The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1867-08-03
Veto Message Of the President.
The Final Protest of the Executive :
Against the DespOt BILL


To the House of Representatives., OF the
United States: / return herewith the
bill entitled san act supplementary to
an act entitled 'An act to provide for
the more efficient government of the
rebel States," passed on the I'd day OF
March, 1867, and the act supplementary
thereto, passed on the 23d day of March,
1867, and will state as briefly as posi-
BILE some fthe reasons which prevent
me from giving my approval.
This is one of series of measures
passed by Congress during the last four
months on the subject Reconstruction.
The message returning the act of the
I'd of March last states at length my
objections to the passage of that meas
ure. They apply equally to the bill
now before me, and am content merely
to refer to them, and to reiterate my
conviction that they are sound and un-
ansWerable.
There are some points peculiar to this
bill which / will proceed at once to con-
slider. '''
The first section proposes to declare
''the trueintent and meaning" in some |
particulars, of the twoprior acts upon
the subject. ~ ID.
1t is declared that the intent of those
acts was: First, that the existing gov
ernments in the ten "rebel States were
not legal State governments" i" and sec
! ond, 'ithat thereafter said governments,
| if continued, were to be continued sub
iect in all respects to the military COM
manders of the respective districts, and
to the paramount authority of Con-
gress."
Congress may, by declaratory act,
/ fix upon prior act construction al
together at variance with its apparent
meaning, and from the time at least
when such construction is fixed the
original act will be construed to mean
exactly what it is stated to mean by
the decIa ratory statute. There will be,
then. from the time this bill may be-
come a law. no doubt-no question-as
to the reIatic N in which the 'existing
governments , in those States, called
i'm the original act "the provisional
governments" stand towards the mill
tary authorities. AS these relations
stood before the de,clar;ttory act, these
governments" (" it is true, were made
subject to absolute military authority
in many important respects, but not
in all, the language Of the a CT pelhg
''subject to the military autho rlty OF
the United States, as heremqfte. pre-
scriJed." By the sixth section of the
original act these governments We re
made, 'in all respects, subject to tn, ?
paramount authority of the United /
States" .. i
Now, by this declaratory act it ap-
pears that Congress did not, by the Or
iginai act, intend to limit the military
authority to "any particulars or subjects
therein prescribed, but meant to make
it universal. Thus over all these ten
States this military government is now
declared to have unlimited authority.
1t is no longer confined to the preser-
walton of the public peace, the admin
istration of criminal law, the registra-
ton of voters, and the hesuperintendence
ofelections, but Sin all respects" it is
asserted to be paramount to the exist
inn nj vii +c
1t is impossible to conceive any state
of society more intolerable than this,
and yet it is to this condition that
twelve millions of American citizens
are reduced by the Congress of the
United States. Over every foot of the
immense territory occupied by these
American citizens, the constitution of
the United States is theoretically in
full operation. 1t binds all the people
there, and should protect them, yet
they are denied every one of its sacred
guarantees. ,. l.
OfWhat avail will it be to any one of
these Southern people, when seized by
a file of soldiers, to ask for the cause of
arrest, or for the production of the war
rant? OF What avail to ask for the
privilege of bail when in military Gus
tody, which knows no such thing as
bail? OF what avail to demand a trial
by jury, process for witnesses, a copy
of the indictment, the privilege ofcou
sci, or that greater privilege, the writ
of habeas corpus?
The veto of the original act of the Sd
of March was based on two distinct
grounds-the mt 2rference of Congress
in matters strictly appertaining to the
reserved powers of the States and the
establishment Of military tribunals for
the trial of citizens in times of peace.
The impartial reader of that message
will understand that all it contains with
respt ct to military despotism and mar
tial law has reference especially to the
fearful power conferred on the district
commanders to displace the criminal
courts and assume jurisdiction to try
and to punish by military boards; that,
potentially, the suspension of habeas
corpus was martial law and military
despotism. The act now before me not
only declares that the intent was to
confer such military authority, but al