dead, in front of the Wyandotte
(kansas) Jail. lie had been arrested and
committed TO the Jail on the Thursday pre-
vious, on suspicion of being concerned in
robbing the hack between Leavenworth and
Wyandotte, some time last winter, when
Mr.. Freeland; of Weston, was killed by the
robbers. On Saturday week the body of 4
dead man was found on the railroad track,
nearWvandotte. Nothing was said as 10 the
manner of his DEATH but il was suggested
that he was a horse thief. Some ten days
or two weeks since a fellow named John
son, supposed TO be concerned in the muir
der of Mr.. Freeland, was killed in the same
neighborhood, while party was making an
attempt 10 arrest him. Either the villains
in that part of Kansas are about all killed
of, or they have had a large remnant of the