Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1867-04-12
SENATOR STEWART ON THFMu-
TTARY RECONSTRUCTION BILL.

Friday KveninG---Aprii 10, 1857
SENATOR STEWART ON THFMr-
TTARY RECONSTRUCTION BILL.
We referred several days ago to the
position which Senator Stewart assum-
ed on the Military Reconstruction Bill ;
and that his constituents may properly
and thoroughly understand his views
expressed in the "crowning debate" Of
the thirty-ninth session, we will present
q fair synopsis Of the bill and of his re-
marks upon it. While fully recognizing
and eonfessing the necessity for q strin-
gent measure to enforce the law, and to
preserve order and secure justice to all
in the lately insurrectionary States, he
insists that the bill should be directly
and within itself announced as q tempo
rary measure and enters his general
pro.es. against the planting Of ''military
authority the regular army authority,
exclusive and absolute even unto the
life and death Of citizens, in the several
Districts.
According to the official publication,
the preamble Of the bill ~recites that
the pretended State governments of the
late so-ealled Confederate States Of Vir-
ginia, North Carolina, South Carolina,
Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisi-
ana, Florida, Texas and Arkansas, were
set up without the authority Of Congress
and without the sanction Of the people ;
and that those pretended governments
offered no adequate protection for life
or property, but c~ountenance and en-
courage lawlessness and crime; and
that it is necessary that peace and good
order should be enforced in these so
called States, until loyal and republican
State governments car be legally estab-
lished.
The bill then proceeds to declare that
these late so-cslled Confederate States
shall DO divided into military districts
and made subject to the military author
ity Of, the United States, and for that
purpose Virginia shall constitute the
first district; North Carolina and South
Carolina the second district; Georgia,
Alabama and Florida the third district;
Mississippi and Arkansas the fourth
district; and Louisiana and Texas the
fifth district.
Tho second section makes it the duty
of the General Of the Army to assign to
the command Of each of these districts
an officer Of the army, not below the
rank Of Brigadier General, and to detail
q sufficient military force to enable such
officer to perform his duties and enforce
his authority within the district to which
he is assigned.
Section three makes it the duty o.
each officer so assigned to protect al
persons in their rights Of person ano
property, to suppress insurrection, dis
order, and violence, and to punish, oil
u to be punished, all disturbers o.
the public peace and criminals, and to
this end he may allow local civil tribu'
nails to take jurisdiction Of and to Try
offenders, or, when in his judgment II
may be necessary orthe trial of offender:
he shall have power to organize military
commissions or tribunals for that pur'
pose, anything in the constitution anc
and laws of any Of the so-cslled confed
crate States to the contrary notwith'
standing; and all legislative or judicia
proceedings Of these military tribunals,
and all inference BY the pretended STATE
governments with the exercise Of mill.
tary authority under the act, shslfb'
void and of no effect.
It is provided by section four tha'
courts and judicial officers of the United
States shall not issue writs Of hd6eG'
eorpu, in behalf of persons in military
custody, except in cases in which the
person is held to snswer only for . crime
or crimes exclusively within the juris'
diction of the Courts Of the United
States within these military districts,
and indictable therein, or unless some
commissioned officer on duty in the dis
trict wherein the person is detained
shall endorse upon the petition a state
ment certifying, upon honor, that he
has knowledge Or information as to the
cause and circumstances of the alleged
detention, and that he believes the same
to be wrongful, and further, that he be-
lieves that the endorsed petition is
preferred in good faith and in further
ance Of justice, and not to hinder or de-
lay the punishment of crime. All per-
Sons put under military arrest by virtue
Of the act are to be tried without IN
necessary delay, and no cruel or unusu-
al punishment is to be inflicted.
The fifth section declares that no SEN
tence Of any military commission or tri-
bunal authorized by the act affecting
the life or liberty OF any person shall be
executed until it is approved by the Off
Ger in command Of the district; and that
the laws and regulations for the govern
mont Of the Army shall not be affected
by the Act, except in SO far as they CON
fict with its provisions.
Mr.. Stewart insisted upon the adop-
ton Of the Blaine amendment, which
provided that the Military Bill should
cease to be operative in any Of the lately
insurrectionary States that adopted the
Constitutional amendment, provided by
its Constitution that all male citizens Of
81 years old and upward, should vote,
and framed q Constitution such az
should altogether meet the approval OF
Congress. Senator Stewart said that
without this amendment the Military
Bill was an acknowledgment that "af-
ter two years Of discussion and earnest