Evansville daily journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1863-1866, 1866-03-02

uHeQ 70 Qesfgnate tnoED Ql8tflctd u cOun-
try id the State Of L6nisiana which. are
not knoRn as-ceunties, but as parishes,
there being in that State no county or
CARNATIONS.
/ should have been very glad, and 1
think may say the committee who
reported this bill originally to the Senate
would have been glad if we could have
limited the officials in the law TO far
less number of agents than it is possible
to employ under it. But in order to vest
the President with sufficient power in
some localities, it was necessary, legis-
lating by general laws, to give him q
much larger power than would be ne
csssary in other localities. And yet,
now this bills arraigned, and it is said
that N"the country ia to be divided into
districts and sub-districts, and the num-
Der of salaried 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" 10
ABOUT THE DIVISION OF THE COUNTRY INTO
DISTRICTS.
Sir, the country is not to be divided, l
undertake to say, into districts and sub
districts, unless the President of the
United States finds it necessary to do so
for the protection of these people; and
if the law should be abused the discre-
ton vested in him by Congress, and not
because law required it. It makes no
such requirement The original law re-
quired that there be appointed one Com
missioner and ten Assistant Commits
sioners, and the amendatory act which
the President has vetoed, authorized the
appointment of twelve Assistant Com
missioners, two more than the present
law But as to-this division into sub
districts and the appointment of this in
Vulnerable numbe- of agents that have
so alarmed the minds of Senators, not
one of them is 10 be appointed, by the
express terms of the bill, unless it is to
carry out its operations; and who be-
lieves that any such number would be
necessary as ,1ne in each county, If
one in each county were appointed un-
der the bill, undertake to say it would
be most manifest abuse of the discre-
ton which the bill vests in the officers
who are to carry it into execution.
The President further says, in his veto
message:
"The subjects over which this mill
tary Jurisdiction is to..,extend to every
part of the United States, include pro-
lection TO all employees, agents and Off
GERS of this Bureau in the exercise OF
the duties imposed upon them by the
bill. In eleven States it is further to
extend over all cases affecting freed
men and refugees Disseminated against
by local law, custom or prejudice. In
those eleven States the bill subjects any
white person who may be charged with
depriving a freedman of any civil
rights or immanities belonging to white
persons, to imprisonment or fine, or
both, without, however, defining the
civil rights and immunities which are
thusto be secured to the freedmen by
military law. This military jurisdiction
also extends to all questions that may
arise respecting contracts"
After reading that most extraordinary
statement in this veto message, what will
be said when l read from the bill itself
that, so far from extending this military
jurisdiction over all questions arising
concerning contracts, and so far from
extending military Jurisdiction any
where, it is expressly provided by the
very terms of the bill itself, that no such
jurisdiction shall be exercised, except
where the President himself has estab-
lished and is maintaining military juris
diction, that very moment the military
jurisdiction conferred over freedmen by
this act ceases and terminates. | will
read from the eighth section of this bin
which is explicit upon this point: ,ep
1.-THE Jurisdiction conferred by this
and the preceding section on the officers
and agents of this Bureau shall cease
and terminate whenever the discrimina-
ton on account of which it is conferred
ceases, and in no event to be exercised
in any State in which the ordinary course
of judicial proceedings has not been
by the rebellion, nor in any
such State after said State shall have
been fully restored in all its -Constitu-
tioaal relations to the United States !;
and the courts of the State, and OF the
United States, within the Same are not
disturbed or stopped in the peaceable
course of justice" 10
Sir, the whole jurisd ction to try and
dispose of cases by the officers and agents
of, the Freedmen's Bureau is expressly
limited to the time when these States
shall be restored to their constitutional
relations, and. when the courts of the
United States and of the States are not
interrupted or interfered with in the
peaceable course of justice. So far,
then, from the bill establishing military
Jurisdiction, upon which the Senator
from Kentucky and other Senator'S have
so much harped, it confers no jurisdic-
ton to try cases one moment after the
courts are restored, and are no longer
interrupted in the peaeeable administra-
ton of justice. And, sirs, let me ask
by what authority is it that military
tribunals are sitting to day al Alexan-
dria, Virginia. By what authority is it
that the writ of hdbeGs corpus is suspend
ed to-day in eleven States, when the
Constitution of the United States says
that the writ shall not be suspended
except when in cases of rebellion and
invasion the public safety may require
it2 BY what authority does the Presi-
dent of the United States object to the
exercise of military jurisdiction by that
part of the army charged with the exc
cution of the provisions of the Freed
mems Bureau, when he exercises that
military jurisdiction himself by other por-
tions of the army2 1t is not long since
military com mission in Georgia, with
out presentment or indictment Of q
grand jury, tried and convicted white
men for the murder of a negro, and, as
I understand, by the fat of Andrew
johnson himself and by the Judgment
of the military commission, the men
we're executed, as they ought to have
been, for the murder. 1t is but few
days since a military commission was
sitting in Alexandra, trying persons
charged with crimes, and they are held
ell over the South And yetthat part oil
the army connected with the Freedmen
Bureau can not exercise any such au-
thority because it is unconstitutional
Unconstitutional TO do by virtue of Law
of Congress- what is done without any
lawl .s.-~,.--r.
Sir, let me read what is being done in