The Shasta courier., 1867-04-13
SHASTA COURIER.
Making Faces at the Military Bill.


Not all the exponents of rebeldom receive
the Military Reconstruction Bill with as good
grace as Joe Brown and Governors Orr and
Pierpont. Many OF the newspapers of the
South express their Indignation at the terms
that are offered them in decided manner.
This Indignation savors of a curious perplex-
1ty on account oft the perception that they are
placed in situation in which they cannot
help themselves, for among the excellencies
OF the plan is the fact that it cannot be evaded
by sullenness or trickery.
The Richmond Times says that the bill
" erects military despotisln upon all OF our
liberties, and gives to each district a militia
ry ruler whose authority is as autocratic az
that of the Gar" and moufns over he fact
that Virginia" is hereafter to figure upon
the statute books Of the nation as s. District
No. ~ She is to be treated like convicted
felon, whose head is shaved, and who, when
locked up is thenceforth known as mo.
49," or " No. sc"
The Enquirer wants it nullifed by the
Supreme Court to which the Times responds
by showing that in any fight between Con-
gress a3d the Court, Congress is sure to come
off best
The Dispatch gives the names of leading
gentlemen of the city who are disfranchised
by the bill, among whom, to its great hor-
ror, 1t finds its own proprietors.
The Examiner pronounces it the most
wicked. wanton and tyrannical bill that ever
passed civilized assembly"
This Journal, however, quite nationally
concludes that as reconstruction, according
to the terms of the bill, has got to come upon
the State, the rebel conservatives will show
their shrewdness by taking up the work
4Ia,, g ha II
them
The Wing apparently has the same opin-
ion, but makes a wry face over it, 1t is
disgusted at the attitude of the Northern
Democracy in abandoning the rebels at this
moment, and, reminding them that they
would not like to be themselves served in
that way, adds:
. In this view of the matter, the Southern
States may not consider themselves called
upon any longer to champion a lost cause,
which it is as much the duty of others as
theirs to uphold and defend They have
sacrificed their all in support Of self-govern-
ment. They may consider it enough for them
now, seeing empire in the near future, to
adopt such measures as will render its advent
as little injurious to them as possible. They
would, if they could, avoid forty years of de-
vastating wars among contending chieftains,
such as have laid waste Mexico, and embrace
at once peaceful empire and magnanimous
and omnipotent Caesar. Perhaps universal
suffrage. under the tutelage of martial law,
VIII supply the surest, the speediest, and the
safest means to that consummation.'
The worst Of it, with the Whig as with
others, is that . under the vague and indef-
mite phraseology Of the bill, if the conserva.
tive elements do notact, any others may, and
we shall have a Brownlow despotism upon
US a hundred fold worse than that of any
Brigadier."
This, it is proper to observe, is one of the
chief merits of the bill, in that it provides for
its own execution in spite of all the machin-
atoms that rebels can bring to bear against it,
All the sigas agree in showing that the
mass Of the intelligent sentiment at the
South is concentrating in favor Of practicable
action; and the only practicable action for
which there is a place under the terms Of the
Military bill.