Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1867-06-21


The President:
SIR-On the oath ultimo had tba bonou
to transmit for your consideration INV o,,iu
ion upon some of the questions arisinc ~,
der the reconstruction acts therein ra
ferred'to. l. now proceed to give nv on;n-
ion on the remaining questions, upon which
the military commanders reunire inotynn-
tons. ..
First, as to the powers and duties Of
these commanders.
The original act recites in its preamble
that mo legal State governments or ade-
Quate protection for life or Dropertv eviet ;,
in those ten States, and that "it is neces-
sary that peace and good order should be
enforced " in those States "until Ioyaj and
republican State governments can be le
gally established"
The first and second sections divide these
States into five military districts, subject to
the military authority of the United States
as hereinafter prescribed and make it the
duty of the President to assign from the
officers of the army, a general officer to the
command Of each district, and to furnish
him with a military force to perform his
duties and enforce his authority within his
district
The third section declares, "that it
shall be the duty of each officer assigned as
aforesaid to protect all persons N their
rights of person and property, to suppress
instruction, disorder, and violence, and
to punish, or cause to be punished, all dis
turbers of the public peace and criminals
and, to this end, he may allow local civil
tribunals to take Jurisdiction of and try
offenders, or, when in his Judgment it may
be necessary for the trial of offenders, he
shall have power to organize military COM
missions or tribunals for that purpose
Io,o1 oil I,,tp Jan, o,1,, Z
authority with the exercise of military au-
thority under this act shall be null and
void
The fourth section provides " that all
persons put under military arrest by virtue
of this act shall be tried without urneces-
sary delay, and no cruel or unusual punish
ment shall be inflicted and no sentence of
any military commission or tribunal hereby
authorized, affecting the life or liberty OF
any person, shall be executed until it is ap-
proved by the officer in command of the
district, and the laws and regulations for
the government of the army shall not be
affected by this act, except in so far as they
conflict with its provisions Prooided,
That no sentence of death under the pro-
visions of this act shall be carried into
effect without the approval of the Presi-
dent"
The fifth section declares the qualification
of voters in all elections, as we'll to frame
! the new constitution for each State as in
the elections to be held under the provi-
sional government until the new State con-
stitution is ratified by Congress, and also
| fixes the qualifications of the delegates to
frame the new constitution.
The sixth section provides, "That until
the people of the said rebel States shall be
by law admitted to representation III the
Congress of the United States any civil
governments which may exist therein shall
be deemed provisional only, and in all re-
spects subject to the paramount authority
of the United States at any time to abolish,
modify, control, OF superscde the same
and in all elections to any Office under such
provisional governments all persons shall
be entitled to vote, and none others, who
are entitled to vote under the provisions of
the fifth section Of this act and no person
shall be eligible to any office under any
such provisional governments who would
be disqualified from holding office under
the provisions of the third article Of said
constitutional amendment"
| The duties devolved upon the command
ing general by the supplementary act re-
late altogether to the registration Of voters
and the elections to be held under the pro
visions of that act. And as to these duties,
they are plainly enough expressed in the
act; and it is not understood that any ques-
ton not heretofore considered in the opin-
ion referred to has arisen or is likely to
arise in respect to them. My attention,
| therefore, is directed to the powers and du-
ties of the military commanders under the
original act
We see clearly enough that this act con-
templates two distinct governments in each
Of these ten StateS-the one military, the
other civil. The civil government is re-
cognized as existing at the date of the act.
The military government is created by the
act Both are provisional, and both are to
continue until the new State constitution
is framed and the State is admitted to rep
resentation in Congress. When that event
takes place, both these provisional govern
ments are to cease. In contemplation OF
this act, this military and this civil author
ity are to be carried on together. The
| people in these States are made subject to
both, and must obey both, in their respec-
tive Jurisdictions.
| There is, then, an imperative necessity
| to define as clearly as possible the line
which separates the two Jurisdictions, and
the exact scope of the authority Of each.
| Now as to the civil authority, recognized
| by the act as the provisional civil govern
ment, it covered every department of civil
| Jurisdiction in each of these States. 1t
State government, legislative, judicial, and
executive, and was in the full and lawful
exercise of all these powers, except only
| that it was not entitled to representation as
State of the Union. This existing gov
eminent is not set aside it is recognized
more than once by the act. 1t is not IN
any one of its departments, or as to any
one of it's functions, repealed OF modified
by this act, save only in the qualifications
of voters, the qualifications of persons eli
gible to Office, the manner of holding cleo
tions, and the mode of framing the consti-
tuition of the State. The act does not IN
any other respect change the provisional
government, nor does the act authorize the
military authority to changeit. The power
of further changing it is reserved, not
granted, and it is reserved to Congress, not
delegated to the military commander;
Congress was not satisfied with the or
ganic law, or constitution under which III, TINS
civil government was established. 1""
constitution was to be changed in only one
particular to make it acceptable to Con
gress, and that was in the matter OF INC
| =