The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1866-02-22

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: a mob in forty-eight hours"
That is the testimony of one who has been
chosen the Governor of one of these states,
as gentlemen insist upon terming them, and
in which nay colleague says they have sur
rendered their whole cause. He tells his
constituents and tells the United States
that if the military force belonging to the
United States were Withdrawn, the Legisa-
ture IF that state would be broken up in
forty eight hours
a committee calling themselves the cen
trail committee of Tennessee, in Il memorial
addressed to the committee on reconstruc
tion, which has found its way into the news
papers, use this language:
The designs Of the great secession ma
Ijorty of Tennessee may have been changed
by the events of the war; and so may have
been their opinions of their own strength
and of the strength of the government. but
unless your memorialIsts greatly misunder-
stand them their sentiments, sympathies,
and passions remain unchanged. They well
come peace because they are disabled from
making war they submit because they can
no longer resist they accept results they
canuot reject, and profess loyalty because
they have halter around their necks They
recognize the abolition of slavery because
they see it before them as fact but they
say it was Accomplished by gross viola
lions of the Constitution-that the negro is
free only in fact, but not in law, or of
right"
But Mr. President think can convince
you more satisfactorily of the extent to
which they have sarrend red their cause
by reading to you some extracts from Sc
ries of chapters drawn by commission ao-
pointed in Florida for the purpose of revis-
ing their code. At the head OF that com
mission | find the name Of Mr. Dupont who
is the chief justice of Florida,i if Florida has
| a chief justice. Acting upon the assump-
ton that slavery was destroyed they con
ceived that it was necessary to make some
changes in their code regulating the colored
population of that district. The commits
sion reported ten chapters for that pur.
pose
have them all before me. They create
first county criminal court, and to that
court they give jurisdiction in the cases
Of
Assault assault and battery, assault
with intent to kill riot, affray, larceny
robbery, arson, burglary, malicious misc hief
vagrancy and all misdemeauors and all of
lenses against religion, charity, morality, and
decency
That is the jurisdiction of that county
criminal court. One Of the sections de
clares-
THAT in all cases where fine, penalty,
or forfeiture is or may be provided or in
flicted by any statute of this State, as the
punishment for any otfense by the court or
ganized by this act, the person upon whom
such fine, penalty, or forfeiture may be i'm
posed, may for the non-payment thereof be
put to such labor as the county commission
ers of the county in which such fine, penal
ty, or forfeiture was imposed, may direct,
and shall be allowed such compensation for
his labor in reduction of his fine or forfeit
ure, as may be reasonable and just, and he
shall not be held to such LABOR for longer
period than shall be necessary to pay and
satisfy the fine, forfeiture, and penalty so
imposed or the said county commissioners
may hire out, at public cutlery, the said
party to any person who will take him for
the shortest time and pay the fine forfeiture
and penalty as imposed"
The next section provides.
'''Hhat all fines, forfeitures and penalties
imposed upon any person by the county
criminal court organized by this act, shall be
paid into the county treasury, and all legiti-
mate expenses attending prosecution in
the said court shall be provided for and paid
out of said treasury, aud the compensation
of jurors aud witnesses called TO testify on
| the part of the prosecution shall be at the
option and discretion of the board of county
commissioners of the respective coun-
tes''
What is the purpose of these clauses !?
They explain it They say that before the
abolition of slavery there was an excellent
tribunal. Their language is
Heretofore there existed in each house
hold tribunal peculiarly adapted to the
investigation and punishment of the great
majority of minor ofenses to the commits
sion of which this class of population was
addicted"
That is the class of population made free
by the act of emancipation.
''With the destruction of the institution
of negro slavery, that tribunal has become
extinct, ami hence the necessity of erecting
another, in its stead, and of making such
notifications in our legislation as shall give
full efficiency to our criminal code"
Which means briefly this that when
slavery existed the head of each family
was government for all the slaves belong
ing to that family he did his own whip
ping, administered his own corrections he
made his own laws That institution hav-
ing been destroyed and slavery ended each
county is to have a superintendent, what they
cell county criminal court, to do the
whipping and administer the correction for
the whole county, They are to be tried be-
fore jurors they are to be convicted of
these ofenses upon the testimony of wit
nesses but those witnesses and those ju-
rors are to depend for their compensation
upon the liberality Of the county commits
sioners in the county which administers his
justice.
Another bill declares
''That whenever in the criminal laws of
this State heretofore enacted the punish
ment Of the otfense is limited to fine and i'm
prisonment, or to fine or Imprisonment t,
there shall be superadded as an alternative,
the punishment Of standing in the pillory
for one hour, or whipping, not exceeding
thirty nine stripes on the bare back, or both,
at the discretion of the jury"
Now, here are some of the ofenses de-
} clared--
"That the severance from the freehold Of
any agricultural prOductlon or uXIure, or any
part thereof, and the felionious taking and
) carrying away the same, shall be deemed &
: held to be larceny, and be punished as such. ?
''That if any person shall excite an insur-
rection or sedition among any portion OIL
class of the population of this State, or shall
! attempt by writing speaking, or by any
other means, to excite such instruction o.
sedition, the person or persons SO offending
, shall be deemed to be guilty of felony, and
upon conviction shall suffer DEATH
2 There are two provisions creating crimi
: nal offensesy One makes it larceny to cui
r twig from an apple tree or from any Other
i kind of tree and to carry it off. Removing
: anything of the kind from anything which
: is fixture upon the soil is larceny. The
e next section makes it an offense punishabl,
with death to incite instruction or seditior