Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1867-04-26
The Injunction Bills.

The Injunction Bills.
The Mississippi application for an in
! junction has gone to the ground with such
force and in such manner. that it will be
difficult to raise it again, while the Georgia
bill has been indefinitely postponed in
other words, laid over until next fall. In
! the meantime, the Reconstruction bill may
/ be adopted by the very State for whose
! benefit the injunction was inaugurated,
! thereby putting an end, i'll delicate way,
! 10 the question as to whether Congress is
hereafter to legislate by force of might, or
! logic of right. We cannot see that so far
the South has been benefited in any way
/ by this test before the Supreme Court
But little more than the present result has
| been expected from the first date of the
applications, although it was we'll enough
| that the attempt shoald be made. The
South, as usual has been beaten, and
the question has fallen to the ground; yet
the champions of both Mississippi and
| Georgia can proudly feel conscious that it
was not from the want of any efforts on
!
skillfully drawn, and the arguments of
both Sharkey and Walker did credit to
themselves and to the people whom they
represent. The question has become al
most a closed one, and by the decision of
those from whose Judgment there is no ap
peal. AS for any beneficial results which
We're expected to arise from discussion of
this matter, the in junction might as we'll
have been laid before the Hottentots of
South Africa, rs before the Supreme Court
of North America. The practical results
would have been undoubtedly the same
There would have been but this difference
in the mode of decision one knows too
little and the other too much.
Yet it is well, perhaps that this question
has been fully and speedily decided. A
lengthy agitation of it, at this time, could
not have proved but njurious to the States,
and the arguments which were submitted
on both sides go far towards explaining
more freely the present situation. Judge
Sharkeys Mississippi bill was ruled out be-
cause directed against the President and
as that parsonage could appear before the
Court, only at his own option, the Court
having no power to force him as the en-
bodiment of the Executive laws of the land
to respect it's summons, it was decided that
the first injunction be not entertain
The Georgia bill was little more fortu-
nate Inasmuch as it was directed, not
against the President, but against Secretary
Stanton, and Generals Grant and Pope it
was allowed to be filed.
These different decisions of the Court
arc narrow and technical in the extreme,
and we think bear with them many pros.
and cons. The Court has decided that the
President, in his official capacity as such,
is not responsible for his actions to them
Are then those military officers who are act
ing under the orders of the President, and
upon Il strictly military footing, amenable
to that council OF to their COMMANDMENT
chief, from whom those orders are received
!, Are General Grant and General Ord held
responsible to the President or to the
: Court From the former, they have re-
5 ceived all instructions, and, in literal
} view, the Executive is himself the prime
} executor of the law, through the others, who
, are merely his subordinates and who are
responsible to him alone IL the execution
of those orders with which he has entrusted
them. Ii this argument is entertained, the
Court, by its own decision, has no juristlic-
ton i'll the matter, inasmuch as it is all
done, either directly or indirectly, by the
in -i,{,,p Of Ii
If, on the other hand, it is decided that
these officers are responsible to the Court
l alone for the execution of those military
laws which have been passed by Congress,
then the Office of the President as Com
mander-in- Chief is virtually annulled, and
: the powers with which the Constitution
= has invested him, would lie at the mercy OF
II Court of law.
At ali events, this discussion will, we
: think, involve q difficulty upon a very del
icate point. The officers CT the army, it
e must be recollected, owe strict and i'm
= = plicit obedience to the command of the
President, as their Chief Should the in
E junction prayed for in the Georgia bill he
: issued by the Court, against the officers
> named, it might involve both the former
and the Executive i'll very embarrassing
e position. In such II case, the President
: might as we'll be enjoined at once, as the
y result would be relatively the same, and
J the Court would, in a measure, constitute
3 itself by its own decision, the highest mill
tary, as we'll as civic tribunal of the land,
thus coliding. in an open manner, with
the powers granted them by the Constitu-
ton. It will be a difficult thing in this
case to keep the line of demarcation be-
tween Military and Civic Law we'll and dis
tinctly marked, but the final result, as far
as can be judged by the proceedings in the
Mississippi case, will most likely be the
also rejection of the Georgia bill.
a The Mexican Future.
4 The history of the world has shown few