Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-05-09
s.P eH'. from the New York Herald1
Our SOuihern Military Command
.erS and Their Military Blum

OAlE SOMbICEM NkllllArY OOIlAhAkslMOal
.ers and Their Military Blum
oGi ders. "a . s. q-z.g,ar.r- ae aoria4
Of If Superintendent Kennedy, of our Me-
' tropolitaHsPO were tOissue vermilion
; redict, warning, under pains and penalties
OF the calaboose, Professor Hans von Stop
b 9pelheimer against a. promised lecture in
/ some beer garden on the virtues of lager
and the abomipation of the Excise law, Mr..
Kennedy would be apt to raise hornets
hest about his ears.1, Some of our military
!. commanders com in the South, however, seem
TO th Ink that they may Indulge in such ab-l
surdities without limit, Thus we find Gem
/ eral Sickles repeating in Charleston, with
/ the national flag, the ungracious and often
sive trick of Gesler with his cap on a long
enpole, and General sSchofield, at tRichmond,i
Laplaying the role of Louis Napoleon on a
,ismal sscale,,in his Instructions aud warn ;
aingss to certain Eewspa-T
per editors in. his district. We also find
|, one OF his subordinate post command
3 erss. General Wilcox, atlg gI4ynchburg,s
peremp mptorily snspending "a :, lecture on
't"sThe Chiyalry of the South announced
to be delivered by certain H. Riyesl Poll
lard, an iFrepressible fire-ester; !. and when
the General, is cOurteOnsly asked to Eeseind
his order. with the assurance that the lee
ture is to be simply a narrative OF histori-t
cal events, the privilege is still denied. In
the name of common sense, we ask, what
was the reason of this prohibition? What
= possible harm could Pollard do now in
ho oLynchburg in reciting all the exploits of
!, Southern chiyalry, from Lee and Stonewall'
jackson down to Magruder and Mosby?
What good, on, the other hand, is to be
= gained by denying to the late followers of
JEFF. Davis the cons olations which they
may find in the ssChivalry of the South ?''.
is it not enough that they have been chas-i
tised into absolute submission by the chiv-
airy Of the North?
Not only, in our judgment, are such re-
strictions and eXactlOnS as those recited
needless, cruel and preposterous, but i'm
violation OF 1.-THE true intent and meaning"
of the laws of Congress under which these
military officers are acting. According to
President JOhnson's veto of the Recon-
s'struction bill, there is no limit to the des-
potic powers of these Southern military
commanders. The third section, upon his
Overstrained construction, will bear out
these officers in almost anything they may
do at their own good will and pleasure; for
7,this section provides that it shall be the duty
of said commanders to protect all persons
in their rights of person and property, to
suppress insurrection, disorder and vio-
lence to punish all disturbers of tne peace,
either by turning them over to the local
civil tribunals or to military commissions;
and it is declared that all interference with
the military under the color of State au-
thority shall be null and void. This is
pretty strong but the sixth section of the
? bill provides ''that until the people of the
+ said rebel States shall by law be admitted
to representation in Congress any civil
governments that may exist therein shall
be deemed provisional only;" SO that Co
this extent they have been adopted and
authoriZ I'd to act by Congress. ras in
The supplemental Reconstruction bill
provides, under the direction of the militia
|. ry commanders OF the five districts among
/ which the ten outside States are divided,
- IL,
| qtions iOf conventions, legislatures, &c.
from which it appears that all the way
through the civil authorities are subject to
the military. But still, in continuing 10
force President JohnsOn's civil govern
1 ments, itgwas manitestlY the intention OF
q Congress that the military commanders
placed over them should exercise their au-
thority only so far as may be necessary to
| maintain law and order and to carry out
the programme of reconstruction laid down
In other words, each of these Southern
| military commanders may be considered q
sort of Superintendent Kennedy with his
Metropolitan Police force. whose duty it is
| to keep the peace and to enforce the laws
| In removing the unrecOnstructed Mayor
Monroe, of New Orleans, General Sheridan
removed an official who was an OBJ
struction to the law; and General Pope,
of Georgia, is justified on the same
ground. But in assuming to instruct and
warn newspaper editors as to what they
shall or shall not say; in assuming the
power TO stop Inherent lecturers from lee
| turing on Southern chivalry, or ANYTHING
else; in assuming the right to make people
take off their hats to pair OF trowsers, a
| hoop skirt, nor even to the ''Stars and
| Stripes" these military commanders are
| assuming too much. We would submit to
the President, the Secretary of War and
| General Grant the. propriety of a general
order embracing certain specific instrue-
tions to the five military district COM
| ma1ders in the South and their subordi-
mates, to the end that uniform, liberal and
| conciliatory course of action on their part
may prevail from Virginia to Texas. The
| rigOrs of martial law are out of place in the
| midst of peace and upon people who are
not only disarmed, submissive and unable
/ to- help themselves, but who are anxious
and doing all they can to fulfil the condi-
tions of Congress. haa eifA tkGH ro 8c.su
II