The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1867-03-09
The Act to Enslave the South.

VI tilC hooUihCIh 6tubCos anu ~ SuUsil-
tute therefor military districts, govern
ed by military brutes, the National
Intelligencer says:
THE blacklist record ever made by
an assembly of the representatives of
a free people stained yesterday the
proceedings of the House of Represen-
tatives. Never, in the most tyrannous
hour of the Long Parliament misrule !;
never, amid the utmost subservience
to the royal mandate of an English
king; never, in the most bloodthirsty
epoch of the French convention, did
the representatives of the people stamp
themselves with greater ignominy.
The bill, which passed by a vote of
100 to So, hands one third of the people
of this country over to military gov
eminent. For the rule of law, it sub
stitutes the will of an officer For the
tribunal of judge, it furnishes a
drumhead court-martial or a military
commission. For the process of a
court and the peaceful visit of sheriff
it proAers the order of a petty satrap
and the presence of a squad of bayonets.
1t ignores the Chief Magistrate of the
United States. It invests a General
with absolute power over one-third of
his countrymen. 1t erects subordinate
dictators, armed with unbridled power,
from the Potomac to the Rio Grande.
Throughout this broad domain, com
prisipg the fairest and most fertile sec
ton of the Republic, no man is to have
a secure title to his property; no mans
house is free from search; no mans
chattpls exempt from seizure no mans
liberty unexposed to assault; no man. S
life safe from peril. An army officer.
a soldier, exalted above the law, may
ruthlessly invade the citizens home
and drag him from the bosom of his
family. Such bill makes mockery
of free institutions. It destroys all the
great safeguards of popular liberty.
1t tramples on the freedom of the press.
It annihilates the right of free assem-
blage. 1t silences the lips of free
speech. 1t infringes the right of the
people to bear arms. It wipes out the
guarantee of grand jury presentmsnt.
1t abolishes the exemption of freedom
from seizure and search. 1t abrogates
the right of trial by jury of ones
peers in the vieinage of the commits
sion of tho offence. 1t tramples upon
the prerogative of the President, it
makes war upon the Constitution, it
rebels against the authority of the Su-
preme Court. 1t inyades the sacred
constitutional rights of the citizen. 1t
is treason enveloped in the forms of
law. 1t is rebellion wearing the garb
of legitimate power. It is usurpation
assuming the sanotity Of constitutional
enactment"
The Democratic members denounced
this Ubiquitous scheme, in the most in
dignant and eloquent terms. but they
were crushed out by the overwhelming
numbers and tyrannical tactics of the
Radical majority. Mr.. LIE Blond, of
Ohio, in a tone of earnest remonstranee.
begged the Radical majority to pause
in their mad and reckless course. He
said:
Nothing but the strong arm of the
American people welded on the bloody
battlefield would restore liberty to the
people. We are drifting to war, and
must have it unless the people took the
matter in hand, and stopped the down
ward tendency of things, and restored
the government on the basis Oh which
it was placed by the fathers of the
Constitution"
Mr.. Finck, another Democratic
member from Ohio, denounced the bill
as ''a nefarious, ubiquitous scheme TO
overthrow the government. No gov
eminent could long continue to be free
where one-third of its people and States
were controlled by military power. He
did not believe that the men who sup
ported this bill were the friends of a
free government, or were willing that
the government should be controlled
and administered in accordance with
the Constitution.
Mr.. Rodgers, of New Jersey, con-
fronted the devilish plot in more bold
and outspoken manner than either. He
said:
Rather than see military govern
ment established in his country he. far