The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1867-06-19

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It happens that this private citizen
thus placed on the bench is to sit as
the sole Judge in q criminal court
whose jurisdiction extends to cases
involving the life of the accused. If
he has any judicial power in any case,
he has the same power to take cogni-
zance Of capital cases, and to SEN
tence the accused to death, and order
his execution. A strange spectacle!
where the judge and the criminal
may very well "change places" for
if the criminal has unlawfully taken
life, SO, too, does the judge. This is
the inevitable result; for the only tri-
bunal, the only judges, if they can
be called judges, which q military
commander can constitute and ap-
point under this Act to inhict the
death penalty is military court COM
posed of board, and called in the
Act military commission.
/ see no relief for the condemned
against the sentence of this agent of
the military commander. 1t is not
the sort of court whose sentence Of
death must be first approved by the
commander and finally by the Presi-
dent, for that is allowed only where
the sentence is pronounced by a
military commission. Nor is it q
sentence pronounced by the rightful
court of the State, but by court and
by Judge not clothed with authority
under the laws of the State, but con-
stituted by the military authority. AS
the representative Of this military
authority, this Act forbids inter
ference under color of State autho-
rity" with the exercise Of his func-
tions.
In another one of these districts, q
military order commands the Go
vernon Of the State to forbid the re-
assembling of the Legislature, and
thus suspends the proper Legislative
power of the State. In the same dis
trict, an order has been issued ''to
relieve the Treasurer of the State
from the duties, bonds, books, papers,
&C., appertaining to his Office" and
to put an assistant quartermaster of
United States volunteers" in place of
the removed Treasurer; the duties of
which quartermaster-tre are
thus summed up: He is to make to
the headquarters of the district "the
same reports and returns required
from the Treasurer, and a monthly
statement of receipts and expendi-
lures; he will pay all warrants for
salaries which may be, or become,
due, and legitimate expenditures for
the support of the penitentiary, State
asylum and the support of the provi-
sional State government; but no scrip
or warrants for outstanding debts of
other kind than those specified will
be paid without special auth ority
from these headquarters. He will
deposit funds in the same manner as
though they were those OF the United
States"
In another OF these districts, n
body Of military edicts, issued in
general and special orders regularly
numbered, and in occasional circu-
lars, have been promulgated, which
already begin to assume the dimen-
sions of code. These military
orders modify the existing law in the
remedies for the collection of deb s,
the enforcement of judgments and
DEGREES for the payment of money,
staying proceedings instituted, pro-
hibiting, in certain cases, the right to
bring suit, enjoining proceedings on
execution for the term of twelve
months, giving new liens in certain
cases, establishing homestead exemp-
tions, declaring what shall be legal
tender, abolishing in certain cases
the remedy by foreign attachment,
abolishing bail "as heretofore autho-
rized' i'll cases &c c0nt1'0ctu, but not
in "other cases, known rs actions ec
delicto," and changing, in several par
ticulars, the existing laws rs to the
punishment of crimes, and directing
that the crimes referred to ''shall be
punished by Imprisonment at hard
labor for n term not exceeding ten
years nor less than two years, in the
discretion of the court having juris-
diction thereof" One OF these gene
raj orders, being number ten OF the
series, contains no less than seven
teen sections, embodying the various
changes and notifications which have
been recited.
The question NJ once arises in the
mind OF every lawyer, what power of
discretion belongs to the court having
jurisdiction of any of these offences
to sentence criminal to any other or
different punishment than that pro-
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