The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1867-06-19
VOLUME III-No. n.

this grant of power as all-compre-
hensive, comforting on them the
power to remove the executive and
judicial officers Of the State, and to
appoint other officers in their places,
to suspend the Legislative power of
the State, to take under their control,
by officers appointed by themselves,
the collection and disbursement of
the revenues of the State, to prohibit
the execution of the laws of the State
by the agency of its appointed Of
ficers and agents, to change the exist
ing laws in matters affecting purely
civil and private rights, to suspend
or enioin the execution of judgments
and DEGREES of the established State
courts, to interfere in the ordinary
administration Of justice in the State
courts, by prescribing new qualifca-
tions for jurors, and to change, upon
the ground of expediency, the exist
ing relations of the parties to con-
tracts, giving protection to one party
by violating the rights of the other
party.
I feel confident that these military
officers, in all they have done, have
supposed that they had full warrant
for their action. Their education
and training have not been of the
kind to fit them for the delicate and
difficult task of giving construction
to such statute as that now under
consideration. They require instruc-
ton, and nearly oil of them have
asked for instruction, to solve their
own doubts, and to furnish to them
safe ground for the performance of
their duties.
There can be no doubt as to the
rule of construction according to
which We must interpret this grant
of power. 1t is a grant of power to
military authority, over civil rights
and citizens, in time Of peace. It is
q new jurisdiction, never granted
before, by which, in certain particu-
lars and for certain purposes, the es-
tablished principle that the military
shall bo subordinate to the civil
authority, is reversed. The rule of con-
struction to be applied to such grant
of power is thus stated in Dwarris on
Statutes, page 652: ga statute Great
ing a new jurisdiction ought to be
construed strictly"
Guided by this rule, and in the
light of other rules of reconstruction
familiar to every lawyer; especially of
those which teach us that in giving
construction to single clauses we
must look to the context and to the
whole law; that general clauses arc
to be controlled by particular clauses,
and that such construction is to be
put on special clause rs to make it
harmonic with the other parts OF the
statute, so as to avoid repugnancy. I
proceed to the construction of this
part of tho Act. s
To consider, then, in the first
place, the terms of the grant. It is
of a power to protect all persons in
their rights of person and property.
1t is not power to create new rights,
but only to protect those which exist
and are established by the laws under
which these people liYe. 1t is q
power to preserve, not to abrogate;
to sustain the existing frame of social
order and civil rule, and not power
to introduce military rule in its place.
In effect, it is a police power, and
the protection here intended is pro-
lection of persons and prop erty
against violence, unlawful force, and
criminal infraction. 1t is given to
meet the contingency recited in the
preamble, of q want of adequate
protection for life and property"
and the necessity also recited, "that
peace and good order should be en-
forced"
This construction is made more
apparent when we look Mt the imme-
diate context, and see in what mode
and by what agency this protection
is to be secured. This duty or power
of protection is to be performed by
the suppression of insurrection, dis
order and violence, and by the pun
ishment, either by the agency Of the
State courts, or by military commits
sioners, when necessary, of MI dis
tnrbers of the public peace md cri-
and it is declared that all
under color Of State
authority, with the exercise of this
authority, shall be null and
vo'd.
The next succeeding clause pro-
vides for a speedy trial of the offend
er, forbids the infliction of cruel and
unusual punishment, and requires
that sentences of these military courts
which involve tho liberty or life of
the accused shall have the approval