Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1867-02-09
MILITARY GOVERNMENTS FOR THE
lnITEIERN arArEa

GOVERNMENTS FOR THE
SOUTHERN STATES. /
The United States House Of Represent
atiyes is considering the last proposition
Of the Committee on Reconstruction, sub
mitted on Wedne sday by Mr.. Stevens. 1t
pronounces the State governments Of the
ten States now excluded from representa- |
ton in Congress, pretended" and pro-
ceeds to supersede them by apportioning |
the territory which they comprise into !
FIVE military districts The scheme ig-
Bores the President as Commander-in-
Chief Of the army, and makes it the duty
Of Gen. Grant 10 assign an officer with
rank not lower than that of Brigadier
General, to the command Of each State
as a conquered province, and to furnish
him with an adequate force Of the regular
army to maintain the almost absolute au-
thority conferred on MIN This officer
is instructed to nullify all action of the
civil law at bis pleasure. He is emPow~
cred 10 suspend the writ Of habeas corpus,
and to organize military courts for the
/ trial Of offenders, and is vested with the
final decision upon all sentences Of such
courts. All laws Of the States conflicting
with these powers are declared null and
Of no effect A member Of the House
promptly and rightly declared that if this
measure passed, it sounded the knell Of
civil liberty in this country 1t is the
establishment Of martial law in time Of
peace over a people who are law-abiding,
and whose eoRduet Is in submission to
the laws of the Federal government and
respectful and obedient to those which
they have established in their respective
State governments 1t is the most re-
voting proposition ever offered in
Legislative body purporting to be the
representatives Of freemen
When the colonies in l776, of which
number four Of these very States which
it is intended to subject to the gov
eminent Of this odiOus and despotic
military pro-consulship, were a parti
declared their independence Of George
the Third Of England among their
reasons for so doing, they enumera-
ted among other grievances that he had
"denied them the right Of representation
in the Legislature right inestimable
to them and formidable to tyrants only /"
that he had dissolved their colonial as
semblies repeatedly for refusing to obey
his dictatiOn thath had kept among them
standing armies in time of peace, without
the consent Of their Legislatures; that he
had rendered the military Independent Of
and superior 70 the civil power; that he
had quartered large bodies Of armed
troops among them that be had imposed
taxes without their consent; that he had
deprived them Of the right Of trial BY
jury that he had abdicated their colonial
government without sufficient cause For
the Kidding themselves and their posterity
Of this tyranny, they went to war This
scheme cOnsigns them to a condition
worse than that so graphically described
by the pen Of Mr. Jefferson, and subjects
them singly and collectivelyto every spe-
cies Of despotism that the Continental
Congress declared against And this is
done in violation Of every pre9ept of the
constitution, and every principle Of civil
freedom, and by the government that this
Declaration spoke into being.
We mistake It is not By the govern
ment Il is sought to be done BY a frac,
ton Of one Of the departments Of GOV.
ernment VIII the other departments
permit it Will the supreme Court sane
ton it 2 II most certainly will not, for ii
is in defiance Of its recen mt decisions Ia
the Milligan case Win the President
execute, or permit his second in command
Gen Grant, to execute law so iagrant~
ly violatiVe Of the inherent rights of mil
lions of citizens We shall see IL be
refuses, or restraints Grant, it viii lay the
foundation for an Impeachment that the
Radicals so muchn need 1t is not improba- |
bic that this is one of the willy ends they
seek 10 accomplish, 1t will put the Presi-
dents pluck and backbone to the proof |
IL will compel him to decide whether be |
will be party to the overthrow of re- |
publican government, and the destruction |
Of civil liberty. he will be forced 10 |
chose between the constitution and the |
people and their rights guaranteed under |
it. and the edicts Of presumptuous and |
usurping party. 1t win afford all of op, |
portunity that true greatness requires
IL will precipitate a crisis which, as a true
patriot, he would willingly see averted
But it viii be contingency from which
be should not shrink To yield such a
point, viii be to yield al, and still further
complicate The mazes Of che dark future
on which, Il this measure becomes the
law, we have certainly entered