The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1867-04-05
The Powers of the District Com
manderS

It ASWSAS VI tlAS AASAA A>N
manders.
The telegraph brings report tha' az.
torney- General STANRERT has in'ofi"'o
the President that General SHERIDAN III
removing Mayor MUNRoE and other on,.''
hasexceeded the authority granted MN
nv the Sherman law, but that the MAUI
ale ,o;n, 10 certain sections of the law a.
comforting the necessary power.
It is Improbable TO argue iesa' q"es-
.;ors with man who handles SWORN
GA po,ox,Us understood this yer! "e'i'
- roo,sod n argue with his Prince upon
anv Of the points raised by the 'a'.er.
wbe,ber Il were a camel or whale that
u.rr saw was all one TO the old cour-
tor He had no eyes of his own. We of
the South can gain nothing, perhaps, by
pointing to the law and asking for its exc
cution as it stands. But one thing is GER
tain, as we said some weeks since, and that
is that the following lines contain the only
words in the act of Congress which confer
any power upon the district commanders
Section 81 "That it shall be the duty
Of each officer assigned as aforesaid 10
protect all persons in their rights OF person
and property, TO suppress insurrection, dis
order, and violence, and to punish, or
cause TO he punished, all disturbers OF the
public peace and criminals"
ANY one who will take the trouble to
road The entire law will discover that
there is not another word in it which can
no construed as comforting power. The
sixth section, upon which the Radicals are
said to RELY, declares that our State 60
ycrnments are "provisional only" but, as if
anticipating that this would be construed
TO give to the military power to change
them. il is immediately afterwards stated
that these governments are in all respects
"suhiect TO the paramount authority OF
the United States at any time to abolish,
modify, control, or supersede the same" In
other words, Congress wished it 10 be dis
tinctly understood that in recognizing our
State governments as provisional or dc
facto it reserved TO itself the right to
abolish them hereafter should such an cx-
treme measure become necessary.
Does the third section, then, confer the
power exercised by General SHERIDAN
Clearly not, we think. If it was impossi-
BILE for him to "protect all persons in their
rights of person and property" without
81, IL fhpv
disqualified by the constitutional amend
ment, then he simply performed his duty
under the law. But there is no such rea-
sons as these offered. They were removed,
so far as the public is informed, only be-
cause they were Objectionable to the loyal
people, or because General SHERIDAN
thought he could fill their places with bet
ter men. We hold that the District Com
manders ought to be governed, like a judge
in a court OF equity, by the law so far as ii
i nossible to conform to it. This law is
certainly plain enough. The commanding
Generals are to do what is prescribed in
the language we have quoted from the
third section: and to see that no disquall-
fed person shall vote or hold office under
the "proyisional governments" Under
the supplementary law they are empow'
cred to do certain other acts necessary to
be done in order to the holding of State
convention. Whatever they do more than
this is not authorized by any other law
than the law of force. General SCHo-
FIELD has suspended all elections in this
State-doubtleSS under the third section
and because he could not otherwise pro-
perly secure to the newly-entranchiseo
negroes the right to vote, not wishing t'
ipiure the whites by compelling the recep
ton of the vote of every negro who nigh
present himself at the precincts. But the
moment proper registration is made tAi
reason will cease to hold good.