The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1867-03-01
Our Present Dutu.

Ahe lePoil iiiduc W Il distinguished gen
eral bv his inspecting officer in Texas
that Ii he owned hell and Texas, he should
prefer to live in hell, Is but forcible way
OF telling a truth which is not limited tc
Texas. General Sheridan states in hi.
report, that the protection afforded to the
freedmen BY the civil courts in his depart
ment is a farce The New Orleans in.
veshgatlng committee report, that ''the
condition OF things existing there can no;
continue consistently with the safety, secu-
rity Or peace of loyal men" Our nation
al duty is plain The ''first office of a
government is the protection of the life,
liberty and property of its faithful cit
zens; and unless the people of the United
States mean that loyal men in the late
rebel states shall be outraged and murder
ed without redress they must provide for
the present ample military protection for
thcm."
! That the United States uniform should
be disagreeable to the late rebels is not
surprising. The military officers in New
Orleans and elsewhere should be invited
to but Il few houses, and to them only up
on condition that they do not appear as
officers, Is to be expected. That a gentle
man who the next morning received his
pardon from the President as good
Union man. should leave the theatre be-
cause, as he said, there was rather too
much stars and stripes" for him in the
ncighbolhood Of the lieutenant general
and General Sheridan is natural. But
the spirit which shows itself in this steady
hostility, even III the very cities where
headquarters are established, runs riot in
the remotcr districts.
, When Union men from the north. estab-
li>hed in business in New Orleans, are re-
turning because OF the plain personal peril
! remaining; when southern Union men.
white and black, are outlawcd, tortured.
and massacrcd. with no remed y but courts
in which their rebel enemies are their
judges and ,juries; when general of the
army III Texas Is obliged to draw his
revolver for his protection in railroad
car when legislatures and courts and the
entire civil machinery are controlled by
rebels, there is but one alternative-the
authority of the government to protect
citizens must be altogether abandoned in
the region, or it must be enforced by the
military arm until there is such thorough
reorganization of civil administration that
life, liberty and property are again uniform
y safe.
Experience having shown that the civil
governments erected by the President
without the least authority have utterly
failed to to fulfill the first function of a
civil government, it has become necessary
to establish other governments mron " Iii
feront principle. But while the prelimin-
AIRY steps are taking the people must have
protection against the existing govern
ments, and this can be given only bv mill
tary authority. This is the precise in
tention OF the bill reported by Mr. Stew
ems from the reconstruction committee.
Yet by itself the bill is incomplete. 1t
establishes military law. or the will of the
commanding general, and makes no pro-
vision whatever for the termination of
such authority. Undoubtedly such a pro-
vision is contemplated and will be proposed
but it should be included in the bill. under
the form of a method to base government
upon the consent of the whole people in
the rebel states
The debate was very earnest. The
folly of the democratic members who op-
posed the bill, and who compose an op-
position perilously feeble, was that they
argued the matter as if the country were
III normal condition. They spoke of
striking down state governments and erect
ing military despotisms upon their ruins,
as If the present authorities in the southern
states were truly valid governments, in
stead of illegal creations of the President.
Mr.. Raymond, also, in opposing the bill,
and with some forcibIc reasons, was vet
so singularly imperceptiye as to call it
confession of inability upon the part Of
Congress to deal with the subject. But
how confession of inability? The bill
declares the Presidents inability, and that
Congress must take the matter in hand
and, in order to work effectively, that it
must begin to mend where the President
began to botch. And when Mr.. RAYMOND
asked, as he did with warmth, why we
might not as well invite the army to take
charge of the other states, the question
showed a curiously confused conception of
the situation with which Congress is called
to deal.
The passage of bill containing the
essential provisions of this is beyond doubt.
Its absolute necessity is known to every
man. Public and private correspondence,
the testimony of soldiers and civilians, as
well as the probabilities of the case, all
show that Mr.. Boutwell, spoke only the
truth in saying that the loyal people of
the south ''are writhings under cruelties
nameless In their character, and under in
justice such as never has been permitted to
exist In any country in modern times"
The country is ripe and eager to remedy
the intolerable consequences of the Presi-
dents policy. Let the remedy be swift
and sure.-HarperS Weekly.